JAPAN GP – RACE RESULTS

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Lewis Hamilton extended his narrow Formula 1 world championship lead by defeating Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory in a Japanese Grand Prix shortened by an accident for Jules Bianchi.

Having lost out to Rosberg in an all-silver battle for pole in the dry on Saturday, Hamilton turned the tables in the wet Suzuka weather of Sunday with a brilliant round-the-outside passing move on his bitter F1 title rival.

Red Bull deliberately compromised its dry qualifying pace by setting the RB10 up for the wet, and its drivers used this to good effect to finish third and fourth.

Ferrari-bound reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel completed the podium, despite a trip through the gravel at the Esses, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo overcame Jenson Button’s McLaren to finish fourth.

Button held third spot for most of the first half of the race, after being the first driver to pit for inters, but he lost time to a steering wheel change at his second stop, which dropped him behind Vettel, before Ricciardo further demoted the Brit with a firm pass on the inside of the hairpin on lap 43 – a lap before the result was taken.

Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa started third and fourth, but both struggled badly in wet conditions and trailed home sixth and seventh.

Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India stopped at the end of the pitlane as the race was red-flagged for the final time, but he finished eighth on countback, while Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne charged from the back of the grid to claim two points for ninth.

Ferrari took zero points from the race. Kimi Raikkonen finished 12th, while Fernando Alonso retired with a mechanical problem under the safety car before the race began properly.

Final Results: 44 Laps – Red Flagged

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1h51m43.021s	–
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1h51m52.201s	9.180s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull/Renault	1h52m12.143s	29.122s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1h52m21.839s	38.818s
5	Jenson Button	McLaren/Mercedes	1h52m50.571s	1m07.550s
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1h53m36.794s	1m53.773s
7	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1h53m38.147s	1m55.126s
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1h53m38.969s	1m55.948s
9	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso/Renault	1h53m50.659s	2m07.638s
10	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	–	1 Lap
11	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	–	1 Lap
12	Kimi Raikkonen	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	–	Spun off
21	Adrian Sutil	Sauber/Ferrari	–	Spun off
–	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	–	Retirement

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP:

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	266
2	Nico Rosberg	256
3	Daniel Ricciardo	193
4	Sebastian Vettel	139
5	Fernando Alonso	133
6	Valtteri Bottas	130
7	Jenson Button	82
8	Nico Hulkenberg	76
9	Felipe Massa	71
10	Sergio Perez	46
11	Kimi Raikkonen	45
12	Kevin Magnussen	39
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	21
14	Romain Grosjean	8
15	Daniil Kvyat	8
16	Jules Bianchi	2
17	Adrian Sutil	0
18	Marcus Ericsson	0
19	Pastor Maldonado	0
20	Esteban Gutierrez	0
21	Max Chilton	0
22	Kamui Kobayashi	0

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP:

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Mercedes	522
2	Red Bull/Renault	332
3	Williams/Mercedes	201
4	Ferrari	178
5	Force India/Mercedes	122
6	McLaren/Mercedes	121
7	Toro Rosso/Renault	29
8	Lotus/Renault	8
9	Marussia/Ferrari	2
10	Sauber/Ferrari	0
11	Caterham/Renault	0

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NEWS & QUOTES

Bianchi taken to hospital after crash – Marussia Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi has been taken to hospital unconscious following an accident during the Japanese Grand Prix, when he went off at the scene of a previous crash for Adrian Sutil.

Drivers | Team Quotes

Kimi Raikkonen – “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.”

Marco Mattiacci, Ferrari team principal – “For our team, this weekend was unfortunately characterised by reliability problems, yesterday on Kimi’s car and today on Fernando’s. With Kimi, we paid the price for not having been able to get his car configured as well as possible in the third free practice session. That meant he suffered with balance problems throughout the race. Today, with Fernando, we had a bit more of a chance and what happened today just underlines the fact that we must improve the car. However, at the moment, all this is of secondary importance and all our thoughts are only with Jules Bianchi.”

Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director – “It’s disappointing to finish the weekend without scoring points, but our biggest concern tonight is what happened to Jules Bianchi. We still don’t know much but it looked very serious. As for our race, Fernando’s only lasted a couple of laps, probably because of a problem with the electrical system, however we will need to wait until we have the car back for confirmation. Kimi’s main problem was graining on the front tyres. At the pit stop he lost valuable time because of a problem with the front right, but even without that, I think his finishing position wouldn’t have been that much different. Today’s conditions were definitely not easy and what happened here highlights just how important it is to work on the reliability of the car.”