Sebastian Vettel’s F1 Championship Hopes Have Broken With His Engine In Japan

Valtteri Bottas says he “completely understands” Mercedes’ request for him to switch positions with Lewis Hamilton at the Japanese Grand Prix. This was his third win at Suzuka which came after his first pole on this circuit yesterday.

The Ferrari driver skipped the pre-race ceremony to remain by his vehicle, as mechanics worked to address the spark plug problem that would put him out of the race.

The 20-year-old hailed Red Bull’s improvements, adding: “The auto is improving race by race so I’m really happy with that”.

“They’re just so meticulous and that’s really why we have the reliability we have and the results we’re having, so a big thank you to the guys”. On the opening lap, Carlos Sainz who was driving his last race for the Toro Rosso outfit this season spun off at Turn 7, on the first lap bringing out the first Safety Car of the race. It looks like there was a problem with the spark plug. Max (Verstappen) had an outstanding race.

Raikkonen had just blasted his way past Hulkenberg when a virtual safety vehicle was triggered on lap 8.

Sainz managed to get out of the gravel trap but the vehicle was damaged enough to warrant for a retirement.

A start-line crash in Singapore has been followed by engine problems at consecutive races in Malaysia and Japan.

The Spaniard was deemed to have failed to adhere to blue flags correctly and move aside at the earliest opportunity, playing a late role in the battle that ended with Hamilton taking his eighth F1 win of the year. In this case the Ferrari was able to resume, albeit down in 14th place.

Not unless Hamilton and Verstappen had taken each other out.

But Vettel was in no mood to point the finger of blame at anyone in the team. It only helped further that Hamilton was impeded by Fernando Alonso on Lap 51, which helped Verstappen to close in on Ham to within 0.8 seconds.

Massa was the first of the frontrunners to make his pit stop for a fresh set of soft tyres on lap 18.

“I could have only dreamed about having such a gap in the standings”, said sn ecstatic Hamilton during the post-race podium interview.

With his team mate Daniel Ricciardo finishing third, it proved to be another successful weekend for Red Bull. Daniel Ricciardo 192, while Kimi Raikkonen 148.

Hamilton had to keep Verstappen at bay for a while, and this led to some tyre management issues later on.

The Red Bulls finally had a chance to match up to Hamilton’s pace.

“I don’t know”, said the three-time champion. Replay showed that something broke at the right front of the Williams which was now being recovered under the VSC.