Hamilton wins in wet Japanposted in F105 | 10 | 2014
LEWIS HAMILTON BOOSTED his Formula One world championship hopes when he dominated a rain-affected Japanese Grand Prix. The race was stopped prematurely following a crash involving Jules Bianchi.
Hamilton, who stated second on he grid behind his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, stalked his tittle rival before completing a stunning round-the-outside passing move.
The race had started behind the safety car, completing two laps before the race was red-flagged and the cars returned to the pitlane.
After a stop of around 20 minutes, the race restarted again behind the safety car before it pitted after nine laps. The two Mercedes quickly established a comfortable gap ahead of the rest of the field, before the two cars pitted.
Both Mercedes drivers opted for intermediates as the conditions improved, and on lap 29 Hamilton capitalised on a small error by Rosberg.
The German, under pressure by the threatening Englishman, clearly comfortable in the changing conditions, suffered a twitch accelerating on to the start-finish straight at the end of lap 28.
On the next lap, Hamilton pounced. As Rosberg tried to defend, Hamilton — assisted by extra speed from the Drag Reduction System — swept around the outside of his team-mate to take the lead through Turn 1, the high-speed right-hander.
The former world champ quickly pulled away, and cruised to a comfortable victory ahead of Rosberg, and increased his world championship lead to 10 points.
Behind the Mercedes duo, four-times world champ Sebastien Vettel led his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo home in third and fourth respectively.
The race though was stopped prematurely. As the skies again opened, conditions worsened and darkness began to fall, Adrian Sutil went off in his Sauber at Turn 7.
Second later, Bianchi's Marussia went off at exactly the same spot and collided with the vehicle attempting to remove the stricken Sauber.
Immediately the race was red flagged as the medical car sped to the stricken Italian, who suffered serious head injuries in the impact before being taken to hospital for surgery.
DRIVER QUOTES:
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes: “Our first thoughts go to Jules — it overshadows everything else when one of our colleagues is injured and we are praying for him. Next to this, the race result doesn't seem significant at all. Nico and I had a tough battle, we were pushing really hard. I had a big moment at Turn One when I was too late getting off the DRS as I was just pushing so hard but fortunately I was able to get back on track.
"The conditions were difficult throughout but I had more pace than Nico today and could follow him quite comfortably in the early stages. This is not an easy circuit for following another car or for overtaking, but he made a mistake out of the last corner and I was able to pass. The whole approach then needed to change to look after the tyres and make sure I stayed in the lead until the end of the race. But like I said, that's not what matters today; our thoughts are with Jules. ”
Nico Rosberg, Mercedes: “My thoughts are with our colleague Jules and his family and team-mates, and we are hoping for some positive news. Today was a really tough race with the wet conditions. I struggled a lot with the balance of my car on the intermediate tyres, so I had to push hard to keep Lewis behind me.
"I had a lot of oversteering which is why the rear end of my car was very nervous. That was really strange and I didn't have the necessary confidence in the corners; we need to look into that in the next few days. It meant that Lewis was quicker today and deserved the win. It was damage limitation with losing only seven points to him. For the team it was a good result with another 1-2.”
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: “Everything that happened with the racing on track is secondary today. One of us is in a bad shape and we don’t yet know how he is. Jules had a bad accident and we hope to have some very good news, very soon. Not knowing what’s going on feels terrible, I think all the drivers really feel with him, as we know how difficult and slippery it was today; we hope for the very best.”
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull: “Right now we’re all thinking about Bianchi and that’s the biggest concern for us. We heard he had a pretty big crash and it’s not nice when we don’t know if the driver is okay. The race was tricky, it wasn’t going too badly and the set-up we had for yesterday paid of. We tried a few different things with the strategy, but Bianchi is my main concern at the moment.”
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari: “It was a real shame losing the opportunity to take part in this race because, with nothing to lose in terms of the championship, I could have taken a few more risks and maybe aimed for the podium. I still don’t know what caused the unfortunate technical problem, only that suddenly, the car lost all its electrics, maybe down to a short circuit caused by the rain.
"Now, in the four remaining races, the priority is still to pick up as many points as possible, because we are still aiming for third place in the Constructors’ classification. On that front, it could be good that we can count on using this engine which did hardly any distance today, thus not having to use a new one which would mean starting one of the remaining races from the pit lane. However, the only good news we want right now relates to Jules Bianchi. I hope that we hear very soon that he’s alright.”
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari: “Overall, this was a very disappointing weekend. I had set-up problems right from the first day and again today in the race I didn’t manage to drive the way I would have liked. After the start behind the Safety Car, the track conditions were pretty atrocious and visibility was very poor, but my car was handling okay. Then, when the rain eased, I fitted the Intermediate tyres, but after a few laps, they were no longer up to temperature and they began to give me problems at the front end, which meant I had to slow down. Now, we will try and resolve this problem as quickly as possible and aim to improve, starting with the very next race, but more importantly right now, let’s hope we get some good news about Jules Bianchi soon.”
Jenson Button, McLaren: “For me, the race doesn’t really matter today. I haven’t seen anything of Jules’ accident, but the most important thing to say is that all our thoughts are with him, his family, and his team right now. It’s an accident that you hope never happens in Formula 1.”
Kevin Magnussen, McLaren: “Let’s really hope that Jules is okay. It’s such a bad feeling when something like this happens, so let’s hope and pray for him. We did the best we could today, but we had an unfortunate problem with the steering wheel, which basically dropped me out of the race. I tried my best to come back, and get some points, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do so.”
Felipe Massa, Williams: “The race was very difficult today, I suffered at the start with aquaplaning and towards the end it started to get dark as the rain fell again. The Red Bulls were too fast for us today, especially on the intermediate tyre, so there was no chance we could defend. My main focus at the moment is that Jules is ok though.”
Valtteri Bottas, Williams: “It was not an easy race for us today, however we still got some points which is good. The car wasn’t great in the wet but we made the most of the strategy and extracted what we could. We are missing pace in the corners and so conceded a lot of time. It was a surprise to see the Red Bull so quick, in the dry we would have fared better. I really hope Jules is ok after the incident and that it is nothing serious.”
F1 Japanese Grand Prix (Result):
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:51:43.021;
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +9.1s;
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault +29.1s;
4. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault +38.8s;
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +67.5s;
6. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +113.7s;
7. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes +115.1s;
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +115.9s;
9. Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault +127.6s;
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +1 Lap;
11. Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault +1 Lap;
12. Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +1 Lap;
13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1 Lap;
14. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +1 Lap;
15. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +1 Lap;
16. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault +1 Lap;
17. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault +1 Lap;
18. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +1 Lap;
19. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault +1 Lap;
20. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari Accident;
21. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari Accident.
Retired:
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2 laps Electronics
Championship Standings:
Drivers' (Top 5):
1. Lewis Hamilton 266;
2. Nico Rosberg 256;
3. Daniel Ricciardo 193;
4. Sebastian Vettel 139;
5 Fernando Alonso 133.
Manufacturers, (Top 6):
1. Mercedes 522;
2. Red Bull Racing-Renault 332;
3 Williams-Mercedes 201;
4. Ferrari 178;
5. Force India-Mercedes 122;
6. McLaren-Mercedes 121.
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Jim McGill