Vettel Takes Cautious Approach at F1′s Japanese GP at LinesMaker.com

By JIM ARMSTRONG Sports Writer

SUZUKA, Japan —With his sec­ond straight For­mula One cham­pi­onship nearly secured, Sebas­t­ian Vet­tel made a point of not chang­ing his game plan for Sunday’s Japan­ese Grand Prix.

The Red Bull dri­ver needs only one point – or McLaren dri­ver Jen­son But­ton to fail to win – to become the sport’s youngest two-title winner.

The 24-year-old Ger­man arrives in Japan hav­ing won his last three races in Bel­gium, Italy and Sin­ga­pore and says being one point away from the title won’t change his approach.

“I’m try­ing not to,” Vet­tel said Thurs­day when asked if he’ll change any­thing for Sunday’s race. “I don’t think there is any rea­son to approach things dif­fer­ently. The tar­get is to get the best out of our­selves and the car.”

Hav­ing won the last two races at Suzuka from pole posi­tion, Vet­tel has every rea­son to feel com­fort­able at the 3.7-mile track.

“Suzuka is one of my favorite tracks,” Vet­tel said. “It really couldn’t have been built any bet­ter. I’m not the only one who loves this track and our car nor­mally loves it, too.”

Still, with every­thing going his way, Vet­tel remained cautious.

“There is still a chance for Jen­son But­ton to win or me not to win,” Vet­tel said. “We try all year to keep our feet on the ground and take it one race at a time.”

Vet­tel, who has won nine of 14 races this sea­son, holds a 124-point lead over But­ton. His worst fin­ish so far in 2011 is fourth, which came in the Ger­man Grand Prix in July.

But­ton, the only dri­ver who stands in Vettel’s way, was real­is­tic about his chances.

“I think it’s great that Sebas­t­ian thinks I have a chance,” But­ton said. “But really, it’s all but over. Seb prob­a­bly doesn’t want to think about it until it’s over. For me, I’d love to win here but I know that would be over­shad­owed by some­one win­ning the championship.”

Vet­tel took his ninth win of the year at Sin­ga­pore and has a chance to over­take Michael Schu­macher for most wins in a sin­gle sea­son. Only Schu­macher has won more in a sin­gle sea­son with 11 in 2002 and 13 in 2004.

With five races remain­ing, Vet­tel is also chas­ing down the record for the most pole posi­tions in a sea­son. He has 11 while Nigel Mansell snared 14 in 1992.

Eight dri­vers have won back-to-back titles. The last dri­ver to do so was Fer­nando Alonso in 2005-06.

The Suzuka cir­cuit has a wide vari­ety of high-speed cor­ners and fast changes of direc­tion, and requires heavy brak­ing for the chi­cane in the final cor­ner. Many dri­vers, includ­ing But­ton, com­pare it to the Bel­gian Grand Prix’s Spa circuit.

“We showed at Spa that we have a car that’s very effec­tive in high-speed cor­ners,” But­ton said. “We’ve also improved our straight-line speed and we have a more effi­cient rear wing for qual­i­fy­ing, so I think we’re feel­ing pos­i­tive about the weekend.”