HAMILTON’S HEAVEN
EDGES TOWARDS ANOTHER TITLE
Lewis Hamilton moved a step closer to becoming a four-time world champion with victory at the Japanese Grand Prix last Sunday. With his closest rival Sebastian Vettel retiring, the Mercedes driver’s points lead is now 59, with 100 up for grabs.
The late-season Asian leg of this year’s title battle has been a disaster for Ferrari. Six weeks ago, Vettel was topping the points table, he’s now looking at an agonising defeat.
At Suzuka, a spark plug failure on the way to the grid, left the Ferrari mechanics feverishly working on his scarlet machine. But it was to no avail, after four laps he was forced to retire. It caps off three terrible races. After the Ferrari team-mates crashed on the opening lap at Singapore, Vettel was then forced to start from the back row in Malaysia. He managed to salvage fourth, but the failing in Japan has opened up the gap to his title rival.
Despite the odds being against him, Vettel refused to give up when asked about the destiny of this year’s championship in the setting sun of the Suzuka paddock.
“It hurts now, but we need to rest, then go flat-out for the last four races. There is still a chance this year. The reliability issues have been a pity, but it’s like that sometimes,” he said with a resigned shrug.
In contrast, Hamilton has taken two wins and a second place.
“I could only have dreamed of this kind of gap,” said the Brit of his 59-point lead. “It’s unbelievable to think that we are where we are. Sebastian has been incredibly unfortunate. In F1 it is a lot about reliability and it is about the team’s whole performance, not just speed on the track. But there’s still a long way to go, one hundred points is a lot and anything can happen…”
Qualifying
Throughout this season, the Mercedes W08 has been a tricky beast to tame. Earlier in the year, team boss Toto Wolff described the car as a bit of a “diva”. In the heat and humidity of Malaysia a week ago, she was particularly stubborn and both Merc drivers struggled to find the sweet spot – the narrow operating window where the car is at peak performance.
But in the cooler temperatures of Suzuka on Saturday, Hamilton found the perfect balance to smash the opposition. It was his first pole position at the legendary track and the 71st of his career. With the Mercedes engine settings ramped up to a ‘qually-spec’ mode, no one was in the same league.
“Every single time I have struggled here, it’s because I’ve been trying to find the right balance,” said Hamilton. “This is the first car I have felt has been underneath me all weekend. My knowledge of it is better than it was before. Let’s hope she is not stubborn tomorrow.”
Alongside Hamilton on the front row was Vettel, once Valtteri Bottas was handed a five-place grid penalty for a replacement gearbox. Behind them were the two Red Bulls, both drivers disappointed they were so far off – a full second – from Hamilton’s Mercedes.
With Bottas’s grid penalty, he split the two Force Indias and set his best Q2 time on the soft rubber, setting himself up for an alternative tyre strategy in the race. His compatriot did the same. Kimi Raikkonen was also handed a five-place grid penalty, after he damaged his gearbox with an off into the barriers at Degner 2 in Saturday morning’s practice session.
A red-flag in the first part of qualifying thwarted a number of drivers, who were expecting to improve on their final runs. Romain Grosjean lost control of his Haas at Turn 5 and clattered into the wall.
On the back row of the grid were the two Spaniards. Fernando Alonso was last in his Mclaren-honda (thanks to a 35-grid place penalty) and just ahead of him was Carlos Sainz – and then Jolyon Palmer. They too had engine penalties, but the irony was that Sainz would be taking over the Brit’s seat from the next race. A few hours after qualifying, Palmer revealed this would be his final GP with the Renault team. Sayonara Jolyon.
Race
Race day morning was hot and sunny, with Friday’s gloomy washout a distant memory. With track temperatures nudging 46 degrees Celcius, there was concern that the Mercedes ‘diva’ might struggle compared to the Red Bulls. And once away in the lead, Hamilton was cautious throughout the race.
His closest challenger was Max Verstappen, who had nailed his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the run down to Turn 1 and was quickly past Vettel’s Ferrari at the hairpin, aware something was amiss with the red car.
“I saw in my mirrors that Max had done in a big lunge into Turn 11, so from then I was just trying to manage the pace, manage the tyres,” said Hamilton. “It was the hottest the track had been all weekend – so it was really crucial, knowing the Red Bulls would be very quick in the race.”
It was soon evident that Vettel was in trouble and he was mugged by a gang of three cars at the start of the following lap. One tour later, it
was time to park his Ferrari.
But the German wasn’t the first retirement. On the opening lap, Sainz had drifted wide between Turns 5 and 6 and spun into the barriers, requiring the appearance of the safety car to tidy away his Toro Rosso. It was an underwhelming end to his Toro Rosso career, which probably elicited a smirk from Palmer as he passed by in his Renault.
Behind the safety car, the order of the race was as follows: Hamilton, Verstappen, Esteban Ocon (who had also managed to overtake Ricciardo on the opening lap) then behind the Australian was Bottas, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa. Nico Hulkenberg was next up after he had made a decisive move to overtake Raikkonen into the Spoon Curve, which forced the Ferrari wide.
The Finn then set about coming back through the field, using his favourite overtaking place into Turn 1 with DRS assistance. He was soon ahead of Palmer, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Massa and would ultimately finish fifth in a difficult afternoon for the Maranello outfit.
After seven laps there was more drama, as Marcus Ericsson locked up his Sauber at Degner 2 and clattered straight into the tyre barriers. That led to the race being neutralised for three laps by the virtual safety car.
On the restart, Ricciardo gained his third place back from Ocon and one lap later, the soft-shod Bottas was also ahead of the Frenchman’s Force India.
The first of the leaders to make their one and only tyre stop was Verstappen, who dived into the pit lane on lap 21 and was followed a lap later by Hamilton, who also switched onto the soft tyre.
Their stops meant Ricciardo inherited the lead for three laps, then he pitted and handed over P1 to Bottas who led on laps 26 and 27. As the Finn had started on the soft tyre, he’d always planned to pit much later, and Hamilton and Verstappen had closed the gap to him in the four laps since their stops.
Initially, Hamilton was happy for Bottas to control the pace, but with Max sat behind him, he started to lose grip in the dirty air and was quick to suggest a more immediate solution. Bottas, on his alternate strategy, conceded the lead back to Hamilton just before the hairpin on lap 28 and gave Lewis breathing space by delaying Verstappen for two laps, before he pitted himself.
As predicted, the higher race temperatures were suiting the Red Bull more than the Mercedes and on lap 32 each driver’s discussion with their respective engineers was telling. Verstappen had no problem with his rubber, while Hamilton was “struggling with the rears.”
But soon after that radio message, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner later revealed that a blister had formed on Verstappen’s front-left and was starting to widen and get deeper as the race entered the latter stages. As a result, he dropped his pace and maintained a three second gap to leader Hamilton.
Behind the frontrunners, there was interest in the late-stopping Renaults. They too had started on the soft tyre and Hulkenberg was up to sixth before his pit stop on lap 38. The intention was to keep him out in a bid to leapfrog a battle for the last points place between Massa, Magnussen, his Haas team-mate Grosjean, and Gasly.
That plan failed, but he was on fresh supersofts when he exited the pits with 15 laps to go and he started to make in-roads on those ahead of him. Sadly, the Hulk was forced to retire when his DRS stuck open. Crucially, the beneficiaries were Haas, as its double points finish moved it ahead of Renault – for seventh – in the constructors’ standings.
The closing stages focused on two key battles that met together on the track. Alonso was now hunting down Massa for the final points place, while Verstappen began a final charge on Hamilton. The Dutchman was helped when there was another virtual safety car. Williams’s Lance Stroll suffered a failure with his right-front wheel and ran out of control over the inside of Turn 4. There were just four laps left when the VSC came to an end, but Hamilton had lost grip as his tyre temperatures had faded away.
“Waking the tyres up was not easy and then I got traffic. I was stuck behind Fernando and Massa [in their battle for 10th] and I was losing so much time,” said Hamilton afterwards. “His [Verstappen’s] car was so big in my mirrors, I was thinking ‘jeez, this is very, very close.’”
Alonso was warned by the stewards for ignoring blue flags (and subsequently picked up two penalty points) and he let Hamilton past at the hairpin, but in his desperation to keep up with Massa, blocked Verstappen.
It was just enough to give Hamilton the breathing room he needed. The British driver crossed the line to win the Japanese GP, with Verstappen just behind. Ricciardo rounded up the final podium position, after he kept Bottas at bay.
Now we criss-cross the globe to Austin, where Hamilton can win the world title if he scoops victory and Vettel finishes sixth or lower.