Valtteri Bottas beat slow starting Sebastian Vettel away from the lights to set up a dominant Japanese Grand Prix victory, which allied to third place Lewis Hamilton took Mercedes to a sixth consecutive FIA Formula One Constructors’ Championship title.
When the lights went out for the start it was Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas who reacted quickest. He rounded the slow-starting Ferraris of pole sitter Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc and stole the lead metres after the starting line. Initially it looked like Vettel might have moved outside his grid slot before the lights went out, but the German was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by the race stewards.
Having lost out off the line, Vettel slotted into second place and third-placed Leclerc immediately came under pressure from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver tried to overtake the Monegasque racer around the outside of Turn 1 but there was contact and Max was bounced off track. The Red Bull driver recovered as quickly as possible and rejoined but it was at the back of the field.
Behind the leaders Alex Albon in the second Red Bull also got away poorly from sixth on the grid. As he bogged down, he was passed by both McLaren drivers and by the end of lap one found himself in seventh place.
Verstappen, though, was struggling. The Dutch driver reported that his car was “moving massively under braking” following the clash with Leclerc and later that his tyres had been flat-spotted as a result. Eventually the battle became too much and after 14 laps the Red Bull driver retired from the race.
With Leclerc and Max out of the reckoning, Albon was now fifth, but bottled up behind Sainz, who was doing a good job of defending his position.
Albon thus opted for an early stop on lap 15, becoming the first of the leading pack to pit. The Thai driver took on medium tyres and rejoined in P11. He was followed by Vettel, who opted for a new set of softs and then Bottas and Hamilton, both of whom took on medium tyres.
After 53 laps Bottas crossed the line to take his sixth career win, with Vettel second ahead of Hamilton. Albon then crossed the line to take the best result of his career to date with a well-worked fourth place. Behind the Red Bull Sainz took fifth for McLaren, while Leclerc clawed his way back to sixth place at the flag.
Daniel Ricciardo put in a good performance to rise to seventh from P16 on the grid, while Pierre Gasly scored good points for Toro Rosso with eighth place, though he was placed under investigation after the race for a later move on Sergio Pérez who was classified ninth but w2ho crashed out on the final tour as a result of the clash with Gasly. The final point went Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Mercedes, with 612 points to the team’s name, have now etsablished an unassailable lead in the Constructors’ Championship and are thus set to be crowned champions at season’s end. Ferrari lie second with 435 points, with Red Bull currently third on 323 points.
2019 FIA Formula One Japanese Grand Prix – Race
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 52 1:21’46.755
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 52 1:22’00.098 13.343
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 52 1:22’00.613 13.858
4 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 52 1:22’46.292 59.537
5 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 52 1:22’55.856 1:09.101
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 51 1:21’51.731 1 Lap
7 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 51 1:21’57.458 1 Lap
8 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 51 1:22’09.795 1 Lap
9 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 51 1:22’10.165 1 Lap
10 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 51 1:22’10.780 1 Lap
11 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 51 1:22’13.400 1 Lap
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Honda 51 1:22’17.115 1 Lap
13 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 51 1:22’24.504 1 Lap
14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 51 1:22’37.491 1 Lap
15 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 51 1:22’44.514 1 Lap
16 A.Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 51 1:23’03.072 1 Lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 51 1:23’05.388 1 Lap
18 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 50 1:21:43.978
19 Robert Kubica Williams/Mercedes 50 1:23’11.838 2 Laps
Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 14 22’58.020