While the Japanese GP focused first on world champion Max Verstappen and then on the duel between Leclerc and Pérez that ended with a penalty and decided the title in favor of the Dutchman, F1 was about to witness another titanic battle.
Fighting for sixth position, Sebastian Vettel was trying to fend off a Fernando Alonso who had stopped six laps earlier to fit new intermediate tires and was enjoying higher speed.
The Asturian had easily overtaken Nicholas Latifi and George Russell to recover the seventh place he had before his pitstop, and came behind an Aston Martin with which Vettel had already been fighting for more than 20 laps.
At the final chicane, Alonso lunged on the inside but Vettel held on the outside, giving him the inside at the second corner. And although they started almost parallel, the four-time champion achieved better traction that meant that, although the Alpine was faster, they arrived practically tied at the finish line, separated by only 11 thousandths (that is, 0.011 seconds).
Different videos have been appearing from that battle, officially recorded and others by some fans who enjoyed themselves in the stands of the Suzuka circuit, but F1 wanted to loop the loop and has published how it was seen from Fernando’s helmet camera Alonso, pointing at the wheel and forward, and from the camera that focused Vettel’s gaze.
Enjoy!
Video: the Alonso-Vettel duel at the Japanese GP, from another point of view
In addition, F1 also echoed the video of a fan from the grandstand, in which the last meters of both champions can be seen and how close they crossed the checkered flag of the Japanese GP.
In the end, Vettel took sixth place and Alonso seventh, but both earned praise from all the fans for the respect they showed in the wheel-to-wheel duel, in the rain, without causing an accident.
Video: the Alonso-Vettel duel at the Japanese GP from the stands
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