Hamilton flies to Japanese Grand Prix victory

F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Circuit Suzuka

Lewis Hamilton has won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, taking the lead through the first corner to never give it away again. Nico Rosberg recovered from a difficult start back up to second while Sebastian Vettel finished third.

The Japanese Grand Prix took off under bright skies with all but Ericsson and Button starting on the medium compound tyres.

The start was immediately breathtaking, with Hamilton off to a good start and into the first corner side by side with team mate Nico Rosberg. The latter thad the advantage halfway through turn 1, by the entry of the left hander that is turn 2, Hamilton took the advantage. Rosberg had to back out of it, and as a result he saw Vettel and Bottas get past as well.

Further down, Ricciardo suffered a rear left puncture and managed to get back on track 40 seconds down on Perez. The latter went off through turn one, but managed to get back on track and pitted for hard tyres. The Mexican was 16 seconds down on Rossi at the end of the second lap.

Felipe Massa was even worse off as he had his front right tyre punctured even before turn 1, forcing him to drive very slowly back to the pits where his tyres were changed to hards and he got fitted with a new front wing. Back on track, he found himself a lapped, and 51 seconds down on Ricciardo.

By lap 4, the Honda's lack of power was starting to show terribly. Both cars had decent starts, with Alonso up into 8th after a single lap, and Button in 12th. They soon got passed easily by a pack of drivers, with Button notably passed by a Sauber and a Toro Rosso at same time, both getting passed on a different side of the McLaren. It soon triggered Alonso to say over the radio that he had nothing do to, and it was simply embarrassing at the engine maker's home Grand Prix.

On lap 10, Daniil Kvyat is the first regular stopper, changing to hard tyres as the team tries to work something out to get the Russian further ahead in the field.

Around lap 15, most drivers stopped, with Bottas 3 laps earlier than Rosberg. This enabled the Williams to stay ahead initially, but as Bottas pushed hard on his mediums to keep the advantage, Rosberg's hard tyres were much better once he pitted, and an aggressive but clean move through the chicane moved him up into third place.

On lap 21, Hamilton was obviously still leading, 10s ahead of second placed Vettel. Rosberg was third, less than 2 seconds behind the Ferrari, with Bottas already at nearly 5 seconds. Raikkonen meanwhile was catching Bottas rapidly. Hulkenberg ran in 6th, 10 seconds further dwon the road, followed by Grosjean, Maldonado, Sainz, Alonso, Verstappen, Button, Ericsson, Nasr, Perez, KVyat, Ricciardo, Stevens, Rossi, Massa.

As Ricciardo pits on lap 26, Verstappen finally made it past Alonso for 10th place. With obviously less power, Alonso did a great job keeping the Toro Rosso behind for about 10 laps, but after that said angrily on the radio "GP2 engine, GP engine, aaaargh". Moments later, Alonso pitted to change to hard tyres, rejoining the track in 13th position.

On lap 30, Rosberg was the first of the provisional podium sitters to pit, and rightly so, as he found himself just ahead of Vettel one lap later after the Ferrari pitted as well. Hamilton meanwhile pitted as well, retaining an advantage of about 9 seconds over the second place runner.

Further excitement towards the end of the race is mostly provided by team radio messages, with Alonso continuing to vent his frustration, saying "The drivers we have to fight here, unbelievable", while Kvyat gets a simple "Negative" on his question if he can now finally use "the f*cking overtake button".

On lap 46, Verstappen did get a passing move done, getting by his teammate in the fight for 9th place. The Dutchman made use of his slightly fresher tyres. Both are in the points though, with Alonso the closest challenger, 17 seconds down.

The last few laps brought little to report about, except maybe that Ericsson ran wide through spoon curve, and saw Perez and Kvyat pass him 3 laps from the end.

This means that Hamilton dominantly won the Japanese Grand Prix, ahead of Nico Rosberg and both Ferraris.