Lewis Hamilton extended his advantage in the Formula 1 championship with an emphatic victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, as Sebastian Vettel’s slender title hopes reduced further.
Hamilton sealed a dominant weekend with a controlled win in hot and sunny conditions at Suzuka, leading home Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas for a 1-2 finish.
It marked Hamilton’s fourth win in a row, and six in the course of just seven Grands Prix.
It enabled him to extend his title advantage over Vettel to 67 points, as the Ferrari driver clashed with Max Verstappen and came home only sixth.
Vettel had leapt from eighth to fifth through the opening lap, passing both Toro Rosso drivers and Romain Grosjean, and moved into fourth when Verstappen forced Kimi Raikkonen wide at the chicane.
Verstappen was handed a five-second time penalty for that incident, and came under pressure from Vettel following an early Safety Car period, which was caused by tyre debris that had been left by contact between Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc.
Vettel swarmed over Verstappen at the restart and made a lunge into Spoon Curve, resulting in contact between the two drivers.
Vettel spun through the run-off and re-joined at the rear of the pack as Verstappen retained third; stewards investigated the clash but deemed no further action necessary.
Verstappen kept hold of third and used his Soft tyres post-stop to close in on Medium-shod Bottas, who re-built a two-second buffer, only to go wide into the chicane.
That drew Verstappen closer to Bottas once more, but the Finn stayed ahead to seal a second 1-2 finish in the course of just seven days for Mercedes.
Verstappen nonetheless finished on the podium for the third straight year in Japan, while Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo made rapid gains early on to secure fourth spot from 15th on the grid.
Raikkonen, having been cast wide by Verstappen, dropped behind Ricciardo through the pit stop phase and was thus left adrift in fifth spot, over half a minute behind Ricciardo, and a substantial way ahead of team-mate Vettel.
Vettel’s title aspirations are now hanging by a thread, and he must avoid the 67-point gap growing to 75 at the next round in Austin, else Hamilton will be crowned champion.
Romain Grosjean initially led the midfield battle, as he did in qualifying, having narrowly stayed ahead of the battling Sergio Perez and Leclerc when he came out of the pits.
But Perez went around the outside of his rival into the chicane to pick up seventh to spearhead the midfield scrap for Force India.
Grosjean stayed ahead of the other Force India of Esteban Ocon to collect eighth position, while Toro Rosso’s sixth and seventh on the grid did not result in any points.
Pierre Gasly slipped to the foot of the top 10 and relinquished that position when Carlos Sainz Jr. swept past with three laps to go.
Brendon Hartley, meanwhile, lost ground on the opening lap and came home in 13th place, marking a disappointing conclusion to an encouraging weekend on power unit supplier Honda’s home ground.
The Toro Rosso pair were split by Marcus Ericsson, who made gains from the back to score 12th, having earlier brushed team-mate Leclerc at the restart.
McLaren’s miserable spell continued as Fernando Alonso was penalised for cutting the chicane on the opening lap, following a clash with Lance Stroll, for which the Canadian was sanctioned.
Alonso took 14th, in front of McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, while Stroll dropped to 17th, behind Williams counterpart Sergey Sirotkin.
Leclerc’s day came to an early end when “something broke” as he rounded Degner 1 on lap 40 and he went through the gravel, before coasting to a halt shortly after.
Nico Hulkenberg was never in contention for points and brought his dismal weekend to a premature conclusion when he pitted due to a problem with the rear of his R.S.18.
Magnussen was the other retirement in the wake of the early clash with Leclerc that left him with a puncture.
Austin’s Circuit of the Americas will host the next round of the season from October 19 to 21
