Rosberg wins in Japan as Mercedes seal constructors’ crown

Nico Rosberg extended his championship lead to 33 points with victory in Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Emirates Japanese Grand Prix, as Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton recovered from a nightmare start to finish third, just behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The result gives Mercedes an unassailable lead in the constructors' championship, effectively securing them a third straight crown.

Sebastian Vettel was Ferrari’s lead runner on a frustrating afternoon for the Scuderia, the German taking fourth place ahead of team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Also disappointed was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in sixth, the Australian having started the race in front of both the scarlet cars.

The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were seventh and eighth, beating arch rivals Williams, who saw Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas complete the top ten, as all 22 drivers finished the race.

Polesitter Rosberg effectively had things won the moment Hamilton made a mistake and lagged so badly at the start that he plunged from second to eighth place.

Thereafter, the German drove a controlled race well out in front to win for the first time here and score his ninth victory of a season that looks increasingly like going his way, comfortably clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull and the recovered Hamilton.

As Rosberg quickly eased away at the start, Verstappen jumped to second but Ricciardo in the second Red Bull lost momentum diving past the tardy Hamilton and was overtaken by Perez’s Force India and fast-starting Vettel’s Ferrari. Further back, Hulkenberg took sixth ahead of Raikkonen, who got a late five-place grid drop because of a gearbox change, and Hamilton.

Vettel made swift work of deposing Perez, and Raikkonen passed the other Force India on the sixth lap, Hamilton on the seventh. But the really key moment for the reigning world champion came with his first pit stop on the 13th lap; he jumped past both Raikkonen and Perez as they were held up trying to pass Jolyon Palmer’s Renault.

That freed the Englishman to chase after Rosberg, Verstappen and Vettel, and he steadily cut down the Ferrari driver’s advantage, from 12.9s on lap 26 to 4.2 when he pitted for the second time on the 33rd lap. Ferrari immediately brought Vettel in on lap 34, but the Mercedes got the undercut to claim the final podium slot.

It was a bad-tempered race as far as traffic was concerned, with Verstappen, Vettel and Raikkonen in particular complaining bitterly about their perceived lack of blue flags, or else drivers ignoring them. As Rosberg controlled things without taking much out of his detuned engine, Hamilton moved ever closer to the Red Bull in second place. But Verstappen had better traction out of the chicane and stayed ahead.

At the end of the penultimate lap, 52, Hamilton had a look down the inside going into the chicane, but had to pull left dramatically - and veer down the escape road - as Verstappen jinked right to slam the door. Mercedes initially protested the Dutchman's tactics, but with Hamilton himself saying he did not wish to force the matter, the complaint was withdrawn.

The Dutchman, who earned the fans' Driver of the Day nod, eventually claimed second, 4.9s behind Rosberg, and 0.7s ahead of Hamilton. 

Rosberg now has 313 points to his team mate’s 280, meaning he needs only three seconds and a third to clinch his first title over the remaining four races - even if Hamilton wins all of them.

Vettel and Ferrari gambled on fitting a set of soft Pirelli tyres for his final stint as all the other leaders went for another set of hards, and the yellow tyres soon faded, leaving the German 14.4s seconds behind the second Mercedes but well ahead of Raikkonen’s sister car. Ricciardo drove a very subdued race to sixth, as Perez led Hulkenberg home on another strong day for Force India.

The final points went to the battling Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, who were separated by 0.5s at the flag and were only 0.9s ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Haas.

Palmer took 12th, from Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, Renault team mate Kevin Magnussen and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, as McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz battled throughout to finish 0.8s apart.

Jenson Button, who started from the back after changing Honda engine components on his McLaren, took 18th ahead of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez - who spun in the chicane while fighting Sainz early on - and Esteban Ocon who comfortably beat Manor team mate Pascal Wehrlein.

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Qualifying - Rosberg edges Hamilton in Suzuka thriller

Nico Rosberg will start the 2016 Formula 1 Emirates Japanese Grand Prix from pole position after beating Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.013s in qualifying at Suzuka on Saturday. Ferrari and Red Bull were breathing down their necks, with the Scuderia winning that battle as Kimi Raikkonen took third and Sebastian Vettel - carrying a three-place grid penalty for his collision in Malaysia - fourth.

Max Verstappen out-qualified Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth, with Sergio Perez next up for Force India. Haas were the surprise of the hour, with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez eighth and tenth respectively, split by the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.

Hamilton has never started from pole position here, and once again he was denied - Rosberg’s thirteen-thousandths of a second advantage equating to 82 centimetres on track - despite having taken the initiative earlier in Q3.

The Ferraris set the pace in Q1, with Vettel just acing Raikkonen, 1m 31.659s to 1m 31.684s. Rosberg was third on 1m 31.858, with a baulked Hamilton in fourth on 1m 32.218s. But where the red cars had used the soft Pirelli tyres, the silver ones had done their times on mediums.

Hulkenberg was fifth on softs with the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo sixth and seventh on mediums.

The big mover was Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, who vaulted late into Q2 with 1m 32.796s, while Fernando Alonso just made it with 1m 32.819s, fractions ahead of team mate Jenson Button, whose 1m 32.851s left him 0.032s down in 17th for McLaren. He, of course, was using the Honda-powered squad’s older-specification powertrain.

Kevin Magnussen could not emulate Renault partner Palmer’s time, and was 18th on 1m 33.023s ahead of the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr on 1m 33.222s and 1m 33.332s, while Esteban Ocon and Pascal Wehrlein - carrying a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change - were on their tails in 21st and 22nd for Manor on 1m 33.353s and 1m 33.561s.

Rosberg lowered his time to 1m 30.714s on softs in Q2; Hamilton matched him in S1 and S3, but lost four-tenths sliding wide in the Degners on his way to 1m 31.129s, which left him just ahead of the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen as fifth-placed Verstappen rued traffic while matching the Finn.

The surprise was Gutierrez in seventh and Grosjean in eighth for Haas, as late improvements kept the Force Indias in Q3.

Out were the Williams duo, with Valtteri Bottas heading Felipe Massa, with 1m 32.315s to 1m 32.380s. Daniil Kvyat out-qualified Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz, as the latter spun in Turn 13 on his second run. The Russian did 1m 32.623s, the Spaniard 1m 32.685s. Right behind Sainz was Alonso on 1m 32.689s, as Palmer’s 1m 32.807s left him 16th.

So, as ever, it all came down to Q3. Did Hamilton have an answer to Rosberg? Could Red Bull get back ahead of Ferrari?

The answer to both questions was affirmative after the first runs. Ricciardo went fastest with 1m 31.240s, but that was beaten by Verstappen’s 1m 31.229s despite the latter’s talk of a loss of gear sync, then Raikkonen with 1m 31.184s before Rosberg went fastest again with 1m 0.953s. But then Hamilton went quicker still, with 1m 30.758s, as Vettel’s 1m 31.225s left him fourth. However you sliced it, the times were close…

They were closer still in the second runs, when Rosberg grabbed the advantage back from Hamilton by thirteen-thousandths of a second… Their respective laps were 1m 30.647s and 1m 30.660s, as Raikkonen kept Ferrari ahead of Red Bull with 1m 30.949s and Vettel also pushed ahead of them on time - but not on the grid because of his three-place drop from Sepang - with 1m 31.028s. Verstappen had to be content with 1m 31.178s, as Ricciardo went sixth with 1m 31.240s.

Further back, Perez claimed seventh for Force India with 1m 31.961s, a time later matched by Haas’ Grosjean, as team mate Gutierrez made it a fine day for the American team with 1m 32.547s for 10th. Between them, Hulkenberg was ninth in the second Force India on 1m 32.142s.

With grid drops for Vettel and Wehrlein taken into the account, the provisional grid thus lines up: Rosberg, Hamilton; Raikkonen, Verstappen; Ricciardo, Perez; Vettel, Grosjean; Hulkenberg, Gutierrez; Bottas, Massa; Kvyat, Sainz; Alonso, Palmer; Button, Magnussen; Ericsson, Nasr; Ocon, Wehrlein.

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FP3 - Rosberg tops Ricciardo in wet-dry session

Saturday morning’s final practice at Suzuka began in damp and dreary conditions, but it ended in the same way as Friday’s sessions had: with championship leader Nico Rosberg topping the timesheet.

The hour-long session began with drivers venturing out on wet and intermediate tyres, but despite dark clouds overhead, conditions continually improved with all of the quick times coming right at the very end when the drivers switched to soft tyres.

Rosberg’s best lap of 1m 32.092s on the yellow-marked rubber was the fastest of the weekend thus far, but the fact that Daniel Ricciardo was within three tenths of a second with 1m 32.394s bears out Red Bull’s belief that they can be very competitive here on a track that favours excellent handling as much as horsepower.

Sebastian Vettel was again Ferrari’s faster runner with 1m 32.731s, but the German was disappointed that the team had lost ground to Mercedes since FP2. Max Verstappen was also unhappy in fourth, struggling to 1m 32.784s in a car that he said didn’t handle the way he wanted it to.

Kimi Raikkonen hit traffic on his best lap and ended up fifth, 0.9s back from Rosberg’s marker, with Felipe Massa taking sixth for Williams ahead of the second Silver Arrow of Lewis Hamilton, who spoiled his best effort with a mistake at Degner.

There were big smiles at Renault, where Jolyon Palmer had his best run of the season together with team mate Kevin Magnussen; they were eighth and ninth with exactly the same lap time: 1m 33.639s.

Rounding out the top 10 was Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 33.646s for Force India.

Esteban Gutierrez, 12th for Haas behind Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, provided the most spectacular moment of the session when he spun early on at Turn 5, while mechanical problems left Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso down in 22nd place.

The scene appears set for one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season, with both Red Bull drivers fancying their chances of getting up there with the Mercedes duo, provided the set-up of the RB12s can be honed a little further.

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