After a brief one race respite that held the promise of giving us some competitive races for the remaining Formula One year, the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix returned everybody to the sleep-inducing, mind-numbing reality that is the Mercedes domination. Unlike last week’s 2015 Singapore Grand Prix, where both Mercedes were put under pressure from the beginning of the race, both Mercedes this time held the top two spots in the front row and with no Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel to pester him, that was all defending champion Lewis Hamilton needed as he bolted out of the starting gates, beating out his teammate and pole-position holder, Nico Rosberg, for the lead on the first lap.
As has been the case this year in Formula One races, whoever gets out to the lead on the first lap generally holds that lead throughout the entire race, so the race field did not see much of Hamilton again – nor did the television audience as NBCSN did not bother to cover much of the podium positions during the race – as he gradually extended his lead in eventually easily winning the race. The race for second was mildly more exciting as Hamilton pushed his teammate Rosberg wide on the first turn allowing the unthinkable to happen –Vettel to squeeze through for second – and that meant Rosberg spent most of the race trying to figure out how to get past the slower Ferrari with the cagey, block-master Vettel at the wheel. Rosberg never could pass Vettel on the track but he was able to take advantage of a Ferrari pit-timing miscalculation to pass Vettel just as he exited the pits and Vettel did not have the power to mount a challenge for the remainder of the race – giving us the all-too-familiar Hamilton-Rosberg-Vettel finish that has happened four times now this year.
For the others in the race, there was minor drama. Beginning on the first lap, Red Bull’s non-Sumo wrestling Daniel Ricciardo tried a cheeky middle pass of Williams’ Felipe Massa that only succeeded in creating tire punctures for both him and Massa and forcing out wide Force India’s Sergio Perez, who also suffered a tire puncture. The trio had to limp around the track with their flattened tires and all went a lap or more down and spent the remainder of the race fighting back to get that lap back. While more than half the field was lapped by Hamilton, there was only one retirement [Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, late in the race] and American Alexander Rossi – starting his second Formula One race ever – continued to impress, deftly avoiding a late race spinout from his teammate Will Stevens and improving his starting position from 20th and last to a final 18th in the underpowered Manor/Marussia car.
With the results, Hamilton pads his overall lead in the 2015 Formula One points standings with 277 points to Rosberg’s 229 points and Vettel in third with 218 points.
The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi at 4 a.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on October 11, 2015.
2015 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
POS. DRIVER COUNTRY TEAM TIME POINTS
1 LEWIS HAMILTON GBR MERCEDES 1:28:06.508 25
2 NICO ROSBERG GER MERCEDES +18.964s 18
3 SEBASTIAN VETTEL GER FERRARI +20.850s 15
4 KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN FIN FERRARI +33.768s 12
5 VALTTERI BOTTAS FIN WILLIAMS +36.746s 10
6 NICO HULKENBERG GER FORCE INDIA +55.559s 8
7 ROMAIN GROSJEAN FRA LOTUS +72.298s 6
8 PASTOR MALDONADO VEN LOTUS +73.575s 4
9 MAX VERSTAPPEN NED TORO ROSSO +95.315s 2
10 CARLOS SAINZ ESP TORO ROSSO +1 lap 1
11 FERNANDO ALONSO ESP MCLAREN +1 lap 0
12 SERGIO PEREZ MEX FORCE INDIA +1 lap 0
13 DANIIL KVYAT RUS RED BULL RACING +1 lap 0
14 MARCUS ERICSSON SWE SAUBER +1 lap 0
15 DANIEL RICCIARDO AUS RED BULL RACING +1 lap 0
16 JENSON BUTTON GBR MCLAREN +1 lap 0
17 FELIPE MASSA BRA WILLIAMS +2 laps 0
18 ALEXANDER ROSSI USA MARUSSIA +2 laps 0
19 WILL STEVENS GBR MARUSSIA +3 laps 0
20 FELIPE NASR BRA SAUBER DNF 0