2010 Japanese Grand Prix  The 2010 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 10 October 2010 at the Suzuka Circuit, in Suzuka, Mie, Japan. It was held as the sixteenth round of the 2010 Formula One season. Contested over 53 laps, the race was won by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel after starting from pole position. Mark Webber finished second in the second Red Bull car, and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso completed the podium, in third place. As a consequence of the race, Webber extended his lead in the World Drivers' Championship – despite finishing behind Vettel – to fourteen points over Alonso, who was classified ahead of Vettel in the standings on a tie-break situation as he had recorded four race victories to Vettel's three. The McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton, who finished fifth, and Jenson Button, who finished fourth, fell further behind, dropping to 28 points and 31 points behind Webber with three races left in the season. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull's one-two finish allowed them to extend the championship lead over McLaren to 45 points, with Ferrari a further 47 points behind in third position. Five drivers arrived at Suzuka within one win of seizing the championship lead, but a disappointing display in Singapore that saw Lewis Hamilton retire for the third time in four races and Jenson Button struggle to finish fourth meant that McLaren had a lot of ground to catch up; in Button's case, he would need to win the race and see his four rivals fail to score a point simply to draw level with championship leader Mark Webber. In response, McLaren brought a modified version of a new floor they had been intending to run in Singapore, but had delayed after initial feedback was disappointing. After the revolving door of driver changes that had affected Hispania Racing in Singapore, the team found some stability by returning Sakon Yamamoto to the cockpit of car number 20 despite vague and confusing statements from the team early in the week about which drivers would be appearing during the weekend. Renault were also the centre of a minor controversy over the status of their second seat ahead of the season, with World Champion Kimi Räikkönen repeatedly linked to the seat held by Vitaly Petrov. After several statements from the team about Räikkönen's interest, Räikkönen angrily hit back, criticising Renault team principal Éric Boullier for using his name and image in an attempt to market the team to new sponsors.