Winners and Losers - Japan

The Winners

Hamilton and Mercedes turn it around

Prior to the Japanese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton had described his Mercedes as capricious, a diva and stubborn. But at Suzuka it performed like a lady throughout.

After the tribulations of Malaysia, this weekend Mercedes got their set-up pretty much spot-on from the start, despite the disjointed nature of the three practice sessions, and to the team’s huge relief their latest aero upgrade could be made to work well here.

“It got close towards the end,” Lewis revealed as he looked back on his 61st career victory and his eighth of the season. As usual, he had made it look relatively easy, but as ever he’d had to work for this one.

While the F1 W08 had the advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull on the supersoft Pirelli tyres on which both started, that swung in the Milton Keynes team’s cars’ favour when they switched to softs on laps 21 and 22.

“I had a comfortable gap to the pit stop, then Max did the undercut and gained time stopping before me,” Hamilton said. “I took it easy on my out lap, he closed the gap to 1.2s before I got it out to three and was controlling the pace, but the second VSC [Virtual Safety Car] lost me a lot of temperature in the tyres and waking them up wasn’t easy, so I was losing so much time. His car was so big in my mirrors! Once I got by Fernando (Alonso) and then Felipe (Massa) it was okay, but it wasn’t any easy walk in the park, we had to work very hard.”

Reviewing his huge points lead – big enough that he could clinch the title next time out in Austin – he put it down to the team.

“I could only have dreamed of having this kind of gap. Ferrari has put on such a great challenge all year long. All I can really say is that I have to put it down to my team. They’ve done a phenomenal job, reliability has really been on point. They are just so meticulous and that’s really why we have the reliability we have and the results we have been having.”

The Red Bull run continues…

If you look at how Red Bull started the year, their recent results are indication of huge progress. They were in the hunt all afternoon in Suzuka, and second and third brought another big haul of points and their first 'double' double since 2013.

“The start for me was very crucial,” runner-up Max Verstappen said. “From there on I could basically do my own race. Once I got past Seb (Vettel) in the Hairpin, the first stint was all right. I think Lewis was just a little bit faster and then after the pit stop we had great balance on the soft tyres and I just managed to keep the gap around 2.5-3s. I didn’t want to close-up more because then you destroy the front tyres.

In the end, he and Hamilton were separated by only 1.2s, but at one stage the gap had been a lot smaller than that.

“I think the car lately in the race has been really competitive. We have a bit more wing, so we are quite competitive through the corners. Of course, then on the straight we have an even bigger deficit than normal but it seems to work for us in the races so far. Of course I’m happy to be here on the podium again. It seems like Suzuka is pretty good to me.”

…with mission accomplished for Ricciardo

Having lost out to his team mate at the start, Daniel Ricciardo hung on to get the Suzuka podium he’s always wanted, resisting heavy attack late in the race from Valtteri Bottas who had started his Mercedes on softs and switched late to supersofts and was less than a second behind at the flag.

“The race was pretty lonely after the start,” Ricciardo admitted. “And then it was a little bit like last week, I lost touch with Max and Lewis and then it was just trying to do my pace. It was a bit lonely and then actually Valtteri coming at the end actually made it a bit more exciting for me. But for sure I’m happy to be on the podium. I said from the start of the weekend I wanted my first Suzuka podium, and I got it.”

Ricciardo now has nine podiums in 2017 - the most he's scored in a single season in his career.

Sainz’s unfortunate farewell

After the news that he would, after all, be joining Renault before the season was over, Carlos Sainz really wanted to go out with a bang in his last race for Toro Rosso. But not literally. Instead, he clobbered the wall at Turn 7 on the opening lap, and that was it.

“This wasn’t the way I wanted to end my time with Toro Rosso, that’s for sure!” he rued. “I’d like to say sorry to the whole team for retiring on the first lap. I was trying to risk everything at the start to try and gain some positions, so I went around the outside at Turn 6 and I found a lot more dust on the track than I was expecting, and lost it; as simple as that.

“It’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to finishing on a high here in Suzuka with the team. But these three years here have been absolutely amazing – it’s been an ideal preparation for me; the driver I am today, compared to the driver I was in 2015, is a more complete and better one, and this is thanks to Toro Rosso.”

Sainz, who has racked up the second-most starts in Toro Rosso's history, leaves the Italian team as their all-time record points scorer.