Author: Drew

Japanese Grand Prix: Live Blog, Stats, Analysis


Keep it here for the live blog throughout the 2014 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Japan.  Stay tuned for live stats, analysis and more. 

Note: This page auto-updates every 90 seconds. 

Post Race

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Race / 53

The race will not be restarted.  Lewis Hamilton wins the race, followed by Rosberg and Vettel. 

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Lap 47 – The red flag is out for the second time today.

Lap 46 – 

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Lap 45 – Plenty of activity in the pits this lap.  Medical car over with Sutil.  

Lap 44 – 

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Lap 43 – Sutil is into the barrier causing a local yellow.  Button is into the pits for full wets.  

Lap 42 – Ricciardo is struggling to get by Button in fourth place.  Magnussen makes his fourth pit-stop of the race for full wet tires.  

Lap 41- DRS disabled.  Hamilton told just to “keep it on the black stuff”.  Rain getting more and more intense.  

Lap 40 – Hamilton extends out a 10 second lead to Rosberg now.  VET / BUT / RIC follow behind.  

Lap 39 – 

Lap 38 – Massa into the pits for inters.  He rejoins in 9th just ahead of Sergio Perez. Meanwhile, Hamilton sets the fastest lap of the race with a 1:51.6 and increases his gap to Rosberg.  

Lap 37 – Ricciardo into the pits; he rejoins in P5 behind Vettel.  Rain starts to fall again and it’s increasing in intensity by the minute.  

Lap 36 – 

Lap 35 – Points-as-they-run: HAM 266 ROS 253 

Lap 34 – 

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Lap 33 – 20 laps left to go in the race.  Vettel sets the fastest lap of the race with a 1:59.9 while in P4.  Rosberg’s into the pits for intermediates and a slight down-force adjustment on the front wing.  

Lap 32 – 

Lap 31 – Hamilton has brought out a 4.1 sec. gap to Rosberg, who is now well off the pace after complaining of over-steer.  Button comes into the pits again for fresh inters.  

Lap 30 – Past the halfway point of the race now.  No sign of rain coming down yet, but 23 laps still remain.  The current top five: HAM / ROS / BUT / RIC / VET

Lap 29 – Lewis Hamilton makes the pass on Nico Rosberg down the front straight for the lead.  This is the first time he has led all race.

Lap 28 – Vettel and Ricciardo are closing in on Button.  Currently a 10 second gap but that is dropping quickly.  

Lap 27 – Hamilton is all over the back of his teammate, but Rosberg has been getting good runs out of the final corner.  Lewis has some brake troubles and drops back from Nico, .8 sec. gap now.

Lap 26 – 

Lap 25 – 


Lap 24 – DRS is enabled.  Hamilton is all over Rosberg and could be passing him in the coming laps.  

Lap 23 – Sutil and Maldonado both come into the pits for sets of intermediates.  They run 17th and 10th, respectively.  

Lap 22 – 


Lap 21 – Both of the Red Bull’s are in the 1:53’s, lapping faster than anyone else by almost a half second. 

Lap 20 – Rosberg holds a 1.2 sec. gap to Hamilton.  Both of the Williams drivers are looking very slow in the wet, getting blow past by the Red Bull’s.  

Lap 19 – Ricciardo pulls the same move on Bottas as he did on Massa. Takes P5 in the esses. 

Lap 18 – Vettel moves onto Bottas and out-brakes him into the corner, putting himself into P4.  Button, Rosberg, and Hamilton up next.  

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Lap 17 – RIC makes the move on MAS in the esses and moves up to P6.  

Lap 16 – Vettel is all over Massa for fifth place and he takes it.  Ricciardo tries to follow his teammate but can’t find a way by.    

Lap 15 – Running order: ROS / HAM / BUT / BOT / MAS

Lap 14 – 

Lap 13 – Rosberg is told to “box, box, box” this lap.  He’ll switch onto the intermediate tires. Hamilton takes the lead of the Grand Prix as Rosberg gets out with a 2.6 sec. stop.  

Everybody is coming into the pits to switch onto the intermediate tires.  The Mercedes drivers are still lapping two seconds quicker than Button and the rest of the field on their wets.  

Lap 11 – The Mercedes duo are pulling away from the pack.  Button, on his intermediates, is matching their pace.  Ricciardo just radios in that he will come in to switch off of the full wets. 


Lap 10 – Massive spray coming from the leaders.  Button and Maldonado dive into the pits to switch onto intermediates right away.  

Lap 9 – Safety car in this lap.  ROS / HAM / BOT / MAS/ RIC top five.  

Lap 7 – Hamilton is appealing to Charlie Whiting now. (Race Director)


Lap 6 – Hamilton says “the track’s as good as it’s going to get.”  He is eager to get ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg and keep his championship lead intact.  Jean-Eric Vergne also mentions that the track is ready to race on.


Lap 4 – Alonso has spun on the out lap and climbed out of the car.  He is “in disbelief” about the situation.  It appears to be an electronic failure on the car.

The race will restart under safety car again in a few minutes. It appears to have stopped raining for the time being which should give the time needed for the race to get started again.  “More than one lap” will be run behind the safety car according to race control. 


Lap 3 – Half points will be awarded if no more laps are run.  In order for there to be full points, 75% of the race must be completed, or 40 laps in this case.  


Lap 2 – Ericsson spins it around in the corner.  Drivers are complaining about grip levels and hydroplaning.  Red Flag is out.

Lap 1 – The safety car is leading the field from the grid.  Hamilton told his team “the safety car needs to go faster.”  It is much wetter than when they initially came out. 

Pre-Race

12 minutes to race – 


16 minutes to race – Drivers are sending in their initial reports of the track.  Many saying it’s not too bad out on the track, several discussing the prospect of intermediate tires.  

26 minutes to race – 


27 minutes to race – The drivers are heading out to the grid.



36 minutes to race – Lewis Hamilton has been much more consistent than his Mercedes teammate at Suzuka.



46 minutes to race – Less than an hour to go before the Japanese Grand Prix is set to start. 

1.5 Hours to Race – The points standings going into the race.



Two and a half Hours to Race –  


Three Hours to Race – More and more reports of the weather at Suzuka continue to come in.


Five Hours to Race – It’s race day in Japan.  Track looks damp but certainly not a heavy rain right now.


Six Hours to Race – The starting grid for the race: 

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Japanese Grand Prix: Race Notes


Nico Rosberg will be looking to regain the championship lead at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.



He’ll start the race on pole, where he out-qualified Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second.  Rosberg currently sits three points behind Hamilton with five races left to go in the season.  This is just the second time that Hamilton has led the points standings all year.  

Sebastien Vettel won at Suzuka last year with a commanding 7+ second gap to second place finisher Mark Webber.  The former will start the race in ninth place after a troubling qualifying performance on Saturday.  Vettel and Ricciardo were both forced to make late Q2 appearances and get themselves out of knock out danger. The Aussie fared slightly better and will start in sixth.
News also broke before FP3 on Saturday concerning reigning champion Sebastien Vettel.  It was reported by the team:

“Sebastian Vettel has advised us that he will be leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season,” a statement from Red Bull read.  “We’re pleased to announce that Daniel will be joined in the team for 2015 by another rising star from the Junior Programme, Daniil Kvyat.”

Reports have been linking Vettel to Ferrari to drive with Kimi Raikkonen; as well as a departure of Fernando Alonso who may be headed over to McLaren for the 2015 season. 

Alonso will start the Suzuka GP in fifth and be looking for his first race win of the year.  His highest finish this season was second in Hungary:

“So far, this weekend has been very positive as I had a good feeling from the car right from the first lap of free practice.”  – Alonso

Fernando came in fourth last year just ahead of his now teammate Kimi Raikkonen.  

The impending typhoon could threaten the Japanese Grand Prix. 
With the impending rain due to the typhoon scheduled to hit the Suzuka area on Sunday, the race could yield some unexpected twists.  The FIA have decided not to move the race start to an earlier time, as was suggested by several news organization and drivers.  The race will more than likely be a wet one, so there may be no standing start for round 15 of the 2014 season.

Your Turn
Who do you think will win the Japanese Grand Prix?  Will Nico Rosberg be able to regain the championship lead, or will Lewis Hamilton hold firm on Sunday?  Sound off in the comments below.

Formula 1 Articles

Weekly Report: Pagenaud to Penske, Mercedes Clinching Team Title and More


Each week, we take a look at our most popular articles and stories from around the web and put them into one post. Some of them will be data based and some will be just interesting or important news stories in the racing world.  This is the Weekly Report.  

Popular On Our Site

  1. Mercedes Need to Straighten Out Reliability Issues
  2. Grosjean Looks for Success at Suzuka
  3. New Information on Rosberg’s DNF
  4. Pagenaud Goes to Penske for 2015 Season
  5. Stats and Facts of the 2014 IndyCar Season
  6. Singapore Grand Prix: Live Blog, Stats, Analysis
  7. Predicting the Weather for Race Day

From Around The Web

Excerpt: “As the championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg enters its final skirmishes, their Mercedes team are poised to collect their first championship silverware of the year.”

Excerpt: Max Verstappen will become the youngest driver to take part in a Formula One weekend when he takes the wheel of a Toro Rosso in Friday first practice, three days after his 17th birthday.

Excerpt: “It will be quite interesting. Can they be competitive already in the first year? It’s difficult to know, but it’s going to work, I’m sure.”

Note: If you have an article you think should make it into the Weekly Report next week, let us know by sending it in through the form on the contact page. 

We’ll take a look at it and perhaps put it in next weeks edition!

The Leaders

IndyCar – Will Power – 671 Points

Formula 1 – Lewis Hamilton – 241 Points

Mercedes Shine Some Light on Rosberg’s Technical DNF in Singapore


The Mercedes F1 team have disclosed more information about the mechanical issue that forced Nico Rosberg to retire from the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.

The team revealed on Twitter that “Forensic analysis has revealed that the steering column electronic circuits were contaminated with a foreign substance.”

“The contamination was not visible and did not manifest itself until Sunday as Nico went to the grid,” the team added.

Pagenaud Signs on to Team Penske for 2015 Season


Simon Pagenaud will drive the #22 Penske car in 2015, Roger Penske announced Monday afternoon.

He will join the team alongside 2014 champion Will Power, as well as drivers Juan Pablo-Montoya and Helio Castroneves.

Pagenaud finished fifth in the points in the 2014 season, just 21 points behind his (now) teammate Juan Pablo-Montoya.  

All three of team Penske’s cars finished in the top five of the points last year, and they’ll be looking to have a repeat of that in 2015.  

Continue Reading on IndyCar.com >>

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