Hamilton survives late scare from Verstappen to take victory

Lewis Hamilton edged closer to a fourth World Championship crown with victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, surviving a fast-charging Max Verstappen, as Sebastian Vettel’s title hopes suffered a crushing blow.

 

 

Hamilton was being hunted down by Red Bull’s Verstappen as the pairing encountered tailenders during the final stages of the race with Hamilton complaining of tyre vibrations over the radio.

 

The lead fell to just a few tenths on the second-to-last lap before Hamilton pulled clear, building a gap of 1.211 seconds to claim his eighth victory of the season.

 

Hamilton’s victory gave the Briton a 59-point advantage over Vettel in the Driver’s Championship fight, as the German retired due to a spark plug failure.

 

How the race unfolded

 

 

When the 53 lap Japanese Grand Prix began, pole-sitter Hamilton pulled clear as Vettel remained in second behind the Briton, but fell behind Verstappen at the hairpin, as the German’s lack of straight-line speed was noticeable.

 

Vettel dropped to sixth at the beginning of the second lap before the Safety Car was brought out to clear Carlos Sainz’ beached Toro Rosso STR12 after the Spaniard spun off through the Esses at the start.

 

Vettel remained on track with his SF70H trying to fix the problem, but the issue proved terminal as the German received the call from the pit-wall to retire on lap four after the restart.

 

 

Hamilton and Verstappen pulled away, with the young flying-Dutchman taking his position due to an aggressive opening lap push, passing team-mate Ricciardo into the first corner, who in turn fell behind Force India’s Esteban Ocon.

 

Ricciardo charged passed Ocon around the outside of turn 1 a few laps after the Virtual Safety Car ended, by that time the Australian was six seconds behind team-mate Verstappen and out of the fight for victory.

 

Hamilton held a five second lead prior before the sole pit-stop window, while Verstappen attempted the undercut pitting a lap earlier to close the gap.

 

The Briton emerged behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was yet to pit and running an alternate strategy as Verstappen moved closer to his Silver Arrows rival.

 

Hamilton reported to the team of the situation saying it was “compromising my pace” and with Verstappen less than a second behind, Bottas pulled aside on the exit 130R and near the chicane allowing Hamilton through.

 

Bottas remained on track for a couple of laps between Hamilton and Verstappen, by which time the Dutchman had dropped 3.4 seconds behind Hamilton, who was able to capitalise on the fresh air at the front.

 

Verstappen was cutting down the gap and closing the Briton down after a late Virtual Safety Car period, deployed when Williams’ Lance Stroll suffered a puncture ploughing through the gravel at turn 3 and almost colliding with Ricciardo.

 

Both Hamilton and Verstappen encountered traffic as they attempted to overlap Williams’ Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who in turn were fighting over the final-point position.

 

Hamilton’s lead which was sitting at two-seconds, disappeared as the Briton came across the pairing, before pulling a narrow lead once more as Verstappen tried to pass the duo.

 

Hamilton crossed the line 1.211 seconds clear of Verstappen to clinch victory and putting one hand on the title.

 

“Honestly, I could only have dreamed of having that kind of gap,” explained Hamilton during the podium interviews with 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato. “Ferrari has put on such a great challenge all year long. I have to put it down to my team, they have done a phenomenal job, the reliability has really been on point, they’re so meticulous, and really that’s why we’re having the results we’re having.”

 

“A big thank you to the guys. I owe it to everyone that’s here and back at the factory.” Hamilton said.

 

Hamilton also praised Verstappen and Red Bull as the duo after last weekend’s Malaysia Grand Prix victory again gave Mercedes a serious challenge.

 

“Max drove an outstanding race – it wasn’t an easy one for us at all,” Hamilton continued. “Today the Red Bulls just seemed to be rapid in the race trim. We’re quick in the quali trim,”

 

“I was able to just hold him behind, but it definitely got very close a a couple of times, particularly at the end, with the VSC and when we restarted.”

 

“My tyres were cold, I had a bit of traffic, so it was very, very close.” Hamilton concluded.

 

Hamilton can claim his fourth world title at the next round in Austin, Texas should he out-score Vettel by 16 points.

 

As one Red Bull hunted down one Mercedes, it was vice-versa in the battle for the final podium place as Ricciardo face intense pressure from Bottas.

 

Bottas who swapped to the faster Super-Soft rubber, chased down Ricciardo and the pairing came very close in the final stages of the race.

 

Ricciardo withstood his ground and kept Bottas at bay by 0.901 seconds.

 

Kimi Räikkönen started in 10^th place after receiving his five-grid place gearbox penalty and fell in the early-stages when he ran wide on the astro-turf at Spoon Curve as he tried to pass Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg.

 

Räikkönen slipped to 14th, but started coming through the field as he ran a long first stint through starting on the Softer compounds.

 

The Finn returned to the track from his stop in fifth place, which he kept for the remainder of the proceedings and settled 20 seconds behind fellow-Finn Bottas on another tough day for Ferrari.

 

Ocon lead the midfield for Force India, ahead of team-mate Sergio Pérez, who requested to the Silverstone-based squad if he could challenge the Frenchman.

 

The team told Pérez to hold position, due to the multiple clashes between the pairing this season and both drivers took sixth and seventh respectively.

 

Haas F1 Team duo Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean came home in eighth and ninth respectively, while Massa fended off Alonso to claim the final-point.

 

In Jolyon Palmer’s final race for Renault and most likely Formula 1, the Briton took 12th place and in-front of Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly who was 13^th.

 

The resultant flat spot required a second stop and the French youngster came home in 13th place.

 

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne began the Japanese Grand Prix in ninth place but fell down the order at the start, after running off the track at the first, and came home a low 14^th and ahead of a twice-lapped Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein who finished at the rear in 15^th.

 

The other Renault of Nico Hülkenberg had a scary moment through the gravel at turn 2 running a long first stint on the yellow-branded Soft rubber, and returned at the rear of the battle for eighth place after he stopped.

 

However just as he started pushing, his DRS failed on his RS17 and the German was forced to retire, despite the Enstone-based outfit’s mechanics attempting to fix the issue.

 

Along with Vettel, Sainz, Stroll and Hülkenberg, the other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson was also unable to finish, after crashing out at Degner 2 on lap seven.

 

2017 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix Full Race Results Classification (53 Laps)

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/Retired	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG F1	53	1:27:31.194	25
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	53	+1.211s	18
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	53	+9.679s	15
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG F1	53	+10.580s	12
5	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari	53	+32.622s	10
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1	53	+67.788s	8
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India F1	53	+71.424s	6
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	53	+88.953s	4
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	53	+89.883s	2
10	19	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	52	+1 Lap	1
11	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda F1	52	+1 Lap	0
12	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1	52	+1 Lap	0
13	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso	52	+1 Lap	0
14	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda F1	52	+1 Lap	0
15	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber F1 Team	51	+2 Laps	0
NC	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	45	DNF	0
NC	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1	40	DNF	0
NC	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team	7	DNF	0
NC	5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	4	DNF	0
NC	55	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Toro Rosso	0	DNF	0

 

2017 World Drivers Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 306 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel – 247 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas – 234 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 192 Points
5. Kimi Räikkönen – 148 Points
6. Max Verstappen – 111 Points
7. Sergio Pérez – 82 Points
8. Esteban Ocon – 65 Points
9. Carlos Sainz – 48 Points
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points

 

2017 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG F1 – 540 Points
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 395 Points
3. Red Bull Racing – 303 Points
4. Force India F1 Team – 147 Points
5. Williams Martini Racing – 66 Points
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 52 Points
7. Haas F1 Team – 43 Points
8. Renault Sport F1 – 42 Points
9. McLaren-Honda F1 – 23 Points
10. Sauber F1 Team – 5 Points

 

Round 17 of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the 2017 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix from Friday October 20-22.