Brawn's championship leader Jenson Button strolls past some Japanese grid girls at the Suzuka circuit as final preparations get underway for what could be a decisive 15th race of the season
Button's excited Japanese fans will be hoping that their man can gain five points on his team-mate Rubens Barrichello to clinch the drivers' championship at Suzuka
Old McLaren rivals Fernando Alonso, who now drives for Renault, and defending world champion Lewis Hamilton wave to the crowd during the traditional drivers' parade before the race
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel leads as 19 drivers start the Japanese Grand Prix - with Timo Glock missing the race after his crash in qualifying
Glock has reason to smile as a bandage on his cut left leg is the only damage after his 165mph head-on crash into a tyre wall at Suzuka
Meanwhile back on the track, Vettel manages to hold off the Kers-powered McLaren of Hamilton going into the first corner and from then on the young German dominates
Button slips back to 11th off the start, but he gets a huge slice of luck when Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil collide, allowing the Englishman to move up to eighth and in the points
Vettel is untroubled at the front, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli stealing second spot from Hamilton during the second round of pit stops
There is late drama, though, as Toro Rosso's 19-year-old driver Jaime Alguersuari, who also crashed in qualifying on Saturday, careers off at turn 15, destroying a polystyrene advertising hoarding in the process
That brings out the safety car with eight laps remaining, bunching the cars up, but Vettel gets away well at the restart and cruises to victory
Vettel celebrates his fourth grand prix win and third of the season, a result which keeps him in the title race. He trails Button by 16 points with a maximum of 20 points still available
Hamilton (right) has to settle for third - his 26th podium in his 50th grand prix. The world champion's hopes of catching Trulli are hampered by the failure of the Kers system in his McLaren
Vettel's win also keeps the constructors' title race alive - but only just. Brawn need half a point from the remaining two races to clinch it
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