Who starred at Suzuka and who suffered during an intense Japanese GP on Sunday morning...
Monday 2 November 2015 15:42, UK
Once again, Lewis Hamilton has one hand on the world championship after a resounding and crushing defeat of his nearest title rival at Suzuka.
Hamilton's muscular, no-prisoners-taken move on Nico Rosberg around the second corner, verging on the rude but just about within the limits of reasonable racing etiquette against a team-mate, was the race's defining act.
Had it ended badly, either on track or in the stewards' office, then Hamilton's bid to retain his title would have been plunged into genuine jeopardy. But he made it stick, knowing exactly how far he could push it - and knowing perhaps, exactly how far he could push Nico too.
Hamilton settled into cruise control thereafter, the size of his winning margin exaggerated by the strife Rosberg was left to deal with after falling to fourth on the first lap. But if there was any doubt about the magnitude of Hamilton's superiority then consider this: the fastest lap set by the world champion wasn't merely a second quicker than his team-mate or any other driver in the field could manage, but was recorded when he was running on the slower of the two tyre compounds available for the race…
Rating out of ten: 9
It's 2015's groundhog: Another day to forget for Nico Rosberg. "It was a tough race," admitted the German afterwards. And his struggles didn't end on the track: the Mercedes driver was on the receiving end of a verbal jest from Sebastian Vettel about the tyre pressures being low on his car which fell horribly flat when the Ferrari driver belatedly realised Rosberg wasn't in the mood for laughs. "I'm joking," implored Sebastian. "It was a joke - you can laugh as well." He couldn't - and didn't.
Harsher commentators might speculate that the joke is now on Rosberg's title chances just a week after they were rekindled in Singapore. This defeat stung - and it showed.
Rating out of ten: 6
The only mistake Sebastian Vettel made this weekend was pitting a lap too late midway through the race - a strategic mistake which could hardly be attributed to the driver, of course - when he was undercut by Rosberg for second place. "I thought we were safe," admitted Vettel, who only followed Rosberg into the pits after team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had also taken on a new set of tyres for his own successful undercut on Valtteri Bottas.
Vettel and Rosberg's respective end-of-race pace suggested that had he maintained track position then the Ferrari driver would have been able to hang on for second place. But as he also remarked on Sunday night, "with hindsight it's always easy". Vettel's phlegmatic response also spoke of a driver already resigned to his fate this year. A championship bid in earnest will have to wait until 2016.
Rating out of ten: 8
If the Mercedes hierarchy were concerned about their curious lack of air-time across the Japanese GP weekend, they can console themselves with the thought that they were attention-hoggers compared to Kimi Raikkonen. Once again, the Finn was conspicuous by his absence in Suzuka, a distant second best to Vettel all weekend - a tenth down in qualifying and 13 seconds behind his team-mate at the chequered flag. The Iceman needs to find some fire in his belly again.
Rating out of ten: 6
Powerless to prevent Raikkonen getting the jump on him even after Williams rolled the dice early for their own Finn's first pit-stop, Valtteri Bottas' race made for a lonely and rather uneventful afternoon after the heady heights of third in qualifying. Fifth at the chequered flag represented something of a disappointment, therefore, as no driver enjoys going backwards on race day. But Valtteri will have departed Suzuka pleased with his week's work: in the space of seven days he has delivered two important and reputationally-restorative defeats of team-mate Felipe Massa in qualifying and claimed 20 points to the Brazilian's nil to comprehensively overtake the veteran in the standings.
Rating out of ten: 7
Even if his result owed much to the first-lap demise of Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg's sixth place at Suzuka was arguably the result of the day. Starting from 13th, Hulkenberg's recovery delivered a useful haul of points and, just as importantly, halted the momentum that Force India team-mate Sergio Perez had been building up with his recent resurgence. Their battle for internal supremacy promises to go right to the wire: with five races remaining, just a point currently separates Perez and Hulkenberg in the Drivers' Championship.
Rating out of ten: 8
With Hulkenberg a little too fast for his Lotus, seventh was as much as Romain Grosjean could have extracted from Sunday's race. "We tried to fight Hulkenberg but couldn't," the Frenchman reported. "I really struggled with the tyres at the end - it seems the new Pirelli limits hurt us more than our rivals." Grosjean continues to refer to Lotus as 'we' but a parting of the ways is imminent. It's a racing certainty that Grosjean will be named a Haas driver on Tuesday as he continues to tot up the air miles and strives to plot a route into a car worthy of his under-rated talents. His lap in qualifying, when he bettered his team-mate by half a second, was an extraordinary effort.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
Yes, it actually happened: Pastor Maldonado really did enjoy a clean and productive race, scoring points and keeping his nose clean throughout. True, he was no match for team-mate Grosjean, but one step at a time...
Rating out of ten: 7
Another race, another points-score for Max Verstappen - and achieved with another hard-charging performance. Both Verstappen and Carlos Sainz said they were happy with their races afterwards but there's no doubt that the 17-year-old will be the happier after starting 17th on the grid. Sainz might hold the edge in qualifying but it's his team-mate - Verstappen now has 32 points to Sainz's 12 - who's showing the way on race day.
And how. Verstappen again produced one of the day's most memorable moments by passing Fernando Alonso around the outside into Turn One, prompting one of the McLaren-Honda driver's outbursts. Alonso is twice Max's age; the times, they are a' changin'.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
An 'almost but not quite' race for Carlos Sainz with the young Spaniard furious with himself for whacking a bollard at the pitlane entry - "a rookie error" in his own self-critical rebuke - before his second and final stop. Not only did the mistake cost Carlos a likely eighth place but it also undid all the good work he had performed in what had been, until then, an outstanding display.
"The team told me to do the opposite to Maldonado, and it looked like he was going to pit so I was meant to stay out on track, but he suddenly continued on track and I was so aggressive on the turn into the pit entry that I hit the bollard and damaged my front wing," said a disappointed Sainz. But with so much credit in the bank, including an 8-5 defeat of Verstappen in qualifying this term, he can be forgiven for his first major mistake of the year.
Rating out of ten: 7
And the rest...
While Fernando Alonso's disparaging comments of his McLaren-Honda package over team radio, including the memorable description of his V6 unit being equivalent to a "GP2 engine", proved to be the dominant post-race talking point, it was the audible yelp of anger from the Spaniard at the conclusion of one of his outbursts that lingered in the memory. Ron Dennis frequently refers to Alonso as a 'competitive animal' and here, literally, was the audible evidence. The pain and hurt of being so far off the pace sounded like agony.
Rating out of ten: 6
A difficult and dramatic weekend for Daniil Kvyat finished without any points as he battled from a pitlane start to finish 13th. Despite having a new car built overnight, the Russian was forced to battle unreliability throughout the race, nursing his Renault engine to the flag and also battling brake problems. On another day a driver may have parked the car and Kvyat's frustration was evident when he swore at the team on the radio.
Rating out of ten: 5
Just when it all seemed to be going so well…Sergio Perez's race was defined by its first few seconds: swerving to avoid Felipe Massa, he was hit by Sainz, took to the gravel at Turn One, suffered a puncture and dropped to the back of the field, ending his impressive run of points finishes since the summer break. At least the Mexican can take heart from the fact it was wasn't his fault. But Hulkenberg's sixth place showed what might have been.
Rating out of ten: 6
Although the end-of-race classification recorded Daniel Ricciardo as finishing the Japanese GP in 15th position, one lap down on the leaders, the Red Bull driver's grand prix effectively ended at the first corner of the first lap when his car was punctured in a clash with Felipe Massa. After a lap spent trundling around the track shedding rubber, Ricciardo rejoined the fray a lap down and waiting on a Safety Car that never came.
Rating out of ten: 6
A quiet race for Marcus Ericsson as Sauber proved to be a long way off the pace at Suzuka. The Swede struggled with the Spoon curve throughout the weekend and duly spun there during the race. Still, despite that lack of pace, Ericsson did at least put up a good defensive display to keep quicker cars behind - much to the frustration of Jenson Button, who highlighted the Sauber driver as a nightmare to pass in his post-race interview.
Rating out of ten: 5
Much like with Ricciardo, Felipe Massa's race came an irretrievable cropper in the opening exchanges when the Williams clipped the rear of the Red Bull. After his race-wrecking clash with Hulkenberg in Singapore last Sunday, it's been a week to instantly forget for the Brazilian.
Rating out of ten: 5
Another nightmare events for Jenson Button who was left unable to challenge due to the lack of performance from his Honda power unit. In fact, only two cars recorded slower times in the fastest laps chart, and both of them were called Manors. As Button admitted himself after the race: "We were racing cars, although I think they were just being held up by us."
Rating out of ten: 5
Both Manors finished multiple laps down on the victorious Hamilton but at least their race wasn't without incident with Alex Rossi spectacularly emerging from the vast plume of smoke which was billowing out from the back of his team-mate's car after Will Stevens had spun. Was it a mistake that the Englishman was pressurised into making with the American just behind him on the road? The result in any case was an internal race-day victory for Rossi to cap a solid start to his stint at Manor.
Rating out of ten: N/A
Retired: Felipe Nasr, Sauber.
Don't miss the F1 Midweek Report on Wednesday night at 8.30pm when Ted Kravitz and David Brabham join Natalie Pinkham to discuss the Japanese GP
