Japanese Grand Prix: Rosberg wins, Mercedes champions

Nico Rosberg won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka for the first time in his career and with it increased his world championship points lead while helping Mercedes wrap up the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship title - their third in three years.

Rosberg took advantage of Lewis Hamilton's slow get-away from pole position, which saw the world champion slip down to eighth by the time the field reached Turn 1.

Immediately Rosberg, pursued by Red Bull's Max Verstappen, began to eke out a lead and thereafter manage the pace at the front. He was never challenged and was allowed to cruise to his ninth win of the season, stretching his championship points lead to 33 points in the process.

Crucially Rosberg can now afford to finish behind Hamilton in the remaining four races and still win the championship.

Rosberg said on the podium, "What an awesome weekend. It's beautiful to win here and congratulations to my colleagues and team for clinching constructors' championship and let's celebrate hard."

For his title rival, Hamilton, it was an afternoon of playing catch-up and damage limitation (how often have we hear those words this year?)

His strategy was to maximise his first set of tyres, which he did, allowing him to run a couple of laps longer than his rivals before stopping for tyres. When he emerged from the pits, he was sixth and a few laps later fifth.

With a few laps to go Hamilton was third and in hot pursuit of Verstappen for second place. But the teenager held firm, as has become his trademark. The Mercedes driver attacked on the penultimate lap going into the Chicane, but Verstappen defended the inside line and Hamilton was forced straight down the escape road.

Thus Verstappen claimed second, in what was another tenacious and impressive drive by the teenager who ended up half a minute up on his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth place.

Verstappen said, "There was a lot of traffic but we saved tyres in last stint. To race Mercedes is always positive and to come home in second I have to give a thanks to the team. Lewis was pushing hard and had a little moment and pleased to finish second."

Hamilton did come on the radio to complain (with little conviction it could be said) that Verstappen had moved twice as they powered into the Chicane.

In the end third from eighth was a good recovery, but he will be lamenting the fact that pole position happened to be near a damp patch on the track and also that he fumbled when the lights went out, compromising his start, which he apologised for over the radio.

The world champion said afterwards, "Congratulations to the team, I'm very proud to be part of it. I did the best I could from where I was in the race. I will give it everything I have got [for the rest of the season] and we will see what happens."

Up next were the Ferrari pair of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in fourth and fifth respectively.

Vettel enjoyed a good early part of the race, running in third and chasing down Verstappen, but in the end the Ferrari simply did not have the firepower when it mattered. The same applied for Raikkonen who had handy pace early on but any challenge to the top three simply fizzled out as the race progressed.

Ricciardo, who started behind Hamilton on the grid, had to take avoiding action at the start and dropped positions, while the timing of his first pit stop saw him emerge behind Jolyon Palmer. The battle that ensued cost the Australian valuable time.

Palmer, who was defending his position, also inadvertently tripped up Sergio Perez and Raikkonen, shortly after their stops, which ultimately allowed Hamilton to leap frog the pair after his first stop,

Perez finished seventh, ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg as Force India outscored their championship rivals Williams whose drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished ninth and tenth respectively.

At the start of the race Rosberg made a clean getaway, but Hamilton’s start was dreadful. He bogged down badly and was immediately overrun by rivals. Verstappen moved to second, Force India's Sergio Perez flew past into third and Daniel Ricciardo held fourth. Hamilton dropped to eighth place.

Vettel, who had started sixth due to the grid penalty had had incurred after the previous race in Malaysia, was soon on the march, however. He muscled his way past Ricciardo on lap one and on the following tour breezed past Perez to take third place.

Hamilton, too, was attempting to make his way forward and on lap seven he overtook Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to claim sixth place. He now had two seconds to make up to P6 man Kimi Raikkonen.

Verstappen and Ricciardo were the first of the top-10 starters to shed their opening stint soft tyres, with Red Bull Racing pitting their drivers at the same time at the end of lap 11. Both took on hard compound Pirelli tyres.

Their halt for tyres triggered a steady stream of pit stops as the main contenders all filed towards pit lane over the following few laps. All took hard tyres.

After 23 laps Rosberg was comfortably in the lead, holding a four-second advantage over Verstappen. Vettel was 2.7s further back in third place, while Hamilton had worked his way back up to fourth ahead of Ricciardo and Raikkonen.

That order was maintained through the second stint but while Rosberg maintained control ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton managed to pass Vettel in the next and final round of pit stops.

Perhaps anticipating the move, Vettel took on soft tyres in his second stop and set off in close pursuit of Hamilton in the opening laps of his final stint. The Briton, though, defended resolutely in the opening laps of the stint and then began to pull away from the Ferrari as the German’s tyres began to drift from their optimum performance level.

After the second stops and behind the front four, Raikkonen was now looking comfortable in fifth, six seconds behind Vettel but 14 seconds clear of Ricciardo. Perez was now seventh ahead of Hulkenberg, Massa and Bottas.

The biggest battle in the closing stages was between Verstappen and Hamilton. The Mercedes man closed to within DRS range of the Red Bull Racing driver and at the end of the penultimate lap he launched an assault around the outside of the Dutch driver. Verstappen was not for moving, however, and Hamilton was forced to overshoot the chicane and he lost ground to the Red Bull driver.

Ahead, Rosberg was comfortable and after 53 laps he crossed the line to take his ninth win of the season with almost five seconds in hand over Verstappen.

Hamilton’s third place, meanwhile, was enough to give Mercedes an unassailable lead in the battle for the Constructors’ title and they are now set to pick up their third crown in a row at the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Ferrari secured fourth and fifth, with Vettel ahead of Raikkonen, but Verstappen’s second place and sixth for Ricciardo means that Red Bull Racing extend their advantage over the Scuderiato 50 points in the battle for second place.

Perez and Hulkenberg sealed seventh and eighth places respectively and with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas only managing ninth and tenth, Force India extend their lead over Williams to 10 points in the battle for fourth place.