Suzuka: Lewis Hamilton romped to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix Sunday to close in on a fourth world title after Sebastian Vettel retired with engine failure on the fourth lap.
The Briton dominated from pole, steering his Mercedes to a crushing eighth win of the year, stretching his Formula One (F1) championship lead over Vettel to 59 points with just 100 left to play for.
“Honestly I could only have dreamed of having this kind of gap,” said Hamilton after holding off a late charge from Max Verstappen in Suzuka. “The team has done a phenomenal job, they’re just so meticulous. A big thank you to the guys.”
The Red Bulls of Verstappen who stunned Hamilton to win in Malaysia last week, and Daniel Ricciardo secured a double podium for the second successive race. Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas finished fourth with Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari taking fifth and Esteban Ocon sixth for Force India.
Hamilton celebrated a fourth victory in Japan and a 61st career win with a ‘Mobot’ pose, a tribute to his friend Mo Farah, the Olympic champion athlete, who was watching trackside.
Vettel’s title hopes, meanwhile, suffered a potentially fatal blow with four races left following nightmare start from the front row. Ferrari mechanics worked frantically on the grid to fix a spark plug issue before lights out and Vettel was quickly complaining of a lack of power.
The German, who finished fourth in Malaysia and crashed from pole in Singapore before that, plummeted to sixth on the first lap before being told to retire the car as Hamilton roared away into the distance.
Ferrari, who have struggled with reliability issues since the summer break, later blamed the faulty spark plug for the car’s loss of speed. “The misfortune of Ferrari is unbelievable,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
The warmer conditions were supposed to favour the Ferraris but Hamilton ruthlessly converted his record-breaking pole position by rapidly taking a stranglehold on the 53-lap race.
Verstappen raised pulses over the final two laps but ultimately his charge was too little too late to prevent a fourth successive Suzuka win for Mercedes.
Also in the points, Sergio Perez finished seventh for Force India ahead of the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean with Felipe Massa holding off Fernando Alonso’s McLaren to take 10th for Williams.
Double-point finish for FI
Suzuka: Sahara Force India registered yet another double-point finish after Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez signed off at creditable sixth and seventh place respectively at the Japanese Grand Prix here, Sunday. By virtue of this show, Sahara Force India collected 14 points from the race and consolidated its fourth position at the constructor’s standings with 147 points.
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