After Typhoon Hagibis cleared out of Japan, the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix could finally get underway and that was good news for Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas as Bottas took advantage of a poor start by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and led the race from start to finish with Vettel settling for second and Bottas’ Mercedes teammate and defending Formula One champion, Lewis Hamilton, claiming the third and final podium position.
Typhoon Hagibis forced qualifying to be delayed until four hours before the official race start and Vettel and his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc claimed the first row for Ferrari, followed by the Mercedes duo of Bottas and Hamilton in the second row and then the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon in the third row. In other words, all the usual suspects in the first three rows.
Vettel got off to a poor start and Bottas immediately took advantage by swerving around the Ferrari while chaos ensued behind them and when Verstappen made a questionable decision and attempted a pass of Leclerc [at the first corner where there is a low success rate of passes], the inevitable happened as the two cars bumped and Verstappen was sent sliding off into the grass. Fifteen laps later, Verstappen was out of the race and Leclerc sustained damage to his wing that dropped him out of podium contention. From there, the race settled down and Bottas easily held off Vettel who barely edged Hamilton.
With the victory, Mercedes clinched the constructors’ championship for the season. Hamilton continues to lead the driver’s standings with 338 points to 274 for Bottas and 223 for Leclerc while Vettel and Verstappen are tied for fourth with 212 points apiece.
2019 Japanese Grand Prix Top 10
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:21:46.755
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +13.343 seconds
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +13.858
4 Alexander Albon Red Bull +59.537
5 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren +69.101
6 Daniel Ricciardo Renault +1 Lap
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1 Lap
8 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso +1 Lap
9 Sergio Pérez Racing Point +1 Lap
10 Nico Hülkenberg Renault+1 Lap