2016 JAPANESE GP: ROSBERG WINS, TRIPLE CONSTRUCTOR TITLE FOR MERCEDES AMG SECURED

The Japanese Grand Prix lived up to its action-packed reputation, with plenty of overtaking and a wide variety of tyre strategies at work. Nico Rosberg won the race after making a perfect start from pole and resisting attempts by the Red Bull drivers to ‘undercut’ him by making their first pit stops early.

The other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton stayed out slightly longer to gain track position, eventually finishing third after slipping down to eighth following a poor start. At the final pit stops he got past Vettel, who ran the soft tyres for his final stint. Hamilton used the extra durability of the hard tyres to challenge Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for second in the closing stages, setting up an unpredictable finale.

Not everybody followed the two-stop strategy though, Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa stopped only once and both finished in the points. Both Renaults and Saubers also stopped only once. All three tyre compounds were seen at the start of the race, with the top 10 all starting on softs, while the one-stoppers began on either the medium or the hard tyre. Force India was the only team to use all three compounds during the race.

2016 Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka
53 laps, 308.965km., Weather: Dry/Clouds.
CLASSIFIED:
 P.    DRIVER            TEAM        TIME/GAP 
 1. Nico Rosberg      Mercedes AMG 1h26:43.333
 2. Max Verstappen    Red Bull      +    4.978
 3. Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes AMG  +    5.776
 4. Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari       +   20.269
 5. Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari       +   28.370
 6. Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull      +   33.941
 7. Sergio Perez      Force India   +   57.495
 8. Nico Hulkenberg   Force India   +   59.177
 9. Felipe Massa      Williams      + 1:37.763
10. Valtteri Bottas   Williams      + 1:38.323
11. Romain Grosjean   Haas          + 1:39.254
12. Jolyon Palmer     Renault       +    1 lap
13. Daniil Kvyat      Toro Rosso    +    1 lap
14. Kevin Magnussen   Renault       +    1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson   Sauber        +    1 lap
16. Fernando Alonso   McLaren       +    1 lap
17. Carlos Sainz JR.  Toro Rosso    +    1 lap
18. Jenson Button     McLaren       +    1 lap
19. Felipe Nasr       Sauber        +    1 lap
20. Esteban Gutierrez Haas          +    1 lap
21. Esteban Ocon      Manor         +    1 lap
22. Pascal Wehrlein   Manor         +    1 lap

2014 L.Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h51:43.021
2015 L.Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h28:06.508

Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel - 1:35.118      

NOT CLASSIFIED:
all cars finished the race

After 17/21 Races:
 Drivers:                  Construcotrs:      
 1. Nico Rosberg     313   1. Mercedes AMG 593
 2. Lewis Hamilton   280   2. Red Bull     385
 3. Daniel Ricciardo 212   3. Ferrari      335
 4. Kimi Raikkonen   170   4. Force India  134
 5. Max Verstappen   165   5. Williams     124
 6. Sebastian Vettel 165   6. McLaren       62
 7. Valtteri Bottas   81   7. Toro Rosso    47
 8. Sergio Perez      80   8. Haas          28
 9. Nico Hulkenberg   54   9. Renault        8
10. Felipe Massa      43  10. Manor          1
11. Fernando Alonso   42
12. Carlos Sainz JR.  30
13. Romain Grosjean   28
14. Daniil Kvyat      25
15. Jenson Button     19
16. Kevin Magnussen    7
17. Pascal Wehrlein    1
18. Stoffel Vandoorne  1
19. Jolyon Palmer      1