Starring roles for Rosberg and Verstappen at Suzuka, but it's not a happy return home for McLaren-Honda.
Monday 10 October 2016 06:02, UK
Cynics may say that Nico Rosberg had an easier start than his team-mate, and that he is not only yet to beat Lewis Hamilton in a wheel-to-wheel battle this season but also in his entire Mercedes career. That would be cruel on a driver who, since the summer break, has been in the form of his life. Rosberg is Formula 1's Mr Consistent, and there's no sign that he's starting to crack.
Nico extends lead over Lewis after Japan win
If Rosberg had been Hamilton on the first lap, losing six places in an instant, the criticism would be endless. The fact the German has dealt with the new-for-2016 procedure with relative ease is testament to the hard work he has been putting in, identifying blistering getaways race after race as a crucial factor in this title race. There's been no complaints about wheelspin from Rosberg, and once in the lead, that W07 is almost impossible to catch. "Rosberg's into the supplements of his Sunday paper by now I reckon," Sky F1's Martin Brundle quipped, summing up his Sunday cruise.
After a perfect weekend he dominated from start to finish, including a stonking qualifying lap when the pressure was really on, this maiden title is now Rosberg's to lose. "If you want to be a world champion you should avoid mistakes to the minimum," said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. "That's what he's doing."
33 points is an almighty lead for a driver who has rarely put a foot wrong this year.
Rating out of ten: 9
Max Verstappen picked up the fans' driver of the day award for an impressive sixth time this season, and yet again his driving style prompted a certain amount of debate - and even a Mercedes protest which was later withdrawn. On this occasion, the overwhelming feeling amongst the Sky F1 pundits was he didn't do anything wrong - and his team boss Christian Horner was of the opinion his defence against Hamilton was "firm but fair."
Red Bull perhaps weren't as strong this weekend as expected, but in terms of how Verstappen fared against his team-mate it was a good weekend all round for the Dutchman, beating Ricciardo in qualifying and finishing four places above him in the race. He also moves level on points with Sebastian Vettel in the standings and takes fifth place by virtue of having a race win under his belt.
Rating out of ten: 9
The destination of the championship is now out of Lewis Hamilton's hands after his latest wretched start off the line - the fourth time this year he has lost five or more places into the first corner of the race - lost him any chance of winning the Japanese GP. Even four victories in the four remaining races will not necessarily be enough for Hamilton to retain his title.
Hamilton takes blame for start
Judging by his speed in the second half of the Grand Prix this Sunday, Hamilton had the pace to beat Rosberg, although we'll never know to what extent Rosberg was in cruise control. The bottom line, however, is that Hamilton's apology over team radio for his bad start amounted to confirmation he was the architect of his own downfall, his false-start effectively making his recovery to third academic in the grand scheme of Rosberg extending his championship lead to 33 points. The turning points keep on turning against Lewis.
Rating out of ten: 6.5
Sebastian Vettel's less than ideal run of form continues. He was on the back foot anyway going into this weekend, with a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision in Malaysia hanging over him. Despite fighting back to fourth from sixth on the grid, a feeling of frustration must surely be looming over the German.
Third place could potentially have been his for the taking, but Ferrari's gamble on strategy was hampered by the back-markers that prompted numerous radio rants about blue flags.
This was also a weekend where Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene pronounced that Vettel must earn a contract extension at the Scuderia and Sky F1's Brundle predicted his long-term future in F1 might not be a given. Only time will tell how that story is set to unfold.
Rating out of ten: 7
Oh, what could have been for Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn looked quick all weekend and is finding some late-season form for Ferrari, but a three-place grid penalty after qualifying just behind the Mercedes all but ruined his weekend.
Suzuka isn't the ideal track for overtaking, and Raikkonen found it as such, despite displaying impressive race pace. Other than criticising the backmarkers and keeping a Red Bull at bay, there was little more the veteran could do here.
"Obviously, there's a lot of disappointment," he said. Quite.
Rating out of ten: 8
The list of drivers starting out from the dirty side of the grid who made a slow getaway off the line at Suzuka this Sunday is a long one, but only Daniel Ricciardo came close to matching the disappointment felt by Hamilton.
The Red Bull driver lost his fight with team-mate Verstappen then and there although his inability - hardly helped by a slow pit-stop which cost the Aussie precious seconds - to beat either Ferrari suggests Verstappen's intra-team victory was fully warranted.
Rating out of ten: 6
Has there been a better driver outside of the top three teams this season than Sergio Perez? The Mexican is now not only finishing in the points consistently, but he's delivering a lot of points consistently.
Perez was, of course, helped by the Ferrari duo's respective grid penalties but, after a superb start from fifth, found himself up in third in the early stages. Force India were never going to have the pace to keep that up, but a seventh-place finish is as good as Perez can hope for in a race of no retirements.
Crucially, opposing tyre strategies to Williams helped the team keep a healthy lead in fourth place, with Perez able to comfortably overtake both Massa and Bottas. "I enjoyed myself today," Perez said - and so he should have.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
One of the highlights of the race was provided by Nico Hulkenberg, passing Valtteri Bottas for eighth. In fact, you could argue he provided two highlights with that ever-so-cool "see ya later" over team radio after executing the pass.
However, there was a certain level of frustration in his post-race comments that a disappointing qualifying meant he couldn't hope for much more than finishing behind his team-mate.
Rating out of ten: 7
After such a poor qualifying, Williams and Felipe Massa could have hoped for little more than best of the rest behind both Force Indias in Suzuka. Once again, the team executed a one-stop strategy and, though that left Massa a sitting duck for Perez and Hulkenberg on the straights, that kept him comfortably in the points.
The fight for fourth in the Constructors' Championship may now be a lost cause, but the Brazilian is at least proving he is still up for the fight with just four races remaining in his Formula 1 career.
Rating out of ten: 7
A rare defeat for Valtteri Bottas at the hands of his soon-to-retire team-mate. Still, as the team themselves quickly acknowledged, the defeat was undeserved with Bottas' undoing the team's strategy as Williams desperately - and ultimately successfully - rolled the dice on a one-stop strategy to compensate for their lack of outright pace. The problem for Bottas was that single stop itself.
"It's a shame for Valtteri because he had that ninth position in hand ahead of Felipe, and so we were keeping him out longer to give him better tyres towards the end of the race," engineering head Rob Smedley reported.
"Unfortunately, the stop was slower than our usual and he came out behind Felipe. The overriding point is that the car just wasn't quick enough and that has been the biggest disappointment of the weekend in both qualifying and the race."
Rating out of ten: 7
And the rest...
The double disappointment for Romain Grosjean at the chequered flag was missing out on points by a single position and, having started out in seventh, his best qualifying result of the year, losing four places during the Grand Prix.
The encouragement, at least, was the team's improved showing after bolting on a new front-wing to their car which brought immediate dividends. Ahead of their home race, and after the brake issues of Malaysia, the team can head to Austin with genuine reason to believe they can challenge for points.
Rating out of ten: 8
After the point-scoring antics of Malaysia, Jolyon Palmer could be forgiven for being disappointed with 12th in Japan.
But as the fight for a seat at Renault 2017 continues, he can't do much more than out-perform his team-mate, something he did in both qualifying and the race this weekend.
Rating out of ten: 7.5
Daniil Kvyat was another man who cut a frustrated figure over the radio, venting his frustration at battery charging issues and a consequent lack of power.
However, the Toro Rosso driver can surely take some comfort from the fact that he "feels better in the car, even if he did deliver the rather damning statements, such as, "our straight-line speed is just nowhere…we are just too slow."
Rating out of ten: 7
It's weekends and weeks like this that must be persuading Renault to give serious consideration to looking beyond Kevin Magnussen for 2017. The Dane, so impressive when he took 10th at Singapore, has failed to show up for the last two events and was beaten in both qualifying and the race by Palmer at Suzuka. The delay in confirming either driver for next season is unedifying, but Renault can hardly be blamed for exploring all options.
Rating out of ten: 6
Another doughty effort from Marcus Ericsson. The four positions he put between himself and team-mate Felipe Nasr amounted to a fine result for little reward, while the Swede has held the upper over Nasr in qualifying in all three events since Italy. Once again, he could have done no more.
Rating out of ten: 8
It wasn't quite a "GP2 engine" standard of rant from Fernando Alonso, but his frustration at a track which simply does not suit McLaren-Honda was evident. "OK, Fernando, push now," said his engineer halfway through the race. "I wish!" the Spaniard angrily replied. "With which tyres to push now?"
As McLaren said in their post-race statement: 'Fernando put up a spirited battle to take the fight into the midfield, but he was never in a position to challenge for points.' They will hope that the lack of pace here was just a one-off. The two-time world champion surely won't take any more 15th-place finishes.
Rating out of ten: 7
A rare scruffy weekend for Carlos Sainz. A spin in qualifying condemned the young Spaniard to a starting berth directly behind his Toro Rosso team-mate and he was, at times, ragged on race day, particularly when his refusal to accept his battle with Massa was over meant he immediately lost position to Bottas as well. A case of trying too hard in his underpowered Toro Rosso?
"Even if we started well, managing to get past both Williams and enjoying a good race pace during the first stint, that all changed after the first pit-stop," complained Sainz. "We then dropped behind the two McLarens and from that point onwards our race was over."
Rating out of ten: 5
Jenson Button used the word 'horrific' on more than one occasion over the course of the weekend. This is a track Button has enjoyed in the past, but if this is to be the last time he races an F1 car in Japan, then that really is a shame.
Perhaps the only bonus he can take is that McLaren played the tactical card of getting the engine penalty that he had expected to take in Austin out of the way, thanks to that rather dismal 17th in qualifying.
Rating out of ten: 6
Felipe Nasr rather ruined his race by flat-spotting his hard tyre and forcing himself to make a pit-stop earlier than planned. The result was 19th for the Brazilian and another disappointing weekend of no points for Sauber.
Rating out of ten: 5
After impressively qualifying in 10th, it looked like Esteban Gutierrez's points hoodoo could finally come to an end in Suzuka. However, an early first pitstop dropped the Mexican all the way back to 20th as other team's strategies played out.
Gutierrez's task was made even more difficult when he spun on Lap 20 when attacking Sainz, and it's these kind of mistakes that plunge his 2017 stay in F1 in considerable doubt. Finishing behind both Saubers isn't really good enough when your team-mate is up in 11th.
Rating out of ten: 6
Finally settled into his Manor car, in which his steering wheel was previously bushing against his legs, Esteban Ocon is beginning to show why he's so highly regarded. The youngster has out-qualified team-mate Pascal Wehrlein on consecutive weekends and beat him to 21st on race day, too - as high as either driver could realistically finish in their under-developed machinery.
Rating out of ten: 8
He may have had the upper hand in the Mercedes protégé battle immediately after the summer break, but Pascal Wehrlein is now being put in the shade slightly by Ocon.
The German may put his qualifying performance down to the fact he knew he would be taking a grid penalty anyway, but the 21-year-old still couldn't find a way past in the race. It's turning into a disappointing end to the season after such an impressive first half.
Rating out of ten: 6
The F1 Report's review of the Japanese GP on Sky Sports F1 at 8.30pm on Wednesday evening
