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Lewis Hamilton wins rain-soaked Japan Grand Prix from Nico Rosberg Lewis Hamilton wins rain-soaked Japan Grand Prix from Nico Rosberg
(35 minutes later)
Lewis Hamilton won a wet Japanese Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday to complete a hat-trick of victories and extend his championship lead over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to 10 points with four races remaining. Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix, after only 47 of the 53 laps when the race was red-flagged early due to an accident involving the Marussia driver Jules Bianchi, who has since been taken to hospital.
Rosberg finished second in a race that needed two starts behind the safety car and ended before the full distance due to a crash that saw Marussia’s French driver Jules Bianchi rushed to hospital. Adrian Sutil had gone off on lap 43 and marshals were attending his car with a crane standing at the side of the track. Bianchi appears to have gone off at the same corner and reportedly impacted with the recovery vehicle. He was taken to the medical centre for treatment. Sutil, who drives for Sauber, is understood to be unhurt.
“The driver is not conscious and has been sent to the hospital by the ambulance because the helicopter cannot fly in these conditions. Further updates will follow but for the moment we cannot say anything. I will keep you updated as fast as I can,” said the FIA head of communications Matteo Bonciani. No champagne was sprayed on the podium and there were no celebrations. Bianchi was then taken to hospital. “The driver is not conscious has been sent to the hospital by ambulance because the helicopter cannot fly in these conditions,” said FIA head of communications Matteo Bonciani.
Germany’s quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel, who announced on Saturday he was leaving Red Bull at the end of the season, finished third. Despite escaping the worst of the incoming typhoon Phanfone, the race started behind the safety car due to heavy rain and began properly on lap 10 as the track dried. The rain returned in the latter stages, presenting very tricky conditions and it is this period that proved crucial in the accident. Sutil went wide and hit the barriers but it is unclear at this stage when the French driver followed him into the accident area. It appears to be after the marshals were attending to Sutil’s car.
The win was Hamilton’s eighth of the season and first at Suzuka, with his only other win in Japan coming at the Fuji circuit with McLaren in 2007. Celebrations were understandably muted for Hamilton who took a 10 point championship lead over his rival Nico Rosberg, . The later struggled with grip and understeer and could manage only second place. Sebastian Vettel, who announced this weekend he was leaving Red Bull, and his team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, were the beneficiaries of a piece of masterful strategy by the team, having run qualifying in the dry with a wet-race set-up. When the rain duly came their car had a clear advantage over their rivals. They finished third and fourth respectively.
The race was red-flagged with 46 of the scheduled 53 laps completed after an accident involving Sauber’s Adrian Sutil and Bianchi brought the safety car out for the third time. Form the off it had been a trying afternoon and while there were doubts there would be no race due to poor conditions were dispelled. There will now be questions over whether it should have been held or why it was not brought forward to an earlier start time. The latter option was offered by the FIA to race promoters Honda, who declined to do so.
There was immediate concern in the aftermath of the accident over Bianchi’s well-being with the medical car and an ambulance being dispatched to the scene of the crash. The rain, which had been persistent for most of the day had dropped off thirty minutes before the start but with ten minutes to go the heavens opened and a start behind the safety car was quickly announced. With all the teams heading out in the full wet tyres. The conditions at the start were treacherous and the visibility terrible. Hamilton radioed his crew to tell then he could not see Rosberg in front and before they had completed two laps the race was red-flagged and the cars returned to the pit lane. The downpour eased however and the cars returned to the track again behind the safety car.
By lap six many drivers were happy with the conditions and making calls for the racing to begin. Hamilton directed his radio message direct to race director Charlie Whiting, saying: “Charlie, the track is fine, we’ve already done two more laps, the track is good”. It remained out however and by lap nine some drivers including Button considered the conditions closet to suiting the inter tyres. When racing began he duly took them at the restart and it was the right choice. The advantage it gave him paid off and he finished in fifth.
Visibility and grip had improved enough by lap 25 to enable DRS and Hamilton immediately closed on his team-mate, and had a look into turn one although he could not make it stick and a lap later pushing again he went wide at turn one as he had done in practice. This time however he kept it out of the wall.
On lap 29 Hamilton finally made it stick, coming out of the start finish straight DRS zone he went round the outside at turn one, clearly enjoying more grip than his team-mate who had gone defensive on the inside. That Hamilton had more pace was clear as he put a remarkable 4.8 seconds on Rosberg within two laps.
It was enough to ensure the win. “We hope Bianchi’s OK,” said Hamilton. “In terms of feeling, the race was really reminiscent of Silverstone in 2008,” where he had won in the wet in his championship-winning year.
The Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas struggled in the wet as their car has all season and could only convert third and fourth on the grid to fifth and sixth. They were followed home in the points positions by Nico Hülkenberg, Jean-Éric Vergne and Sergio Pérez. Fernando Alonso’s difficult weekend became even worse when was forced to retire after losing power due to an electrical problem just four corners into the third lap. His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was in twelfth, behind Daniil Kvyat who will take Vettel’s place at Red Bull next season.