Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2019

2019 Japanese Grand Prix race result

2019 Japanese Grand Prix

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PositionNo.DriverCar
177Valtteri BottasMercedes
25Sebastian VettelFerrari
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes
423Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda
555Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault
63Daniel RicciardoRenault
716Charles LeclercFerrari
810Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda
911Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes
1027Nico HulkenbergRenault
1118Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes
1226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda
134Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault
147Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari
158Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari
1699Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari
1863George RussellWilliams-Mercedes
1988Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes
2033Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton

Not classified: Max Verstappen

Penalties:

Charles Leclerc: five second time penalty for colliding with Max Verstappen and 10 second penalty for driving a car in an unsafe condition

NB. Race distance was 53 laps. Classification based on lap 52 due to chequered flag error.

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2019 Japanese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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41 comments on “2019 Japanese Grand Prix race result”

  1. 5th consecutive constructor and driver title. Good job from Silver Arrows.

    1. *6th and drivers title will be setteled between two teammates now.

    2. A record which is unrivaled in F1.

      1. I did correct it, really needs an edit button. 6 consecutive WCC and WDC is simply insane

  2. The Ferraris and Albon messed up the start-phase.

  3. Well if they hadn’t bought Lewis in he would have won or at worst been 2nd. Seems they felt Bottas needed a pity win

  4. Well enough.

    No error strategic errors for first 3. Vettel got something done today. Bottas delivered, amazing for him. A lost day for Leclerc/Hamilton type of drivers.

    All good, bring in next race.

    1. Merc thought twice on giving ham the victory. ham strategy was correct but then they decided not to shaft bot as they had done in silverstone.

  5. If there is one thing I didn’t like is how long it took the stewards to take decisions or for the TV crew to show them. It took 14 whole laps before a decision on Vettel’s start was communicated. And what about the LEC vs VES crash? One care was clearly ahead of the other, there was plenty of space and a big bump ensued. The ‘No further action’ contradicts everything we’ve been told these past few years.

    1. They decided to investigate it after the race…

      1. Agreed, the stewarding was appaling. Not sure what there was to investigate…?! I know that first lap contacts are taken a bit more lightly, but this was a full on crash into the side of another car, causing a spin and inflicting race-ending damage.

        What’s worse for this decision to “not investigate / do it after the race” is that Max didn’t even squeeze Charles, he stayed as far away as he could, and he was ahead. There was plenty of room for Charles to go, but he tried too hard to compensate for the bad start. With incidents involving Max there is always a grey area, as he is usually not a “saint”, but this time he had nothing else to do but keep the outside line and hammer it through. Clear cut drive-through for Charles.

        1. Leclerc will get 5 sec penalty at best from *impy stewards. The amount of dirty driving Leclerc has been able to get away with is beyond understandable if it were Max he would have been penalised to max what the regulations allow(exception being in Monaco for unsafe release). Also Leclerc driving around shedding parts endangering other drivers and he wasnt even shown as much a warning flag. Masi and Stewards are basically Jesters owned by Ferraris.

          1. Ahahahahaaaaa! So, you have any REAL proof things would have been different, maybe the way you think should have been, let’s say if it was Mercedes/HAM?! Things would have been the same if it was a Mercedes driver, no doubt.

          2. So you must be blind and deaf not to hear 2 different orders from team to come in for repairs on a car that was dangerously shedding parts. When was the last time a driver ignored team orders for repairs? That was really stupid of Leclerc and its really wierd even that wasnt penalised.

        2. It was lap1, then LEC’s race was destroyed too. If you’re hanging on too much to the rules, start asking how come HAM went unpunished in 2016 Mexico, for example!!! He basically skipped an entire corner (no.2)!! He “messed up” (so conveniently) the braking point when ROS and VER were all over him and when most likely would have lost at least 1 place if tried to keep the car on-track. Talking about gaining an advantage… And they said it was a lap1 incident.

          1. Lap1 incident where there was more than enough room left on inside for the car to get through and he wasnt remotely close to Max in what was an avoidable crash.

    2. Watch the onboard footage. A mitigating factor was VET, who was in front of VER just before the incident, and moved to his right, so that he was directly in front of LEC. This move took away airflow from LEC’s front wing, and as a result LEC’s car started understeering. Once that happened, contact with VER was inevitable.
      You can argue that LEC should’ve anticipated that move and its consequences, but he’s massively inexperienced compared to his team-mate, and VET still makes rookie errors that compromise his race (and that of others).

  6. I think Vettel’s car was moving when the lights went out and no penalty. I don’t understand how it was not a penalty and I don’t even want to. If a sensor allows you to start moving before the lights go out and it is not a penalty then.. I just don’t… Vettel cracked again. That much was clear. The rest… just my brain… what is this…

    1. He drives for Mafia thats why no penalty.

      On a serious note: MotoGP has much better implementation of jumpstart penalty with high speed cameras used to detect anticipation of lights instead of stupid sensors in track.

    2. Moving is not prohibited, it is prohibited to cross the sensor line (which he didn’t cross).

    3. The sensor probably didn’t detect the movement so the stewards couldn’t give a penalty I reckon.

    4. Masi went super anti ferrari now super for ferrari. we know drivers can falsestart and not get a penalty as was the case for Bot in austria a couple years ago.

  7. When Ferrari’s races implode, they do so in such a spectacular fashion and frightening speed, that it is wonder this keeps happening.
    Again Vettel started the “chain”, Leclerc duly followed, and that was the end of their Championships.

    1. Correct. The competition with Mercedes is too tight to make any mistakes, yet they make mistakes almost every race. Ferrari could have won this race if kept their starting positions. Unfortunately, there was no SC period to help VET max his strategy. Still, Mercedes seemed somehow better in race trim again.

    2. @dallein as soon as they know they have it, they go off like a quasar.

  8. Could have easily had another Justin Wilson type fatality unforgivable the danger Leclerc put Hamilton in, that so easy could have been a Massa or something and it knocked his mirror off he literally had to veere it out of the way. And the amount of bad driving he does in races since Austria by other cars, hilarious Raikonnen gained nothing and gets a penalty and Vettel basically lost one position through his false start. That point by Hamilton could be crucial i feel he will rap it up in 2 races time.

    1. It was just like Austria, ONLY that LEC went off-track to avoid the collision. VER did not learn that lesson. Plus, as we’ve seen in other races where Mercedes did something wrong…. it was the 1st lap so, the stewards have an eye closed.

      1. GtisBetter (@)
        13th October 2019, 7:58

        If you are refering to the lap one touch, it was just a rookie mistake by leclerc. Lap 1 and early corners are always tight. He should have know he would drift to the outside. There was plenty of room for him. 5 sec penalty for Leclerc for causing a collision and let’s forget about it. These things happen in racing.

        1. You’re right and I agree, actually. And I always said that the driver behind is at fault in all cases (unless it’s something obviously stupid), simply because the driver behind has ad-literam a better view of the situation.

    2. An endplate and/or Wing mirror is a Bit different from an entire Crash structure or a massive metal spring. Was a mistake but lets not get too overdramatic. Also

      Raikonnen gained nothing

      *Fell to dead last.
      Have to say this rule should be changed. We’ve seen this Kind of jumpstart(not going through with it) already costs the driver massively. For all this talk about the show there is Just no need for a rule to kick a Driver when he’s down.

      1. That little bit of endplate obliterated Hamilton’s carbon fibre mirror and who knows what might have happened had it struck Hamilton himself. It’s not right driving a unsafe car at racing speed. If you make a mistake you deserve the penalty regardless whether you benefitted or not.

    3. Should have been a 10 second stop and go penalty. You cannot allow teams or drivers to decide whether its safe to carry on driving a damaged car. If a bit is hanging off then it should be pitted immediately or be penalised. Its not acceptable putting others in jeopardy simply because its not ideal for your strategy.

      When you combine that with them ignoring the crash and also not penalising a false start its clear the old bias is back. Ferrari have had too many dodgy calls go there way this year for my liking.

    4. really dangerous, something must change on that front. can’t compare to wilson or massa because f1 wings don’t have the mass, don’t break in big chunks, interesting to see how the halo aerodynamics sent part of the debris against hams head, he probably felt that.

  9. Did Gasly touch Perez?

    1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
      13th October 2019, 7:56

      they made contact

    2. @zomtec
      Yes, the replay showed contact between the two, something came off one of the cars as Perez slid out of control. Very similar to the Leclerc/Verstappen incident, but Perez was much tighter in the corner and Gasly did seem to have a bit of a slide right before contact.

      No one at fault, unlike with the aforementioned incident. Though, had to cringe over Verstappen complaining about the lack of penalty for Leclerc for basically doing no different than he himself has done quite a few times previously and escaping without penalty in a number of those cases.

      1. “No one at fault, unlike with the aforementioned incident. Though, had to cringe over Verstappen complaining about the lack of penalty for Leclerc for basically doing no different than he himself has done quite a few times previously and escaping without penalty in a number of those cases.”

        O really? So tell me, when did Max do all that stuff like and did NOT get a penalty?

      2. GtisBetter (@)
        13th October 2019, 8:05

        There also have been plenty of causing a collision penalties for these things. If you lock up, slide and take another car with you, while diving on the inside, it’s usually a penalty. Even if you go inside and hit a kerb which makes the car bounce right into another, it’s causing a collision. This was Leclerc’s fault, cause he lost control, cause he took to much speed in the corner. If you look at many starts, even from this year, you see that the experienced guys just take it a bit easier and avoid these silly collisions. Leclerc will learn, he is just a bit too aggressive now, cause there is nothing at stake.

      3. I have to agree with all that you said there @nikkit, well said.

  10. Table needs to be updated. Race reclassified by lap 52 to let Perez position back, i guess.

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