Formula 1 2017 Japanese Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel's Formula 1 title hopes all but evaporated in the Japanese Grand Prix, as poor reliability ruined Ferrari's prospects of properly carrying the fight to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for the second race in a row.If Vettel was already clinging on by his fingertips coming into Suzuka, he is surely now only something akin to a fingernail breakage away from certain doom in ...

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The celebrations that followed Lewis Hamilton’s superb victory in the Japanese Grand Prix were a bit bizarre, but great to photograph from my privileged position out of the door of the media centre next to the podium.The spot offers an amazing view. As Lewis fist-pumped and then placed his hands on his helmet, you could see he was very emotional and then knelt on his cockpit with his ...

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44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W08Start: 1stFinish: 1stStrategy: 1 stop (super-soft/soft)Rating: 9A sublime qualifying effort again from Hamilton, who got quicker with every lap and looks on a different level to his rivals on Saturdays at present.The race was made easier by Vettel's problems, as Hamilton's start wasn't great. He also came under pressure from Verstappen at times ...

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F1 teams are bracing themselves for a potentially big shake-up in the driver market at the end of next year, with a number of top drivers including Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton not yet under contract for 2019.But although Ricciardo has been linked with both Mercedes and Ferrari, his Red Bull boss Christian Horner has explained that his outfit is eager to keep hold of ...

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Ferrari has seen its title campaign fall apart in dramatic fashion in the last three races with a combination of crashes and reliability failures.In Singapore, Sebastian Vettel got involved in a start-line crash that helped put him out on the first lap, before he suffered an engine problem in qualifying in Malaysia and then a spark plug failure in the Japanese GP.Having fallen 59 ...

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The atmosphere is great. There is fun, laughter and enthusiasm. What more does one need during a race weekend?

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Gasly made his grand prix debut with the team in Malaysia, standing in for Kvyat, and is expected to see out the season - even though doubts have emerged over his presence in the United States Grand Prix due to it clashing with the Super Formula finale.Carlos Sainz will switch to Renault for the Austin race ahead of a full season with the French manufacturer in 2018, leaving Kvyat and ...

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Hulkenberg has suffered several power unit reliability issues this year, and retired from a good position in Monaco with a gearbox problem.At Suzuka, his DRS stuck open into Turn 1 when he was behind Romain Grosjean, and he was forced to pit.His mechanics tried to use brute force to sort the problem out, but without success."Normally when you go off the throttle or de-activate it ...

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Following a number of collisions between its drivers this year, Force India changed its rules of engagement – with Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon not allowed to fight each other anymore.The pair were again forced to hold position in the Japanese Grand Prix, Ocon finishing sixth and Perez just behind in seventh.Despite both men being eager to get unleashed again, and following the ...

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Then the pendulum of fortune began to swing dramatically against him in Singapore and Malaysia, and another disastrous weekend for the Ferrari driver in Japan further tipped the balance in the favour of his rival.Indeed, Hamilton can now win the title in Austin, with three races still to run. Once again at Suzuka, we had the prospect of a superb six-car battle at the front of the ...

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Raikkonen's Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel started the race second but was forced to retire early on with a spark plug failure while title rival Lewis Hamilton won the race.The problem comes after both Vettel suffered an engine failure in Malaysia that prevented him from doing a timed lap while Raikkonen suffered a similar issue that stopped him from starting the race. It meant ...

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Straight from the paddock, we give you an all-encompassing account of all the action from the race weekend, plus compelling interviews with the sport’s star names.For the second race in a row ...

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Although Lewis Hamilton has opened up a 59-point advantage in the F1 drivers’ standings following Sebastian Vettel’s retirement in Japan, Mercedes insists that there are no grounds for it to relax.In fact, Wolff thinks that Mercedes now needs to knuckle down and use the final races of the campaign to work even harder to get to the bottom of why its car’s pace fluctuates so much ...

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Hamilton clearly undid his belts to celebrate winning the Singapore Grand Prix, and admitted he had done so on numerous occasions beforehand.At the start of the Japanese Grand Prix drivers' briefing on Friday evening, Whiting also brought up Sebastian Vettel’s slowing-down lap clash with Lance Stroll at Sepang, and his subsequent ride back to the pits on the sidepod of Pascal ...

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Gasly, the 2016 GP2 champion, replaced Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso for Malaysia and Japan but he says it remains unclear if he will race in Austin, which clashes with the Super Formula finale.The Frenchman has secured two wins and a second place in the last three Super Formula races with the Honda-powered Team Mugen, leaving him just 0.5 points adrift of leader Hiroaki Ishiura.Honda ...

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It was announced on Saturday that Palmer will move aside to make way for Carlos Sainz for the remaining four races of the 2017 season, beginning with the United States GP in two weeks' time. It leaves the British driver facing an uncertain future, and potentially needing to look for options outside of F1 to further his career. "It's been a bit of a strange weekend knowing it's the ...

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Thanks to a spark plug problem in Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel's car and his subsequent retirement from the race, the Briton is now 59 points ahead in the drivers' standings.Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo finished second and third respectively

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Verstappen finished second at Suzuka, falling only 1.2 seconds shy of beating Hamilton after closing right up to the tail of the Mercedes driver in the final laps.For much of the second stint, the Dutchman was around three seconds adrift of the lead, having gained time on Hamilton by ending his first stint on supersoft tyres a lap earlier than his rival.But Horner revealed the ...

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Hamilton came on the radio following the chequered flag to say that he had experienced a vibration with his power unit in the latter stages of the Japanese Grand Prix, and that he had been short-shifting.Hamilton's issue prompted suggestions that that Mercedes engine could have hit trouble.But speaking after the race, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said that the team's telemetry ...

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Vettel’s world championship ambitions suffered a major blow at Suzuka when he was forced to retire his car early on thanks to the spark plug failure.Ferrari were only made aware that there was a problem with the car as soon as he got going when the pitlane opened before the start.Once he got to the grid, Ferrari mechanics rushed to his car to try to work on the issue – removing the ...

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The Ferrari driver skipped the pre-race ceremony to remain by his car, as mechanics furiously worked to address the spark plug issue that would put him out of the race.But as attending the national anthem ceremony is demanded by the regulations, Vettel was investigated by the race stewards for a breach of the rules.An FIA statement confirmed that Vet ...

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The two top 10 spots earned the team 14 points in the race at Suzuka. With this result, Perez and Ocon are seventh and eighth in the drivers’ standings with 82 and 65 points respectively.The team is fourth among the constructors with 147 points.Ocon said: “It was a great race, especially the start and opening laps. I was running third for a long time. We are still missing a little ...

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The McLaren driver was summoned by the stewards after the race for having interfered in the battle for the lead between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen on the penultimate lap of the Suzuka event.The stewards found that Alonso, who was in a battle for 10th position with Felipe Massa, had not let the leaders through as soon as it was possible for him to do so."Alonso was shown a ...

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After admitting to a slump in form recently, Bottas finished a close fourth at Suzuka – just failing to beat Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull in the closing stages for a place on the podium.As Vettel racked up his second DNF in three races, Bottas has now closed to within 13 points of the Ferrari team leader with four races remaining.“The race was good, I think the weekend overall was a ...

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The Dutchman was all over Hamilton on the penultimate lap of the Suzuka, as the race leader got bogged down behind the lapped McLaren of Fernando Alonso.However, this proved a false dawn for Verstappen's victory hopes as he dropped time clearing Alonso himself, allowing Hamilton to establish a gap once more.Verstappen was then held up by the lapped Williams of Felipe Massa - who ...

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The Mercedes driver claimed his fourth victory in five grands prix after Vettel retired early in Japan, to extend his advantage in the title fight to 59 points.Hamilton trailed Vettel by 14 points at the summer break but four wins and a second place, allied with Vettel retiring twice and suffering more reliability woe in Malaysia, has handed him a commanding advantage with four races ...

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Red Bull motorsport chief Helmut Marko says that a decision will be made after the conclusion of the Japanese GP weekend.If Gasly has to race at Suzuka, Toro Rosso faces the challenge of finding a replacement.Gasly has previously suggested that he would prefer to race in Austin, but Honda has made it clear to Red Bull that it wants him to complete his commitments in Japan, where he ...

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Cla#DriverChassisEngineLapsTime/Gap144 Lewis Hamilton MercedesMercedes53 ...

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Hamilton's 61st career win, and his eighth of the season, came as he converted pole into an early lead, while second-placed Vettel began to drop back immediately.There were signs that all was not well with the German driver's car when it was seen on the grid with its engine cover off, as the Ferrari mechanics checked for a potential spark plug problem.Verstappen, who passed Red Bull ...

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The German's world title hopes suffered a fresh blow in the Japanese Grand Prix when he was forced out early on with a spark plug failure.On the back of the double engine problems that Ferrari suffered in Malaysia, after a manifold pipe failed on both cars, the latest technical problem has left its championship hopes in tatters.Although saying that what happened in Japan 'hurt' ...

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The German had qualified on the front row alongside title rival Lewis Hamilton, but there was panic on the grid when Ferrari rushed to check a problem with a spark plug.Although Vettel was able to take the start and ran second early on, it was clear that his car was not working properly as he slipped back from early leader Hamilton.Max Verstappen overtook Vettel for second at the ...

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Sainz was originally on a straight one-year loan from Red Bull, but it was announced on Friday that the Spaniard is to move across to Renault to replace Jolyon Palmer from this month's United States GP onwards.Abiteboul sees Sainz’s arrival as a key part of moving the team forward as it tries to close the gap to the frontrunners, and feels his early arrival can only help accelerate ...

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Just a week on from the German car manufacturer chasing answers as to why it did not have the pace in Sepang, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas led the way in qualifying at Suzuka.Hamilton himself said that the W08 had felt transformed this weekend – as the balance issues that blighted their weekend in Malaysia were gone.“The car is a lot different ...

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Although motor racing's governing body has begun a clampdown on the activity, with teams restricted on the amount that can be burned, there remain big concerns that the area is still being heavily exploited.Furthermore, questions have started being raised about whether F1 can boast environmentally-friendly engine technology if cars are burning more than two litres of oil in a ...

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Alonso qualified inside the top 10 at Suzuka, but will drop to the back of the grid thanks to a 35-place penalty incurred ahead of final practice on Saturday.Honda discovered a hydraulic leak on Alonso's engine after Friday practice and elected to swap the power unit in its entirety rather than attempt a fix.Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne will start ninth, and a grid penalty for ...

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