Nico Rosberg wins the Japanese GP and secures Constructors Championship for Mercedes

At the Japanese GP at the Suzuka circuit yesterday, Nico Rosberg extended his lead in the drivers’ championship to 33 points with an assured victory ahead of Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton who had to go on a recovery drive to third after a poor start.

Rosberg and Hamilton started the race side by side on the front row of the grid, but Hamilton suffered wheelspin as the lights went out and this dropped him to eighth place as he exited the first corner.

Hamilton’s poor start was his fourth of the season after following similarly slow getaways at the Australian, Bahrain and Italian Grands Prix this year. Much like his start in Monza,

Hamilton appeared to suffer wheelspin as he released the clutch and it left him powerless to prevent the flood of rival cars passing on his left-hand side. A lap later he apologised to the team over the radio and following the race he admitted he made a mistake.

From that point onwards Rosberg faced no real opposition for the win, while Hamilton was tasked with a battle through the field over the remaining 53 laps. Hamilton’s recovery drive kicked into gear on lap seven as he thought better of a move on Nico Hulkenberg at 130R in order to complete a move on the inside of Turn 1 to take seventh place.

He made his first pit stop on lap 14, which moved him ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez, who made early stops but got caught in traffic on their outlaps and lost time.On his outlap, Hamilton managed to get a better exit than Ricciardo out of Spoon corner in order to complete a great passing move into 130R and gain another place.

Next up on was Vettel and Hamilton managed to close a 14 second gap to the Ferrari in the run up to his second pit stop. Hamilton pitted before the Ferrari and used his pace in clear air to make sure he was ahead when Vettel emerged from his own stop. Vettel opted to take on soft tyres in an attempt to reclaim the position on track, but despite sitting on the tail of the Mercedes for three laps, he was unable to make a move stick.

Over the remainder of the race Hamilton set about closing the gap to Verstappen, and with seven laps remaining he was within DRS range. Verstappen ensured he got a better exit from the final chicane lap after lap to stop Hamilton attempting a move into Turn 1, but the Mercedes driver had something different in mind.

In the knowledge he could carry more speed out of Spoon corner, Hamilton attempted to line up the Red Bull on the long back straight and through 130R in order to make a move on the entrance to the chicane. On the penultimate lap he got the first two parts right, but Verstappen was wise to the move and blocked the inside line as Hamilton made his lunge under braking.

With the door well and truly closed, Hamilton had to take to the run off and with it his chances of securing a crucial extra three points for second place were gone.

However shortly after the race, Mercedes launched and then withdrawn the official protest it lodged against Max Verstappen; therefore allowing the FIA to publish the official race classification four and half hours after the chequered flag fell at Suzuka.

In a bizarre turn of events, Mercedes initially protested Verstappen’s defence of second place from Lewis Hamilton at Suzuka’s final chicane. The team did this by arguing that Verstappen drove erratically and in a dangerous manner. However, by the time the protest had been lodged and the stewards convened for a hearing, both Hamilton and Verstappen had left the circuit and were unable to give evidence.

Under FIA procedure, the stewards decided to defer the investigation to the U.S. Grand Prix, meaning the result of the Japanese Grand Prix was set to remain provisional until the next round in two weeks. At that point Mercedes withdrew the protest, just one hour and 20 minutes after it had been officially lodged.

The plot appeared to thicken soon after when Hamilton took to Twitter to say: “There is no protest from either myself or @MercedesAMGF1. One idiot said we have but it’s not true. Max drove well, end of. We move on.”

It is not clear who Hamilton was referring to as an “idiot”, but the tweet was later removed and replaced with the following post. When asked why the protest had been withdrawn, a Mercedes spokesperson said the following to the media:-

“We have done this in the interests of establishing a final official result this evening once it became apparent that the hearing could not be concluded today.”

As a result, Verstappen will now keep his second place finish at Suzuka ahead of Hamilton in third.

But it was Nico Rosberg won the Japanese GP for the first time in his career. This result gives Rosberg a significant advantage in the championship and means he can finish second to Hamilton in the remaining four races (even affording one third place finish) and still win the title. The result also secured Mercedes its third consecutive constructors’ championship which is a fantastic achievement.

Rosberg finished ahead of Max Verstappen in a fantastic second place who was 4.978 seconds behind him and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a great third place who finished 5.776 seconds behind Rosberg.

But Hamilton’s fightback should not overshadow another mature and assured performance from Rosberg, who is increasingly in command in the drivers’s standings. With the constructors’ title wrapped up for another year, all eyes will be on the Mercedes drivers over the remaining four rounds as they battle it out for the 2016 title.

Sebastian Vettel ended the race in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo in sixth place, Sergio Perez in seventh place, Nico Hulkenberg in eighth place, Felipe Massa in ninth place and Valtteri Bottas who rounded off the top ten finishers of the race.

Romain Grosjean ended the race just out of the points in eleventh place ahead of Jolyon Palmer in twelfth place one lap down, Danill Kvyat in thirteenth place, Kevin Magnussen in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Fernando Alonso finished the race in sixteenth place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in seventeenth place, Jenson Button in eighteenth place, Felipe Nasr in twentieth place, Esteban Ocon in twenty-first place and Pascal Wehrlein in twenty-second place.m

The classification for the Japanese GP is as follows:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.26:43.233
2. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 4.978s
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 5.776s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 20.269s
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 28.370s
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 33.941s
7. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 57.945s
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 59.177s
9. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.37.763s
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.38.323s
11. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.39.254s
12. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1lap
13. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1lap
14. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
17. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1lap
18. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
19. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
20. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
21. Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 1 lap
22. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1 lap

Nico Rosberg now leads the Driver's Championship with 313 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 280 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 212 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fourth place with 170 points, Max Verstappen is in fifth place with 165 points, Sebastian Vettel is in sixth place with 165 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 81 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 80 points, Nico Hulkenberg is in ninth place with 54 points and Felipe Massa is in tenth place with 43 points.

Mercedes are the Constructors Champions with 593 points, Red Bull is in second place with 385 points, Ferrari is in third place with 335 points, Force India is in fourth place with 134 points, Williams is in fifth place with 124 points, McLaren is in sixth place with 62 points, Toro Rosso is in seventh place with 47 points, Haas is in eighth place with 28 points, Renault is in ninth place with 8 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa