Nico Rosberg extends points lead as he cruises to victory in Japan
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg cruised to victory from pole position in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan. This was Rosberg's first win at this circuit and ninth win of the season.
Rosberg virtually had the race in the bag by the time the field got to Turn 1, as his teammate Lewis Hamilton made a poor start from second on the grid and dropped back to eighth.
Overnight rains had dampened the starting grid, which could have contributed to Hamilton’s poor start.
Hamilton was able to rally his way back up into third position, meaning he sits 33 points back of Rosberg with four races left to go in the season.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen finished in second place, after holding off a hard-charging Hamilton in the closing stages. With two laps to go, Hamilton attempted a pass on Ricciardo in the final chicane. The two almost collided as Ricciardo defended, causing Hamilton to run off.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel placed in fourth, having lost out to Hamilton via the undercut on the second and final round of stops. Ferrari put Vettel on the soft tires for the closing stages of the race while most of the rest of the front-runners were on hards, but Vettel was unable to find a way by Hamilton.
Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen placed fifth, having made his way up from eighth on the grid following a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change earlier on in the day. Raikkonen had got by Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, who placed sixth, after the Australian had had a slow stop due to issues with his right-front tire during his final stop.
The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg placed seventh and eighth respectively while the two Williams cars placed ninth and 10th, with Massa ahead. With both cars having qualified outside the top 10, the teammates started on medium tires and were able to use an alternate strategy to leapfrog the Haas F1 machines, with Romain Grosjean finishing just outside of the points in 11th.
All 22 cars were still running at the finish, leading to many of the leaders to run into traffic in the closing stages.
Mercedes wrapped up the constructors championship for the third consecutive year.
Unofficial race results
1. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
2. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
4. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
5. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
6. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
7. Sergio Perez - Force India
8. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
9. Felipe Massa - Williams
10. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
11. Romain Grosjean - Haas
12. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
13. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
14. Kevin Magnussen - Renault
15. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
16. Fernando Alonso - McLaren
17. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
18. Jenson Button - McLaren
19. Felipe Nasr - Sauber
20. Esteban Gutierrez - Haas
21. Esteban Ocon - Manor
22. Pascal Wehrlein - Manor
