It was time for the Japanese Grand Prix, the Suzuka circuit hosted the 16th round of the Formula 1 World Championship. It’s also the last Grand Prix for Carlos Sainz with the Toro Rosso team, as it was the last Grand Prix for Jolyon Palmer with the team Renault. At the next meeting of the world championship in the United States, the Spanish driver will be part of the Enstone team. Sainz’s arrival precipitated the dismissal of Palmer after a bad season, the driver has been questioned by both the fans and by his own team.
Despite everything Palmer did not want to leave his place and threatened to take legal action against the team, but it seems that they finally reached an agreement. The driver said goodbye with a twelfth place in the Grand Prix. Better than his teammate Hülkenberg who dropped out on lap 41, after the DRS of his car broke down.
On the other side of the grid, Suzuka allowed Lewis Hamilton to secure the drivers’ championship. After getting his first pole at this circuit, the English driver took the win. Only in the last laps, Verstappen managed to threaten his first position. Fifty-nine points is the advantage he has over Sebastian Vettel. The German driver saw how he lost almost all his chances this weekend. The Ferrari driver found problems in his car on the way to the starting grid. The problems were repeated during the first laps, the car lost power while the other cars overtake and left him behind. Finally Vettel returned to the pit box and left the Japanese Grand Prix. The mechanics found the problem but it was too late, a spark plug left the German with very few options for the drivers’ championship.
While Bottas, Hamilton’s teammate, has a new goal to remove the runner-up to Vettel. The distance with his teammate is too high to become champion, although mathematically it is possible. The Finnish driver suffered to reach Hamilton’s pace.
However this weekend it seemed that he found the pace and crossed the checkered flag in fourth place. In the last laps of the race he was close to overtake Ricciardo and climb to the third step of the podium. Bottas is thirteen points away from Vettel, so it’s not nonsense that he can overcome him. He will have four more races to try, before the end of the championship.