EASY WIN FOR LEWIS HAMILTON ON SUZUKA

Lewis Hamilton moved closer to a fifth FIA Formula 1 World Championship title with a dominant Japanese Grand Prix win ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Mx Verstappen. Sebastian Vettel battled back to sixth place at the chequered flag after a collision with Verstappen early in the race dropped him to the rear of the field. The result means that Hamilton will carry a 67-point lead over Vettel to the next race, round 18 of 21, in the USA.

Hamilton held his advantage at the start, moving across the track to cover team-mate Valtteri Bottas and the hard charging Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Behind them, Vettel was on the move. Starting from P8 after a poor qualifying session, the German was soon past the Toro Rossos of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly and then began to close in on fourth-placed team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.

That task was made easier when third-placed Verstappen went wide at the chicane and in rejoining tangled with Räikkönen. While Verstappen stayed third, Räikkönen was slow in returning to the track and Vettel powered past to claim fourth place.

The incident was put under investigation and Verstappen was later handed a five-second time penalty for “leaving the track and not returning safely”.

Further back, Daniel Ricciardo was on the move in the second Red Bull, and when Kevin Magnussen went off track due to a puncture caused in a collision with Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, Ricciardo moved up to 10th place.

Magnussen was able to limp back to the pits, but failing rubber from his rear tyre led to large amounts of debris from his car being spread across the track. As a result the Safety Car was deployed.

When the SC left the track Verstappen again found himself tangling with a Ferrari – only this time it was title contender Vettel. The German attempted an overtaking move into the Spoon curve but Verstappen was already turning in and Vettel hit the side of the Red Bull hard.

The Ferrari driver lost handling of the car and spun, but once again Verstappen was able to carry on in third place. Vettel dropped to P19.

After the Safety Car period Ricciardo continued to make progress, passing Force India’s Sergio Perez, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Haas’ Romain Grosjean sit in P5 on lap 12.

Then, when Räikkönen pitted on lap 17 for medium tyres, the Australian moved to fourth place, 9.5s behind team-mate Verstappen. Verstappen pitted on lap 21 and after taking on a set of soft tyres rejoined just ahead of Raikkonen who then found himself bottled up behind Grosjean.

Räikkönen’s delay prompted a pit stop from Ricciardo and he succeeded in jumping the Ferrari, rejoining in fourth place.

Further back, Vettel pitted from P10 on lap 26 for soft tyres. He emerged in P16 and was soon back into the points positions. On lap 33 he made his way past Grosjean to claim sixth place but with 40 seconds to make up to fifth-placed Räikkönen, his progress ended there.

At the front, Hamilton was in command and after 53 laps, the Briton powered over the line to claim his ninth win of the season and as 67-point championship lead over Vettel, with four rounds remaining. Bottas held on to second place, whiel Verstappen took his seventh podium finish of the campaign with third place ahead of team-mate Ricciardo.

The Ferraris of Räikkönen and Vettel were fifth and sixth respectively, while Sergio Perez was seventh for Force India ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean and the second Force India of Esteban Ocon. The final point on offer was taken by Renault’s Carlos Sainz.

Japanese Grand Prix – Suzuka 53 laps, 308.965km., Weather: Sunny.
CLASSIFIED:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Мерцедес АМГ	1h27:17.062
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Мерцедес АМГ	+ 12.919
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 14.295
4.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	+ 19.495
5.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+ 50.998
6.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	+ 1:09.379
7.	Sergio Perez	Force India	+ 1:19.390
8.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	+ 1:27.198
9.	Esteban Ocon	Force India	+ 1:28.055
10.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	+ 1 lap
11.	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	+ 1 lap
12.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	+ 1 lap
13.	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	+ 1 lap
14.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	+ 1 lap
15.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	+ 1 lap
16.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	+ 1 lap
17.	Lance Stroll	Williams	+ 1 lap
FASTEST LAP: SEBASTIAN VETTEL - 1:32.318
NOT CLASSIFIED:
18.	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	techical
19.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	techical
20.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	techical
2014 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h51:43.021 2015 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h28:06.508 2016 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1h26:43.333 2017 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h27:31.194 2018 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h27:17.062 @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia

***AFTER 17 RACES***
DRIVERS:
1.	Lewis Hamilton	331
2.	Себастијан Ветел	264
3.	Valtteri Bottas	207
4.	Kimi Raikkonen	196
5.	Max Verstappen	173
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	146
7.	Sergio Perez	53
8.	Kevin Magnussen	53
9.	Nico Hulkenberg	53
10.	Fernando Alonso	50
11.	Esteban Ocon	49
12.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	39
13.	Romain Grosjean	31
14.	Pierre Gasly	28
15.	Charles Leclerc	21
16.	Stoffel Vandoorne	8
17.	Lance Stroll	6
18.	Marcus Ericsson	6
19.	Brendon Hartley	2
20.	Sergey Sirotkin	1
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	538
2.	Ferrari	460
3.	Red Bull	319
4.	Renault	92
5.	Haas	84
6.	McLaren	58
7.	Force India(new owner)	43
8.	Toro Rosso	30
9.	Sauber	27
10.	Williams	7
DQ	Force India(old owner)	52