Valtteri Bottas has taken his first win since April ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton at the Japanese Grand Prix. The two Mercedes drivers started from the second row, and took the lead after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc collided with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Finn jumped into the lead after Leclerc and teammate Sebastian Vettel made a poor start, allowing Bottas to get passed the Ferrari’s. Bottas never gave up, and built a huge lead, after Vettel immediately dropped to second, Leclerc’s race was massively compromised moments later at the first corner.
The result means that Mercedes have sealed their sixth constructors’ championship, while Lewis Hamilton is now on course for a sixth drivers title. Only Bottas can mathematically beat him, although he needs to stop Hamilton from taking fourteen further points in Mexico City in two week’s time.
Bottas said, “I’m happy, very happy. Obviously it was a close qualifying and starting third is not easy here but you don’t give up and anything is possible. I had a really nice start and Sebastian had an issue so I got the lead and the pace was super good. I enjoyed it and had fun.”
Vettel on his start, which looked like he had bumped forward, says: “The lights were on a long time, so it was my mistake. I lost the momentum. It was a really poor start.”
“Mercedes were quite fast in the race, Valtteri Bottas was flying at the end of the first stint, Lewis tried to do one stop and it didn’t work. I just tried to get good exits where he could be a threat, but a tough afternoon to maintain second.”
Vettel’s problems started even before the start, the Ferrari rolled before the start, although an investigation subsequently did not invoke a penalty, the issue cost the polesitter crucial momentum. That then allowed the Mercedes into the lead as they bunched up into Turn Two, when Leclerc ran wide.
The Monacan, then ran into Verstappen, breaking his own front wing. Leclerc continued for two laps in third place, irritating Hamilton as the Ferrari’s damaged wing showered the chasing Mercedes with sparks and then debris – which broke Hamilton’s right-side wing mirror.
Leclerc was awarded a five second penalty for the Verstappen collision and Ferrari a €5,000 fine for the team not calling him sooner in for his damaged front wing. After the race, he was found guilty of being of “predominantly” at fault for the accident and was himself awarded another five second penalty.
The combined penalty dropped him from sixth to seventh, behind Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton took third when Leclerc stopped and then inherited the lead when Vettel and Bottas stopped. But the strategy wasn’t the right one for Hamilton after his stop, when he dropped behind Vettel. He tried to chase down the German but failed to get passed him.
Red Bull’s Alex Albon backed up his best qualifying, with fourth after falling behind both McLaren’s at the start. The British-Thai driver got passed and made contact with Lando Norris at Casio, and then McLaren’s decision to two stop being their undoing.
Albon then got ahead of Carlos Sainz using a two-stop strategy to finish fifth. McLaren should have had a double points finish, but Lando Norris was caught in the debris of the collision of Verstappen Leclerc forcing him into an extra stop, dropping him to thirteenth.
Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh, but penalties for Leclerc moves him to sixth. The Renault driver ran a very long first stint on the mediums, that allowed him to gain places by switching to softs and re-joined tenth. The Australian passed teammate Nico Hulkenberg, then on successive laps Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly.
Stroll then lost out in the closing lap to Hulkenberg, before teammate Sergio Perez passed too. That dropped the Canadian out of the points, as Perez crashed out on what was meant to be the final lap.
However, it then emerged that the chequered flag light panel had been erroneously illuminated a lap in advance, meaning the results were rolled back. Perez was thus reinstated into ninth place and Hulkenberg completed the top tenth.
Meanwhile, Racing Point has lodged a protest against Renault, according to the FIA documents, Racing Point has protested the cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg for a “pre-set lap distance-dependent brake bias adjustment system”.
The summons referred to an “alleged breach of FIA Formula 1 sporting and technical regulations” and “FIA International Sporting Code”. Ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, the FIA upheld Racing Point’s protests and excluded both cars from the race.
Daniil Kvyat was twelfth, ahead of Norris who was unable to recover from contact. Kimi Raikkonen was fourteenth and teammate Antonio Giovinazzi was sixteenth, Haas finished the race without points Romain Grosjean fifteenth and Kevin Magnussen seventeenth.
George Russell was eighteenth, however the Williams driver has been classed as retiring. Robert Kubica was nineteenth.
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