Japanese Grand Prix: Hamilton wins it, Vettel blows it

It was Hamilton's 71st F1 career win, the Briton crossing the finish the 53-lap race by 12 seconds from teammate Valtteri Bottas, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen surviving an incident-packed race to claim the final step of the podium.

The start was pretty clean considering the long run to Turn 1 with Hamilton leading and his teammate tucked in behind him, with Verstappen third, Raikkonen fourth and Vettel powering through the field.

But turning clean to dirty was Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, after a great move on the Sauber of Charles Leclerc through 130R the Dane went trailer trash when he swerved in front of the Monaco kid down the straight.

The result was a puncture for the Haas driver who then drove back to the pits with tyre shredding and debris flying in all directions. The safety car was deployed and when the track went green things got hot.

At this point, Vettel had turned eighth place on the grid to fourth after Raikkonen tripped up, but when he came upon the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, the #5 Ferrari driver was too impatient and again made a move that was not on, got tagged, spun around and was at the back by the time he got going again- Monza deja vu! More of that later...

In contrast, Hamilton hardly put a foot wrong all day as he powered to his ninth victory of the season and crucially extended his championship lead to 67 points with four rounds remaining. Hamilton won the race on the day, the title is now a mere formality.

Hamilton said after his fifth Japanese Grand Prix and his fourth win at Suzuka in five years, "I loved it. The whole weekend has been incredibly strong for the team."

"It's a great one-two for Mercedes and a true showing of the real strength in depth we have. This track is the best track in the world, I don't know why they don't make tracks like this anymore."

"I've been racing a long, long time but the happiness I have is as much as always. It feels like one of the first. We've gone from strength to strength as a team this year. Austin is generally a good track for us and I can't wait to unleash this beast there."

Adding to the pain inflicted on Ferrari, Valtteri Bottas made it a Mercedes one-two, the world champions further extending their lead in the constructors' standings.

The Finn now in the confirmed role of Hamilton's wingman, provided the buffer which kept the feisty Red Bulls at bay, he too did not put a foot wrong during the course of the afternoon.

Bottas summed up, "Initially in the race everything felt good I knew what I has to do, so I was executing the plan. But in the end of the second stint, I had some blistering which made it tricky, but my job was to get to the finish line in P2. No concern for the car and we managed to save the engine but otherwise no issues."

Before his Vettel moment, while defending third from Kimi Raikkonen a lap earlier, Verstappen braked too late and was forced to cut the final bit of the last Esses, in doing so he stumbled into the path of the Ferrari, forcing it onto the dirt on the exit.

Thus it was game over for the German, but he dug deep to make it back through the field, and sixth place his reward on an afternoon in which he needed to beat Hamilton but instead departs Japan with his, and Ferrari's, campaign in tatters.

Of the clash with Verstappen, Vettel gave his side of the story, "With that outcome, you would do different because in hindsight it's easy. But the gap was there, his battery was clipping, I was boosting, I saved my battery, I had more speed, I would make the corner, I was side by side, but he didn't give enough room and then we touched."

Verstappen was handed a five seconds penalty by race stewards for joining the track dangerously, but that did not stop him from finishing third ahead of Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fourth.

The Dutchman gave his version of the Raikkonen incident, "Kimi chose the wrong line at the chicane and we touched a little bit. I think it's really ridiculous those five seconds.

As for the Vettel moment, "The touch with Sebastian... in that corner you can't overtake. I even gave him space but he understeered into my car. It's a shame but glad to be on the podium," added Verstappen

Raikkonen survived to finish fifth, 20-seconds ahead of Vettel in sixth, the Finn said of his battle with Verstappen, "He ran wide and then went off the track and I left him the space. He didn't know I was there and he drove into me and pushed me off the track. There was quite a bit of damage, which was far from ideal."

Sergio Perez was Best of the Rest for Force India, the Mexican delivering a solid performance to win the midfield brawl and take seventh place ahead of the Haas of Grosjean eight seconds adrift in eighth.

Next up in ninth was Esteban Ocon making it a handy double points finish, with Renault's Carlos Sainz claiming the final point in tenth.

Hamilton held his advantage at the start, moving across the track to cover team-mate Bottas and the hard charging Verstappen. Behind them, Vettel was on the move. Starting from P8 after a poor qualifying session, the German was soon past the Toro Rossos of Hartley and Gasly and then began to close in on fourth-placed Räikkönen.

That task was made easier when third-placed Verstappen went wide at the chicane and in rejoining tangled with Räikkönen. While Verstappen stayed third, Räikkönen was slow in returning to the track and Vettel powered past to claim fourth place.

The incident was put under investigation and Verstappen was later handed a five-second time penalty for “leaving the track and not returning safely”.

Further back, Ricciardo was on the move in the second Red Bull, and when Magnussen went off track due to a puncture caused in a collision with Leclerc, Ricciardo moved up to 10th place.

Magnussen was able to limp back to the pits, but failing rubber from his rear tyre led to large amounts of debris from his car being spread across the track. As a result rhe Safety Car was deployed.

When the SC left the track Verstappen again found himself tangling with a Ferrari – only this time it was title contender Vettel.

The German attempted an overtaking move into the Spoon curve but Verstappen was already turning in and Vettel hit the side of the Red Bull hard. The Ferrari driver lost as susnatntial amount of bodywork in the collision and spun, but once again Verstappen was able to carry on in third place. Vettel dropped to P19.

After the Safety Car period Ricciardo continued to make progress, passing Perez, Gasly and Grosjean sit in P5 on lap 12. Then, when Räikkönen pitted on lap 17 for medium tyres, the Australian moved to fourth place, 9.5s behind team-mate Verstappen.

Verstappen pitted on lap 21 and after taking on a set of soft tyres rejoined just ahead of Raikkonen who then found himself bottled up behind Grosjean. Räikkönen’s delay prompted a pit stop from Ricciardo and he succeeded in jumping the Ferrai, rejoining in fourth place.

Further back, Vettel pitted from P10 on lap 26 for soft tyres. He emerged in P16 and was soon back into the points positions. On lap 33 he made his way past Grosjean to claim sixth place but with 40 seconds to make up to fifth-placed Räikkönen, his progress ended there.

At the front, Hamilton was in command and after 53 laps, the Briton powered over the line to claim his ninth win of the season and as 67-point championship lead over Vettel, with four rounds remaining.

Bottas held on to second place, whiel Verstappen took his seventh podium finish of the campaign with third place ahead of team-mate Ricciardo.

The Ferraris of Räikkönen and Vettel were fifth and sixth respectively, while Perez was seventh for Force India ahead of Grosjean and Ocon. The final point on offer was taken by Sainz.