Hamilton & Mercedes return to dominating ways at Suzuka with Rosberg runner up; Vettel 3rd for Ferrari
As predicted, Mercedes power returned to their winning ways at the high speed Suzuka track in Japan on Sunday after their hiccup at the low speed Marina Bay street circuit race in Singapore the week prior. And even with a desperate Nico Rosberg starting from pole, nothing could stop Lewis Hamilton from grabbing the lead on the first corner as he ruthlessly pushed his Silver Arrows teammate ever wider until his German rival had to relinquish the top spot or be run completely off the track. From there the reigning English Champion and this year’s points leader never looked back, dominating the Japanese Grand Prix in such a masterful fashion that the world television feed barely showed the leader until his last victorious lap. Which is a bit of a shame because not only did Hamilton glide home nearly 19 seconds ahead of Rosberg, whose championship dreams, such as they were, have now surely suffered another painful blow. But with the win Hamilton also tied his hero and F1 immortal Ayrton Senna with 41 career victories. It was also Hamilton’s 8th win out of 14 GP this season and coming after his only DNF in the previous race at Singapore it must have felt like the proper order had been restored with the fastest driver in the fastest car rightfully back on top. Hamilton now leads Rosberg, his closest pursuer, by a daunting 48 points with 5 races left on the calendar.
Despite the poor start, which shuffled him down to fourth position on Lap 1, Rosberg had a decent race, fighting back against the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and passing him on Lap 17. Rosberg later leapfrogging Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel on pit strategy to secure the 1-2 finish for the factory Mercedes team. After Ferrari’s dream results in Singapore with a win for Vettel and a P3 for Kimi Raikonnen, the Prancing Horses came back to earth somewhat at a track where their lack of pure straight-line speed as compared to Mercedes power was made clear once again. In the end, Vettel made it close with Rosberg but could only manage to take the last step on the podium with a solid P3. Raikonnen fought hard and outshone his fellow Finn Bottas, P4 to P5. Bottas’ Williams teammate, Felipe Massa, had his race destroyed on the opening lap when Daniel Ricciaro tagged him while trying to overtake, cutting down his right front tire and forcing the Brazilian veteran to limp back to the pits for a premature tire change. Massa was then doomed to a lonely race at the back, where he would finish some 2 laps down in P17.
At the other end of the spectrum, Nico Hulkenberg had a very good race race for Force India after a poor qualifying and a 3-spot grid penalty saw the German starting form 13th. Continue reading