@ValtteriBottas cruises to dominant #JapaneseGP victory. #F1

Valtteri Bottas cruised to a dominant Japanese Grand Prix victory as Mercedes wrapped up their sixth consecutive Constructors Championship.

 

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel managed to fend off Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to hold second place.

 

When the Japanese Grand Prix began, pole-sitter Vettel got a poor start (avoiding a jump-start in the process) and Bottas shot past from third into the lead on the rundown into turn one.

 

After Vettel dropped to second, Leclerc’s race was compromised.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Leclerc tangled with each other trying to go round the outside of the latter through the first two corners, but they touched at turn two and the Red Bull slid across the grass.

 

Leclerc continued on for two laps running third, frustrating Hamilton as the young Monegasque’s SF90 racer’s damaged front wing scattered debris and showered sparks in-front of the chasing Mercedes, which broke Hamilton’s front mirror.

 

On the third lap, Leclerc pitted and emerged at the rear of the field behind Verstappen – as the race stewards re-opened a noted case between the pairing’s collision with the post-race investigation seeing the former being hit with a 15 second-time penalty added to his race time (five for the incident with Verstappen and 10 for ignoring the FIA’s request to pit for a new front wing when damaged).

 

Leclerc has been demoted to seventh, promoting Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo to sixth.

 

As Leclerc pushed his way back to sixth (demoted to seventh see above), Verstappen’s day ended early as the Dutchman was forced to retire on lap 15.

 

Vettel’s escaped a penalty from the stewards, which allowed him to continue fighting on with the front-running Mercedes and hold up Hamilton, allowing Bottas to control and Grand Prix and extend his race lead.

 

Ferrari struck first, pitting Vettel on lap 16 for a fresh set of soft rubber, with Bottas reacting a lap later then Hamilton three laps afterwards.

 

During that period, Bottas’ advantage over Vettel grew while Hamilton dropped more than 20 seconds down, a move that left the championship leader irritated.

 

The top three committed to a two stop strategy – Despite Mercedes reporting to Bottas that Hamilton would stick to a one stopper – but ran it differently.

 

Vettel pitted on lap 31 for mediums while the Silver Arrows remained out longer and opted for the softs.

 

Bottas came in on lap 36 and at that point, saw the Finn 14 seconds clear of Hamilton, as the latter ran an extra seven laps before making his final stop.

 

This left Bottas in-front of Vettel by ten seconds, with Hamilton within five seconds of the German and fitted with fresher softer compounds.

 

With five laps remaining, Hamilton got within DRS range of the Ferrari and had half a look into the first corner, but Vettel withstood the pressure and the Briton ran slightly wide.

 

Hamilton had a much better chance with three laps remaining when Vettel got stuck behind Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, backing the Ferrari into Hamilton and giving the Mercedes a good run.

 

But Hamilton closed in on Vettel too late on the straight to mount an overtake, and the latter maintained second place to the chequered flag.

 

Bottas’ victory, his first since April’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, cut team-mate Hamilton’s championship lead to 66 points with 104 points still up for grabs.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon secured his best result in Formula 1, taking fourth place despite dropping behind the two McLaren’s at the start.

 

The Thai-Briton driver made up one of those places in the early stages with a lunge on Lando Norris that saw the two collide at the Casio Triangle Chicane.

 

Albon got in-front of Carlos Sainz by pitting twice as the latter took on a one-stop strategy to come home fifth in his McLaren.

 

McLaren could have potentially had a double points finish, but after the tangle with Albon, Norris was forced to pit early because debris from Leclerc’s front wing got caught in the MCL34’s brake ducts. Norris wound up 13th.

 

Renault’s Ricciardo recovered to seventh place (promoted to sixth due to aforementioned Leclerc penalty) after running a very long first stint on mediums then putting on softs until the end as the Australian flew passed several cars with a handful of laps remaining.

 

Ricciardo got ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg for ninth and promised the French-Enstone squad “I’ll get them” as he hunted down Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Gasly, who he then charged by in quick succession.

 

Stroll fell from the top ten in the later stages, with Hulkenberg snatching ninth and team-mate Sergio Perez stealing the final points place from the Canadian on the penultimate lap.

 

But after also passing Hulkenberg, Perez crashed out on the final lap after tangling with Gasly, which promoted Stroll to eleventh.

 

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat settled for 12th place and in-front of the aforementioned Norris who took 13th and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who ended the Grand Prix 14th.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished 15th and 17th respectively with the second Alfa of Antonio Giovinazzi who came home in-between the duo in 16th.

 

The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica brought up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix Race Classification here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1016/japan/race-result.html

 

The Top Three

 

 

Winner – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “Yeah, I’m happy, very happy. Starting third is never easy here but there’s no point giving up. I had a really nice car and Sebastian had an issue, so it was good to get the lead. Really proud of the team, sixth title in a row is so impressive.”

 

2^nd – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “Firstly congratulations to the team. That’s the main point. I just wanted to bring home good points for the team.”

 

3^rd – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “The lights were on but it was my mistake (the start). The Mercedes were difficult, they had more pace than us and Valtteri was flying. I just tried to get good exits where [Lewis] was a threat. I’m not happy with the start of the race, but everything else was fine, just lacked a bit of pace.”

 

You can catch up on Qualifying, Free Practice One and Two as well as F1 Newsbites at the following links:

 

#Vettel claims #JapaneseGP pole as @ScuderiaFerrari lockout the front-row. #F1

 

@ValtteriBottas tops #JapaneseGP FP2 in another @MercedesAMGF1 1-2. #F1

 

@ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMGF1 1-2 in #JapaneseGP FP1. #F1

 

#F1 Newsbites – #JapaneseGP edition.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 338 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 274 Points.
3. Charles Leclerc – 223 Points.
4. Max Verstappen – 212 Points.
5. Sebastian Vettel – 212 Points.
6. Carlos Sainz – 76 Points.
7. Pierre Gasly – 73 Points.
8. Alexander Albon – 64 Points.
9. Daniel Ricciardo – 40 Points.
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 35 Points.

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 612 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 435 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 323 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 111 Points.
5. Renault F1 Team – 75 Points.
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 59 Points.
7. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 54 Points.
8. Alfa Romeo Racing – 35 Points.
9. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 28 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 1 Point.

 

Round 18 of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico for the Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2019 from Friday October 25-Sunday October 27.