It was another snoozer of a win for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton as he easily won the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix, never being challenged by any other car or driver in the race. His Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas took home second place with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.
The race was over as it begun with Hamilton racing off from pole position to an easy victory, making the other two podium positions the only questions of the day. Bottas held off Verstappen for second place after Verstappen took out both Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in racing incidents – getting penalized for the Raikkonen incident. Raikkonen eventually finished fifth and Vettel sixth.
With the win Hamilton holds a commanding 67-point lead over Vettel in the driver’s championship and can clinch the 2018 world championship with a win at the upcoming USA Grand prix on October 21, 2018.
2018 Japanese Grand Prix Top 10
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:27:17.062
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +12.919 seconds
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +14.295
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull +19.495
5 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +50.998
6 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +69.873
7 Sergio Pérez Force India +79.379
8 Romain Grosjean Haas +87.198
9 Esteban Ocon Force India +88.055
10 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault +1 Lap