THE JAPANESE GP IN 3 KEY MOMENTS
1 Ferrari meltdown hands championship to Mercedes
On a weekend that faced an existential threat from one of the most severe typhoons to hit Japan for years, victory for Valtteri Bottas and third place for Lewis Hamilton sealed Mercedes’ sixth consecutive constructors’ championship as Ferrari fell apart from a position of strength yet again. The Japanese Grand Prix represented Ferrari’s season in a microcosm: just when the red cars seemed to have it in the bag, the blunders began.
Bottas set the pace during Friday practice and might even have started from pole if circumstances had fallen differently. Saturday’s sessions were cancelled in the face of the oncoming storm, and qualifying provisionally postponed until Sunday morning. The grid would be decided by the results of second practice if qualifying did not take place.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny (if still very windy), qualifying went ahead, and Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc annexed the front row ahead of Bottas and Hamilton. That was as good as it got for
Ferrari. Vettel fluffed the start, dropping the clutch too early and having to stamp on the brakes as the lights went out, and Bottas shot past into a lead he would only temporarily give up during his pitstops.
Hamilton couldn’t find space to pass Vettel on the inside as the Ferraris belatedly got going, so tucked in behind as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went by both him and Leclerc on the outside into Turn 1. Shorn of front-end downforce in his teammate’s wake, Leclerc slid wide at Turn 2 and tapped Verstappen into a spin, in effect eliminating them both. The second Ferrari continued with its leftfront endplate askew, and Leclerc initially ignored an order to pit for a new nose, but a diktat then came down from the FIA when a chunk broke off and destroyed one of Hamilton’s mirrors a lap later.
Leclerc charged back to finish sixth, but was penalised for the collision and for not coming in immediately to replace the wing. Vettel escaped sanction for pre-empting the start because his initial movement was “within acceptable tolerances”. That enabled him to finish a distant second ahead of Hamilton, whose attempt to complete the race with just one pitstop didn’t pan out.
Mercedes ran its drivers on different strategies but tyre degradation proved more severe than expected. Hamilton lost time as his soft tyres gave up in the final laps of his first stint, and although he led when Bottas and Vettel made second stops, he had to come in again with 11 laps to run. He crossed the line third, tucked under Vettel’s rear wing, with Bottas a speck in the distance.
2 Red Bull cut adrift in Honda’s heartland
Two victories for Max Verstappen earlier this season might have given Honda reason for optimism ahead of its home grand prix, but the Red
Bull teams proved to be bit-part players on race day at Suzuka despite running a much-publicised new fuel blend.
Both Verstappen and Alex Albon set identical times in qualifying, though Verstappen complained of a mystery power loss. They were fifth and sixth on the grid, albeit almost eight tenths off pole position pace, but Verstappen’s excellent start took him past Hamilton and could have put him between the Ferraris but for Leclerc’s clumsiness at Turn 2. Verstappen was blameless in the shunt,
and although he rejoined the race his car was too badly damaged, and he parked it on lap 14.
Albon dropped behind the Mclarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris at the start, then contrived to clatter into Norris at the chicane on the fourth lap as he dived up the inside from a long way back. He was lucky to escape damage or sanction for this and kept his nose clean for the remainder, finally getting by Sainz when the Mclaren made its sole stop at half distance, and was classified fourth – a minute down on the winner.
3 Brake bias row overshadows rocketing Ricciardo
Another topsy-turvy race weekend for the works Renault team ended with its steering wheels and Engine Control Units being sealed and impounded by the FIA. Racing Point lodged a protest after the race against what is alleged to be a “pre-set lap distance–dependent brake bias adjustment system”, thus ensuring that what was a thrilling midfield battle may ultimately be decided by lawyers.
Nico Hülkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo qualified just 15th and 16th at Suzuka, but while Hülkenberg made great initial impact – gaining five places at the start – it was Ricciardo’s charge to an eventual sixth place that really caught the eye.
Ricciardo started on medium tyres rather than softs, and although he couldn’t match his teammate’s start he began to make progress once his tyres got up to temperature. He picked off Kimi Räikkönen, Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen and Antonio Giovinazzi on successive laps to break into the top 10, then passed Sergio Pérez for ninth on lap 15 before gaining four more places as the two-stoppers pitted.
His stop for softs on lap 29 dropped him to 11th but he cut through the field again to run seventh at the flag, which became sixth once Leclerc’s penalties were applied. The final result may be determined in court in the coming weeks.