Vettel wins at Suzuka

Sebastian Vettel is celebrating his third victory of the season and his third at Suzuka in four years, following a win in the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion drove from pole position to finish the race ahead of Felipe Massa and Kamui Kobayashi. It was the Ferrari driver's first podium of the year, and Kobayashi's first in Formula One.

Vettel was first into turn one ahead of Kobayashi and Webber, but it was chaos behind. Fernando Alonso came together with Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner, which caused the Ferrari driver to spin before coming to a stop on the gravel.

Nico Rosberg's race was also brought to an end here, when he crashed with Bruno Senna in a move that earned the Williams driver a drive-through penalty.

The chaos continued at turn two, when Romain Grosjean clouted the back of Mark Webber's car. Both were able to continue, but the move earned Grosjean a 10-second stop-go penalty. This follows Grosjean's one-race ban for causing the crash at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The safety car came out while the debris was cleared and when it came in a lap later, Vettel set to work extending his lead over Kobayashi. Jenson Button and Massa were the biggest winners, though, up in third and fourth respectively.

While most of the grid pitted for new tyres, Massa - who had failed to make it into Q3 so was allowed to start on fresh rubber - was able to stay out for longer, and managed to get past both Kobayashi and Button before pitting.

Sauber's Sergio Perez - who has announced he will drive for McLaren in 2013, when Lewis Hamilton moves to Mercedes - pulled off a great move on the Brit before pitting and losing the place. His race was eventually brought to an end when he tried to overtake Hamilton again, only to lose control of his car at the hairpin before spinning into the gravel.

Next to retire were Narain Karthikeyan and Charles Pic, who's cars were pushed back into the HRT and Marussia garages on lap 35 and 40 respectively. Grosjean retired on the final lap, with mechanical problems.

A quiet final stint allowed Vettel to end the race 20 seconds clear of Massa, who's second-place finish boosts his chances of retaining his Ferrari seat next year.

Kobayashi had started to slip back towards the closing stages, but Button never came close enough to try a move. He finished the race fourth, despite struggling with gearbox problems for much of the race.

Hamilton finished fifth ahead of Raikkonen, who managed to fend off attack from Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado in the closing laps.

Webber and Daniel Ricciardo took the final few points, the latter having held off Michael Schumacher in the last few laps of the race. Schumacher had started the race from the final row the grid, following a 10-place grid penalty for causing the collision with Jean-Eric Vergne at the last race in Singapore.

This result means that Alonso's lead in the drivers' championship has been cut to just four points, with 194 to Sebastian Vettel's 190.

In the constructors' championship, Red Bull has 325 points, while McLaren has 283.

With five races to go, the championship is still wide open. Next up the teams travel to Korea, but in the mean time be sure to check out our gallery of the Japanese Grand Prix - with all the action from start to finish.

2012 Japanese Grand Prix results