Mika's comment at the arrival to Japan: "I have a special relationship with the Japanese Grand Prix as I have claimed my two World Championships there. I like the Suzuka track, but overtaking can be difficult and the incredibly tight chicane situated just before the start/finish straight is considered the best opportunity. I'm as focused as ever and determined to leave Japan with a victory".

The qualifying session opened with Wurz 11 minutes after start, and David Coulthard came on the track just five minutes later, taking a temporarily pole position over two seconds faster than Wurz. Schumacher was out the first time 25 minutes after the session's start and he set an excellent time with -0,539 sec. improvement, taking the pole. Mika Häkkinen came out soon after, with Rubens Barrichello in his tail, and Mika took a 2nd place only +0,074 sec. slower. Jenson Button's fast lap ironically screwed up when he had to pass Mika during Mika's warm-up lap. Barrichello took a 4th place and David's 2nd try didn't improve his time enough so he retained his 3rd place. Mika went for his 2nd try 37 minutes after the session's start and he improved Schumi's time with -0,077 and took pole. Rubens screwed up one try when he spund off the track. With only 14 minutes left of the session Schumi returned to the track winning the pole back from Mika with -0,109 sec. Mika's 3rd try just three minutes later succeeded and he won back the pole with -0,074 sec. Schumacher was watching Mika on the monitor from his car and he re-entered the track even before Mika made it back to the pit, and he improved Mika's time too, with poor 7 thousandparts of a second, unfortunately enough to take the pole away from Mika once again. Mika went out for his 4th try before Schumi even finished his fast lap, knowing that the red rival had improved too much already in the beginning of the lap, and Mika's first part of his fast lap improved with -0,002 but he couldn't keep it up and starts next to Schumi from grid two tomorrow. David from 3rd grid, Barrichello from 4th, Button from 5th and Ralf Schumacher from 6th. Mika Salo will start from grid place 19. Well, Schumacher won the pole by half a meter (literally, 0,007 sec. is half a meter in length with a Formula One car), but with Mika's incredible previous starts of the seasons this really doesn't mean anything for tomorrow's race.

Mika's comment after the qualifying: "A great battle for pole position with Schumacher and myself exchanging fastest times. We were making adjustments to the car throughout the session but unfortunately on my last run I was not able to get the acceleration absolutely right coming out of the last chicane, which meant that I lost that little bit of time. However the race is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it".

With today's race the FIA Formula One Drivers' World Championship was settled. Michael Schumacher won the Grand Prix in Japan today once again with Ferrari's excellent strategy. The start was great. Mika and Schumi left their Grid place simultaniously, but while Schumi tried to cut off Mika by turning drastically to the right, Mika was able to accelerate a lot faster and was leading the race before the first corner. In lap five the two leaders had already established a 5,5 seconds lead to Coulthard who was third at the time, and the gap was growing fast for each lap. After nine laps Mika was leading the race with 1,74 seconds in front of Schumi, and he increased his lead slowly. Very slowly... After 22 laps Mika went in for his first pit stop, Schumi did the same in the following lap, their positions didn't change after this. Then it started to rain a little, on and off, but no one changed to rain tyres. When Mika went in for his second pit stop, Schumi still had several laps to go, and as always this was an advantage to Schumi, driving fast on low fuel with a ligth car. Mika came back on the track in front of his Team Mate, who had only had one pit stop at the time, proving to everybody how much faster Schumi and Mika actually went today. They're obviously in a league of their own! While Schumi was in the pit for the second time, Mika was struggling with heavy traffic and problems with the grip on the wet track, so when Schumi came back on the track, he was leading the race with over four seconds. After this, the race (and championship) was really over. Mika drove the first part of the final lap faster than anyone, not giving up yet, but Schumacher finished first, only 1,837 second before Mika. Coulthard came in third, Barrichello fourth.

I comfort myself with the fact that the best man, after Mika, won the championship, and even though I'm a fan of Mika, I DO know that Schumacher has deserved his victory, but that doesn't make it any easier, though. If this only would have happened in Malaysia so we'd have two more weeks of hope... *sigh* I believe that Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen are almost equally good drivers, Mika being slightly better. But what Schumi is lacking in talent, he gets back with a good reliable Ferrari and a Team order that supports him from the very first Grand Prix. If Mika would have the Team order in his favor from the start of the season, he would have won two more races this year, when David Coulthard took the GP victory in France and England, which would have meant that Mika would have had 8 more points by now and a chance of winning this year's WC with the next race in Malaysia, having only two points less than Schumi with today's race result. But unfortunately this is not how it works in McLaren, so Mika have had to fight both Schumi and his own Team Mate most of this season. Well... Next year is next year and I'm 110% sure (don't ask me how or why) that Mika will take next year's World Championship, but when it's too late to do the Triple Hat Trick, unfortunately. At least Mika has another, even greater, thing coming in his life this year; he's going to be a father for the first time, so in the long run the F1 WC isn't the most important thing anyway... BUT WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN SETTLED IN THE LAST DAMN RACE?! Mika Häkkinen is also Japan's favorite F1 driver, so he and Erja have received so much baby clothes that their hotel room was completely overfilled and forced the couple to change room :-)

Mika's comment after the race: "Obviously I'm disappointed, but I would still like to congratulate Michael. We have had a great battle this year with both ups and downs and it's been very exciting. Today I made a good start to take the lead and things were looking good until my second pitstop. The guys did a great stop, but unfortunately I lost valuable time on my out lap partly due to traffic but also it began to rain a bit more and as a result of the new tyres it was extremely slippery and I was sliding everywhere. Anyway I believe to be a good winner you have to be a good loser and now we are focusing on finishing the season on a high in Malaysia and on next year's Championship".

Last year: The unforgetable race where Mika was untouchable. He came, he raced, he won, and now joined the very elite of only six Formula One pilots who have won F1 two times in a row, including Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna - who have achieved back-to-back World Drivers' Championships in Formula One.

Mika's comment after the race in 1999: "Brilliant! What a great English word to express how I feel. It was one of my best races and I shall never forget it. Whilst I think I did a good job it wouldn't have been possible without all of the people back in the factory and the here in Japan. Just a big thank you to them and of course David my team mate, West, Mercedes, Mobil, Ilmor, Bridgestone, all of our other sponsors, Erja, and my Mum and Dad! Thanks to everybody".