Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of taking his fourth world title is a step closer after taking victory in the Japanese Grand Prix to allow him to open a fifty-nine point lead over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton took his second victory this week after building his lead over the German from the start after he began to drop back. It was another nightmare afternoon for Vettel, with Ferrari having to work on his car from the grid.
As soon as the race started, it became clear that the German’s car was struggling for speed on the straights with Ferrari trying to fix the issue under a safety car. Caused by a spin by Carlos Sainz, however, as soon as the race resumed he swamped by Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas
Then that lead to him and his hopes of a fifth title ending in his third retirement in three races. In a season which has seen Hamilton and Vettel push, each other hard Ferrari’s reliability and crashes in the closing stages appear to of handed the title to Mercedes.
Hamilton said “We have had such a great crowd this week you always look after us so well and the support was immense. I am grateful for that. The track was fantastic. The team did an incredible job. Max (Verstappen) had an outstanding race. It wasn’t an easy one at all.”
Verstappen: “It was a great day again. I really love the track. We had great pace – just really hard to pass. I tried my all. As soon as we switched to the soft tyre we were really competitive.”
Austin expected to be favourable to Mercedes but a week later comes Mexico, where the world champions fear Ferrari will beat them.
Vettel told Sky Sports “It’s normal to be critical, especially if things go wrong because it’s part of our job. But I need to protect them [Ferrari] – they’ve done an incredible job so far.”
Verstappen then picked up where Vettel left off and began to push Hamilton on track, but the speed of the Mercedes was too much for the Red Bull driver in the end. The Dutchman had made a great start from fourth passing Ricciardo and Vettel on the opening lap of the race.
Verstappen continued into the closing stages as he began to struggle with his tyres but was unable to get past the Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen recovered from dropping back to fifteenth on the opening lap, after being forced wide by Nico Hulkenberg, to fifth.
Esteban Ocon finished ahead of Force India teammate Sergio Perez. The Frenchman had run as high as third early on but was unable given the lack of speed from the car to hold off Ricciardo and Bottas. But that lack of speed soon became clear, as Massa clung onto tenth despite coming under attack from Alonso in the closing stages as the McLaren-Honda driver battled back eleventh ahead of Jolyon Palmer. It could be the last race for the Englishman, who is being replaced by Sainz in Austin.
But that lack of speed soon became clear, as Massa clung onto tenth despite coming under attack from Alonso in the closing stages as the McLaren-Honda driver battled back eleventh ahead of Jolyon Palmer. It could be the last race for the Englishman, who is being replaced by Sainz in Austin.
Stoffel Vandoorne lost out on the opening lap of the race, dropping to the back before recovering to fourteenth with Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein the only other finisher.
Wehrlein’s team-mate Marcus Ericson crashed out early on at the second Degner. Lance Stroll retired when an apparent failure on the front-right of his Williams sent him skating across the gravel late on, while Nico Hulkenberg’s DRS refusing to close forced him out.
Related
- Notebook – Japanese Qualifying
- Japanese GP – Qualifying Result
- JAPANESE GP – Hamilton takes a maiden pole at Sukuza going three tenths faster than Vettel, breaking the lap record
- Notebook – Japanese Practice
- JAPANESE GP – Hamilton tops the times in rain affected second practice
- JAPANESE GP – Vettel edges out Hamilton in first practice by two tenths
- Preview – Japanese Grand Prix
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