Japan GP Race Report

It didn't look like a traditionally wet race in Suzuka so it was then a question of whether Red Flags or Safety Cars would make the race more interesting.  We all knew the answer to this, it was more when than if Sargeant brought out either.  He was already starting from the pit lane with a 10 second penalty as the team had to get extra parts during Parc Ferme to rebuild his car after he smashed it up during Qualifying.

Piastri and Verstappen both aimed for the same piece of track and gave Norris a pass into second place off the start.  There was some kind of coming together behind them, which meant that a Safety Car came out so some debris could be collected from the track.  Bottas hits Albon, giving himself a puncture.  Zhou was also somehow involved.  Hamilton was hit by Perez.  There were new noses all round.  Sargeant came back into the pits for reason unknown, perhaps to run the hard tyres to the end?

Unlike the olden days, there were no team orders with Russell battling with the damaged Hamilton.  The greatest battles of the race were between team mates.

It was Lap 6, that Sargeant fulfilled his promise and ran into Bottas.  Bottas went off the track, into the pits and was sent out 30 seconds later to trundle around before retiring.  Sargeant got a 5 second penalty.  Perez got 5 seconds for a Safety Car infringement.  It was unclear what he was supposed to do exiting the pits.  Things went from bad to worse, as Perez then drove into the Haas of Magnussen and damaged his front wing.

Piastri came in for his pit stop just as a Virtual Safety Car was called and got a very lucky stop.  This was to get him back past his team mate, Norris.

Perez was told to retire the car.

The  Mercedes continued to fight each other.  Russell held second for a long time as he ran a one stop strategy.

Alonso is clearly still keen to stick up 2 fingers to his old team, Alpine, as he fought to get past Ocon, imploring his team to: "think of something".  The McLarens had a bit of a fight but then the team got tired of Norris's whinging and asked Piastri to move over.  He did look quicker.

Sargeant was seen walking back through the pits.  Clearly he was retired.  Then I noticed that Stroll had retired; I've no idea why.  Then Albon pitted and retired.

The Ferraris quietly drove around in 4th and 5th.

Alonso was given some helpful advice from his pit that Stroll had suffered a rear wing failure, so could he avoid the bumpy bits?

Perez was unretired so that he could serve his penalty and not carry it over to the next race.

Mercedes made the call for Russell and Hamilton to swap places but then needed Hamilton to give Russell DRS to defend from Sainz, who did manage to get past.  If they had waited until the last lap, as Russell suggested, they would have kept both places.  Could Hamilton both give Russell DRS and chase after LeClerc?  No

Verstappen took the victory and scored enough points for Red Bull to claim the Constructor's Championship.  Norris was very happy with the team for them to take the final two spots on the podium.  Piastri drove an excellent rookie drive and was awarded Driver of the Day.  

Lawson finished ahead of Tsunoda but neither of them were in the points.

The next race is at Qatar, where there is a Sprint, so Verstappan can win his Drivers Championship without scoring in a race.  I doubt the FIA thought of that when they introduced the format.

Whilst I don't have much to write about it was a great race and there are lots of battles brewing between currently happy team mates.