SHANGHAI, China — Mark Webber had a blunt assessment of the way Lewis Hamilton erratically paced the field behind the safety car in the rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix.
“I think he did a s--- job behind the safety car,” Webber said.
Visibility was extremely poor in the torrential conditions, and many a driver had to pull alongside another as the field went through an accordion effect as drivers tried to keep their brakes and tires warm.
Video footage shot by a fan and appearing on Youtube.com shows Hamilton pulling almost alongside the safety car and then slowing way down. It was that move that distracted Sebastian Vettel for a crucial moment and caused him to ram into Webber’s car.
Officials punished Vettel, dropping 10 grid places in China.
After talking to Hamilton, Webber and Vettel here in China, officials reduced Vettel’s penalty to a reprimand, and they cleared Hamilton. Later, however, the stewards docked Vettel five grid spots for impeding a car in qualifying.
The rules state that drivers must keep five car lengths between his car and the safety car, and that the lead car must be five meters behind the safety car. But after the drivers met with the FIA’s Charlie Whiting in China, they agreed to a 10-car-length spacing in very wet conditions.

• Busy at anytime of the year, Shanghai was swamped with people as the Grand Prix occurred at the same time as the National Day holiday and the Special Olympics. All in all, there were some 700,000 tourists in town.
California governor and former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was in Shanghai, but it was to attend the Special Olympics rather than the Grand Prix. Actor Keanu Reeves was at the race.

• Alex Wurz will retire from racing at the end of the season, but he may continue as a test driver for Williams.
Williams ran its reserve driver Kazuki Nakajima on Friday in China and will do so again in Brazil as the team is assessing its driver options for 2008. Technical director Sam Michael says it could be several months before Williams decides on Nico Rosberg’s partner in 2008.
“I think Nico (Rosberg) is a star of the future,” Frank Williams said of his drivers. “Nakajima — too soon to say if he will have an outstanding future or a medium future in F-1, but I think he is F-1 material.”

• Flavio Briatore missed a GP for the first time since 2000. He and Bernie Ecclestone went back to Europe for some meetings after the race in Japan and intended to fly to China on Ecclestone’s private jet. When Ecclestone decided to remain in Europe, it was too late for Briatore to take a commercial flight.

• Fernando Alonso wore a checkered flag wristband when not in his car in China. “Like this, I finish first in my own world, my own race,” he said.

• As expected, Ralf Schumacher will not drive for Toyota next year.
“The decision was taken a while ago, I just wanted to wait until after Fuji because it was such an important race for us,” he said in China.
Schumacher says it was his decision, though some insiders believe that the Toyota merely gave him the chance for a dignified departure, and that the team told him prior to the Japanese Grand Prix that his lucrative contract would not be renewed.
Schumacher is confident that he will be in F-1 next year, but his options (Spyker?) are very limited.

• Lewis Hamilton won the fifth pole of his career and the 133rd for McLaren.

• The first hearing in Spyker’s arbitration case against Toro Rosso and Super Aguri, for using what Spyker alleges are illegal customer cars in 2007, will be on Oct. 9.

• While the standard of driving on the roads around Shanghai is still very scary, it is improving. Accident fatalities in the first nine months of 2007 were 57,168, which is down 13 percent from a year ago.

• The 2008 customer car dispute moves to the next stage at a meeting of the FIA’s Int’l Court of Appeal in London Oct. 24. Williams wrote a letter questioning the legality of Prodrive’s 2008 entry. Prodrive plans to run cars that will be basically identical to the 2008 McLaren Mercedes, but McLaren won’t sign a deal until the rules are clarified.
If the teams cannot agree on a definition of customer cars, and the relevant financial matters, the current Concorde Agreement, which expires at the end of 2007, may have to be extended for a year. But this will only serve to extend the arguing by a year.

• Spyker’s new owners, the consortium of Holland’s Michiel Mol and Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya, officially took control of the team Oct. 5.
“Today, after signing of the official documentation, management of the Spyker Formula One Team has been handed over to the new owners: Orange India Holdings,” Spyker said in a statement.

• Fuji organizers are refunding $3 million to fans who bought tickets for temporary grandstands that had a limited view of the track at the Japanese Grand Prix.

• Toro Rosso’s appeal on the stewards’ ruling to drop Tonio Liuzzi from eighth to ninth (for passing in a yellow flag zone) behind Adrian Sutil in the Japanese GP will be heard in Paris Oct. 12.

• Newly crowned GP2 champ Timo Glock is talking to several F-1 teams about a drive. BMW Sauber hopes he stays on as the team’s test driver. “First we have to get a decision on Timo, which I expect right after the end of the season, and then we will make up our minds,” Mario Theissen said about possible replacements for Glock. “His (BMW extension) contract depends on the circumstances.”