Title race swings in Hamilton’s favour

What you need to know:

  • The four-time world champion was however 40 seconds behind Raikkonen, and it would have been a stretch to have team orders come into play.
  • Eleven laps from the finish, Verstappen, who was on soft tyres, caught up with Bottas, who was on the medium compound. Whenever Bottas would get to traffic, Verstappen would close the gap and get within DRS range.
  • Bottas, however, just had enough to keep the Dutchman at bay.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took one small step ahead of his title rival, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, in beating him by 0.467 seconds to set the fastest lap of the race at Suzuka on the penultimate lap, and one giant leap backwards in the race for the championship by picking up only eight points after finishing sixth against Hamilton’s 25.

Vettel’s finish was an improvement of two positions compared to his starting point, but it is at Suzuka that the German is likely to have felt the 2018 title slip off his hands.

Hamilton was on course to execute the Grand Slam, that is, being on pole, setting the fastest lap of the race and winning by leading every lap of the race, before Vettel spoilt the party.

It’s the tiniest of consolations for Vettel who had managed to rise from eighth to fourth position in the first lap, and had only the Red Bull of Max Verstappen separating him from the Mercedes pair.

Hamilton had managed to start well, keeping his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, at bay, and crucially, the pair also managed to keep Verstappen well behind them. Conspiracy theorists could say that the Dutchman was ‘sent’ to ruin Ferrari’s day.

First, Verstappen came into contact with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen while rejoining the track after overshooting a chicane. The collision gifted Vettel a single position and put him right behind Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver, who celebrated his 21st birthday a week earlier, was given a five-second penalty for forcing Raikkonen off the track. Vettel was given this information.

TRICKY POSITION

It is a tricky proposition to try and pass Verstappen without executing the cleanest of moves. Even if Vettel knew this, he chose to ignore it for on the eighth lap, the German attempted to pass Verstappen at the fast Spoon Curve.

It’s a decision he will live to rue whenever he remembers the 2018 season for what followed next.

He collided with Verstappen, and spun, while the Dutchman maintained position by going into the run-off and then back on track. The German, who was hoping to close the 50-point gap between him and Hamilton, suddenly found himself at the back of the field.

Worse, stewards said they were taking a look at the incident between the Ferrari and the Red Bull.

On the 13th lap, Hamilton reported “hesitations” from his car but his team had no indications of anything untoward. Meanwhile, Vettel was making his way up the field.

He passed the Sauber of Charles Leclerc, his future teammate, on the 15th lap. It seemed more of Leclerc letting him pass than battling to retain position. So far down the track was Vettel that when his teammate, Raikkonen, pitted on the 17th lap, he rejoined in 10th position, still three positions ahead of the German.

Verstappen pitted on the 21st lap. Two laps later, his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo followed Bottas into the pits. Stewards announced that no further action would be taken against Vettel for his earlier collision with Verstappen.

There is only so much that a driver and a team can take while chasing the championship, and when week after week, things seem to be going so badly for them. Perhaps the stewards leaned heavily on that opinion in restraining themselves from further punishing Vettel. The German went in for fresh tyres on the 26th lap, while in tenth position.

At the front, Hamilton was comfortably leading and soon after the halfway point of the race, overtook Vettel in the total number of laps led in 2018. Vettel went about painstakingly recovering positions until he got behind his teammate.

The four-time world champion was however 40 seconds behind Raikkonen, and it would have been a stretch to have team orders come into play.

Eleven laps from the finish, Verstappen, who was on soft tyres, caught up with Bottas, who was on the medium compound. Whenever Bottas would get to traffic, Verstappen would close the gap and get within DRS range.

Bottas, however, just had enough to keep the Dutchman at bay.

Even when Bottas locked up with 10 laps to go while approaching McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Verstappen was still unable to take advantage. Bottas made an error with five laps remaining, but yet again, he was able to lean on Mercedes power to keep him ahead.

Hamilton did not need to push towards the finish line as he had a lead of more than 10 seconds against him teammate with three laps to go, yet still set the fastest lap of the race two laps from the chequered flag.

The Briton’s win at Suzuka has put him 67 points adrift of Vettel with four races remaining. The permutations on how Vettel can recover from this blow to win the championship are scary to ponder.