Lewis Hamilton has won the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix after leading the race from start to finish, whilst Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas came home in second place, making it Mercedes' second successive 1-2. Max Verstappen of Red Bull meanwhile completed the podium.
At the start, Hamilton got away well from pole and led going into turn 1, with Bottas in second and Verstappen in third. Sebastian Vettel made a very good start from eighth place and by around half the lap he was up in fifth place. At the end of lap 1, Verstappen suffered a lock-up and seemed to cut the chicane. He defended quite strongly from Kimi Raikkonen, and made some contact with the Finn, which although did not cost Verstappen any positions on track, it did cost Raikkonen as it enabled Vettel to take fourth place. The incident was investigated, and Verstappen was given a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and not rejoining safely.
Meanwhile, on lap 2, slightly further back, Charles Leclerc ended up running into the back of Kevin Magnusseen whilst trying to overtake him, and as a result Magnussen suffered a left-rear puncture, whilst Leclerc inevitably suffered front-wing damage. Due to the debris that there was on the track from Magnussen's puncture, the Safety Car (SC) was deployed. The incident between the two drivers was investigated, but no further action was taken, whilst Magnussen then retired with damage on lap 9.
The SC came in at the end of lap 7, and Hamilton controlled the re-start beautifully, with Bottas behind followed by Verstappen. On lap 8, Vettel attempted to overtake Verstappen at Spoon corner in what was an absolutely senseless move to make, firstly as Verstappen was on the racing line, and secondly Verstappen had a 5-second time penalty, so Vettel did not need to go for it straight away. Arguably this move once again highlighted a key weakness of Vettel - he makes too many mistakes when he's under pressure and his racecraft is very questionable. This is also arguably the sixth race this season where he has made an error, namely in Baku where he locked up attempting to overtake Bottas after a SC restart, France where he ran into the back of Bottas at the start, Germany where he went off the track and hit the wall in damp conditions whilst leading the race, Monza where he understeered into the side of Hamilton in trying to defend his position and ended up getting spun round, and of course today. The incident was investigated, but as is always the case with Vettel for some reason, he got away with no penalty. As a result of the incident, he dropped all the way down to 19th place.
Raikkonen was the first of the frontrunners to pit on lap 17, and he switched onto the medium tyres. He re-emerged on track in ninth place, and this cost him time since he had to get back past a few cars. As a result of this time loss and all the overtaking he had to make, Verstappen, who himself pitted on lap 22, was able to serve his 5-second time penalty and re-emerge ahead of Raikkonen, and just to add insult to injury for Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo, who himself pitted on lap 24, also managed to re-emerge ahead of the Ferrari driver. Bottas himself pitted on the same lap as Ricciardo, and re-emerged comfortably ahead of Verstappen, whilst Hamilton re-emerged in the lead after himself pitting on the following lap. At this point, the top 5 were: Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Raikkonen. Vettel pitted on lap 28 for a set of the soft tyres, and dropped down to 16th place.
Nico Hulkenberg retired with a car problem, and on lap 39 Leclerc ran into the gravel at the Degner corner with seemingly a problem on his car. Through a combination of other people pitting, and him overtaking, Vettel managed to move up into sixth place, and he managed to set the fastest lap.
However, up at the front, there was just no stopping Lewis Hamilton who crossed the line to take his 71st career victory, and 45th from pole position. Bottas crossed the line in second, 12.919 seconds behind, with Verstappen in third a further 1.376s behind.
If, one of the following outcomes occurs at the next race, then Hamilton will be the 2018 World Champion: (i) Hamilton wins, and Vettel fails to finish second
(ii) Hamilton finishes second, and Vettel finishes fifth or lower, as, although Vettel would be able to finish equal on points if he were to win the other 3 remaining races, Hamilton would still be World Champion by virtue of having won more races
(iii) Hamilton finishes third, and Vettel finishes seventh or lower
(iv) Hamilton finishes fourth, and Vettel finishes eighth or lower, with the same situation like in (ii) regarding finishing level on points
(v) Hamilton finishes fifth, and Vettel finishes ninth or lower, with the same situation like in (ii) and (iv) regarding finishing level on points
(vi) Hamilton finishes sixth, and Vettel fails to score any points, with the same situation like in (ii), (iv) and (v)
Classification:
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Sergio Perez - Racing Point Force India-Mercedes
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Esteban Ocon - Racing Point Force India-Mercedes
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault
Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Did not finish the race and not classified: Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen
World Championship classification:
Lewis Hamilton - 331 points
Sebastian Vettel - 264 points
Valtteri Bottas - 207 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 196 points
Max Verstappen - 173 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 146 points
Sergio Perez - 53 points
Kevin Magnussen - 53 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 53 points
Fernando Alonso - 50 points
Esteban Ocon - 49 points
Carlos Sainz - 39 points
Romain Grosjean - 31 points
Pierre Gasly - 28 points
Charles Leclerc - 21 points
Stoffel Vandoorne - 8 points
Lance Stroll - 6 points
Marcus Ericsson - 6 points
Brendon Hartley - 2 points
Sergey Sirotkin - 1 point
Constructors' Championship classification:
Mercedes - 538 points
Ferrari - 460 points
Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 319 points
Renault - 92 points
Haas-Ferrari - 84 points
McLaren-Renault - 58 points
Racing Point Force India-Mercedes - 43 points
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda - 30 points
Sauber-Ferrari - 27 points
Williams-Mercedes - 7 points