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Japan wanted a Grand Prix as its fan-base became enormous, and everyone wanted Japan to have a Grand Prix because there were potential sponsors and engine-builders there, but nobody wanted to race at Fuji. The answer was Suzuka, which had been designed by John Hugenholtz as a test track for Honda. Because it had been designed as a test track, it had a wide range of corners over its 3.641 miles and it also had a feature unique to Grand Prix circuits, a crossover.
Suzuka was first used for a World Championship race in 1987 and has ever since hosted the Japanese Grand Prix. It has frequently seen the Chmapionship decider, never more dramatically than in 1989, when Prost suckered Senna and then drove into him, or in 1990 when Senna rammed Prost out of the race at very high speed on the first corner. Japan, after all, is the home of kamikaze.
Alexander Wurz takes you round a lap of the circuit:
"The lap starts on the downhill sixth-gear section leading to First Curve. This is an extremely fast corner taken in fifth gear at around 155 mph (250 kph), then I brake hard into the tightening section which is in third gear at 108 mph (175 kph).
This leads into the very awkward continuous S Curve, which go up the hill behind the pits. The first three corners of the sequence are taken in fourth gear at around 133mph (210 kph), 108 mph (173 kph) and 118 mph (190 kph) respectively. I then brake for the long right-hand third-gear corner taken at 90 mph (140 kph) before accelerating again into the very tricky left-hand Dunlop corner which finishes this section, this is taken in fourth gear at 133 mph (215 kph) and is very nearly flat.
Before reaching the flyover there are two right-hand corners. I take the first one, Degner, in fourth gear at over 118 mph (190 kph) and then shortly afterwards a difficult second-gear 70 mph (115 kph) corner leads under the bridge. A short straight - where I reach 161 mph (260 kph) in fifth gear - leads to the very slow first-gear left-hand Hairpin, which I take at around 40 mph (65 kph).
Traction out of this corner is very important as I then accelerate round a long right-hand corner reaching a speed of just under 130 mph (210 kph) in fifth gear before going into the very long two-part Spoon Curve. The first part of this is taken at around 110 mph (180 kph) in fourth gear and I then have to reduce the speed to around 80 mph (130 kph) in third gear for the second part.
It is very important to minimise any understeer through this corner, which is not easy as this leads on to the back straight. Half-way down the back straight there is the very challenging 130R corner, which is taken at 170 mph (275 kph) in sixth gear and is very nearly flat.
At the end of this straight I will be doing over 180 mph (290 kph) in sixth gear before braking hard for the Casio Triangle chicane, with both parts taken at around 37 mph (60 kph). This follows back on to the pit straight and I'm ready for another lap."
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