Japanese GP 2015

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Race Report - Sailing in the window of happiness and light

Podium, Japanese GP 2015
© The Cahier Archive

 

BY DAN KNUTSON IN SUZUKA

The defining moment of the Japanese Grand Prix happened in Turn 2 just after the start. Nico Rosberg had qualified his Mercedes on the pole, but his teammate Lewis Hamilton got alongside him at the start. Heading into Turn 2, Rosberg was on the outside and Hamilton on the inside.

"Pity to lose out at the start and then big battle around Turn 1 and 2 and got very close on the exit of Turn 2 so I had to back out of it there and that lost me the race eventually," Rosberg said.

Hamilton vaulted into first place and Rosberg dropped to fourth.

"I didn't really feel it was particularly that close but the inside line is the inside line," Hamilton said, "so I had my corner and so we were very, very close but I was basically understeering; I was running out of grip. I imagine Nico was running out of road, but that's what happens when you're on the outside."

Rosberg would recover to finish second, but Hamilton now has 277 points to Rosberg's 229 point with five races to go. And Hamilton has now equaled Ayrton Senna's 41 Formula 1 victory total.

"This has been a circuit that I can honestly say that I've struggled at through all the years that I've come here but one that I've loved driving," Hamilton said. "I was able to get the balance in the right place, my engineers did an amazing job, and just the whole crew did a great job to get the car, with the short amount of time we had, in a beautiful window. It was better today than it was even in qualifying.

"I was really able to work on my lines and improve and at the front there it was just a beautiful... it's like sailing. When you go through the corners here, it's flowing. Honestly, I wish I could share the feeling with you.

"Also knowing that this would be the race that I would equal Ayrton, who won here and who had quite an interesting time here. So, yeah, quite an emotional day. But to be honest I'm not a teary guy. I'm just full of joy and happiness and light."

Rosberg could only grin, or grimace, and bear it.

"It was great to fight back to second place, because fourth place would definitely not have been acceptable," he said. "Second was the best possible thing after that, so I was happy with the fight-back and great also for us as a team. To be back up here after Singapore is really awesome."

Sebastian Vettel won in Singapore but could only manage third best in Suzuka in the Ferrari.

"All in all, today there is plenty of reasons to be happy with third place," Vettel said. "At the second round of pit stops, we were surprised by the out-lap that Nico (Rosberg) pulled. I guess we thought the gap was big enough, so you can't say we made a mistake. But in the end it's a bit of a shame when you cross the line; I think that if we could have stayed ahead it would have been difficult for Nico to pass, as around there it is not so easy to get close, and we saw that he struggled a long time with Bottas.

"But we have to accept that Mercedes were just a bit quicker and for this reason they deserved to be ahead. Nevertheless, third and fourth is a great result for the team. We got good points, and it was a strong recovery after a difficult Saturday morning."

And Vettel was just a little bit quicker than his teammate Kimi Raikkonen who crossed the line in fourth place.

"Today we did the maximum we could and, considering where we had started the race from, fourth position is the best we could get," Raikkonen said. "The car was OK and we had the right speed, but on a circuit like this, when you are stuck behind other cars, it's always hard to overtake. We did a good job at the pit stop, managed to jump Bottas on the way out, and chose the right tires at the right time. I don't think we could have done much more. This kind of track is not the best for us right now, but it seems things have worked well today."

Team Williams underperformed in Japan. Valtteri Bottas qualified third but could only finish fifth.

"It was definitively not our day," Bottas said. "I was hoping to fight for a podium finish, especially after running third in the first stint. We really didn't have the pace today. At the beginning of the stints we could go fast but towards the end of the stints we had a bit more tire degradation than our rivals and couldn't really fight anymore: I was trying to defend, but couldn't do it. And then we stopped too late for the last tire change and lost another position."

At least Bottas was in the points. His teammate Felipe Massa ended up 17th after tangling with Daniel Ricciardo just after the start.

"A very tough day for me today right from the first lap," Massa said. "I had a bad start and then had contact with Ricciardo and it took me a long time to get back to the pits. From there it was the end of the race barring any miracle. We have scored some decent points for the constructors' championship with Valtteri's fifth but I had the car to contribute a good haul of points as well. We have to regroup and get those points back at the next race."

By contrast, Nico Hulkenberg had a great race as he went from 13th to sixth.

"I made a really good start and jumped a couple of cars away from the line, and then stayed on the inside going into Turn 1, which turned out to be a good decision," he said. "By Turn 2 I was up in eighth, close up behind the Lotuses and actually they were holding me up during the first stint. The team pitted me early to undercut them and we then out-raced them with our stronger pace. It was a lonely race for me, but effective and the result is very welcome."

It was a welcome finish, too, for the financially beleaguered Lotus team with Romain Grosjean seventh and Pastor Maldonado eighth.

"We finished with both cars in the points so I'm definitely happy with that!" Grosjean said. "When it came to my own race we were a little bit slow against the Force India. We tried to fight Nico Hulkenberg but couldn't. I really struggled with the tyres at the end - it seems the new Pirelli limits hurt us more than our rivals so we'll work around that for the next race."

Toro Rosso drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10.

"The start was good and I was able to overtake Nasr straight away in Sector 1, even though he got me back in the hairpin because I got a bit blocked and I didn't want to take too many risks!" Verstappen said. "That was a shame, because I then got stuck behind him for quite a lot of laps and lost some time with the other cars ahead. But after my first pit-stop I was able to push again until I got stuck behind Kvyat first, then Alonso. But I didn't give up and in the end we were able to end up in front, which is very positive. To go from P17 to P9 at a track like this one is a good result and I'm happy to have scored points again, it was a very good day!"

Sainz commented: "It was a good race until the mistake in the pit entry and I even think it was being one of my best races so far this year. It was a good first stint on the Options and an even better one on the Primes; I was really flying, catching the cars in front. Then it got to the point that it was simply impossible to overtake the Lotus on track, so we decided to go for the undercut.

"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. I therefore lost some time during the pit-stop and if it was already meant to be a final long stint, it became an even longer one behind Perez, who was slow in the corners but fast on the straights.

"I destroyed my tires behind him and in the end it was all about making sure I brought the car back home. The team did a very good job and I'm sure that we would've finished higher than P10 if it hadn't been for my mistake - a rookie error that I will learn from. All in all, I'm pleased with my first Japanese Grand Prix!"

Fernando Alonso certainly was not pleased to finish 11th in Japan in the McLaren Honda.

"I feel embarrassed when I'm racing sometimes because it's frustrating when you see the other cars making mistakes, going off the racing line, getting sideways," Alonso said. "You look in the mirror on the straight to look for them and they are already side by side with you. The deficit we have on power is like another category.

"It's tough to race like this and it's frustrating," he said, "but on the positive side both McLarens finished the race so hopefully we have some useful information from that mileage. Next year we must change a lot of things."

American Alexander Rossi beat his Manor teammate Will Stevens and finished 18th in his second F1 start.

"It was a tough race today but I'm very happy with the outcome," said the Californian. "I struggled a little more in the first stint, but after the first stop everything turned around and my pace was pretty good. I was right on the tail of my teammate throughout the second two stints, and was trying to get past when Will spun.

"Thankfully, I was able to get out of the way, but it was a real heart-in-mouth moment that I'm sure looked every bit as dramatic from outside the cockpit as it did from where I was sitting! All in all, I'm pleased with how things are going after two races and glad we had a good race after a difficult weekend."

Hamilton was certainly pleased with the way his race - sailing in that window of happiness and light - went. And now it is on to Russia for that country's second ever world championship grand prix.