Rosberg takes controlled victory in Japan

F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Circuit Suzuka

Nico Rosberg has won the Japanese Grand Prix in a straightforward and controlled way. Vettel briefly looked like a threat until his pitstop strategy failed him. Max Verstappen finished second, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton who had another difficult afternoon.

Ahead of the race, the starting grid was modified a bit due to some penalties. An unscheduled gearbox change dropped Raikkonen from third to eigth. Jenson Button dropped to the rear of the grid as the team opted to supply him with the updated Honda engine.

As the lights went out, Nico Rosberg launched perfectly and easily kept his pole position in hand, leaving nobody a chance to challenge him. Lewis Hamilton had a very difficult start and fell back to 8th position, behind Hulkenberg and Raikkonen, but luckily for him still ahead of the Haas duo led by Romain Grosjean.

Sergio Perez had moved up into second place, but at the end of lap two already saw Sebastian Vettel stream past on the main straight, just when DRS got enabled. Ricciardo happily put the pressure on Perez as well, but failed to make a move stick. Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand also moved up a position by passing Hulkenberg, followed by Hamilton on lap 7. Both moves were rather easy, given that Hulkenberg's pace had dropped to nearly 3.5s a lap slower than Rosberg.

With everybody pushing, it was remarkable how many drivers actually ran wide here and there, going over the artificial grass aside of the kerbs, and even partially into the gravel trap. Fernando Alonso ended up there after trying to pass Massa through Turn 1 while Raikkonen went wide at Degner. Both were fortunate not to lose any positions.

On lap 10, Verstappen and Ricciardo were the first to pit, both changing to hard tyres in the same lap. Verstappen dropped down to 7th, just behind Hamilton while Ricciardo rejoined in 13th. position. Two laps later, Rosberg, Vettel, Perez and Raikkonen all pitted, allowing Hamilton to take the lead by 3s over Rosberg. The latter pitted yet another lap later, and came back on track ahead of both Raikkonen and Perez as a result of them being held up by Jolyon Palmer who started on the medium compound tyres.

Both Williams were similar obstacles for those on a regular three stopper. The Williams started on medium, and turned out to be fairly difficult to pass, except maybe for Lewis Hamilton who managed to get past Ricciardo and Bottas in the same lap to move himself up into 4th.

On lap 30, after Raikkonen and Verstappen had already done so, Nico Rosberg pitted from the lead, taking on a used set of hard tyres. Vettel inherited the lead until pitting 5 laps later, and one lap after Hamilton. The Ferrari driver took on a set of new soft tyres but came back on track behind Hamilton. That event obviously played into Lewis' hand, with Vettel quickly realising it would be extremely difficult to get past the rapid Mercedes.

With Vettel out of the way, Hamilton pushed on and went to clsoe the gap to Verstappen in front. 7 laps from the end he came within DRS range, but it proved impossible to get close enough to the Red Bull to make a proper passing attempt.

On the penultimate lap, Hamilton eventually tried nonetheless but went straight on in the chicane, taking the run-off road to rejoin the track. This essentially sealed the podium positions as Rosberg managed his pace 5 seconds ahead of the duo while Vettel followed 12s down the road.