Japanese MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins 2019 season

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez won the Japanese Grand Prix with a pole-to-flag ride as Honda secured the constructor’s title at their home Motegi Circuit. The 26-year-old Spaniard had already made sure of his sixth MotoGP championship, and fourth in a row, a race earlier in Thailand on Oct 6.

The constructors' title was Honda's 25th, coming as the company celebrates 60 years in motorcycle racing. French rider Fabio Quartararo finished second for the non-works Petronas Yamaha team, 0.870 behind, to be sure of the MotoGP 'rookie of the year' accolade, with Italian Andrea Dovizioso third for Ducati.

The podium was Quartararo's sixth top-three finish of the season, but the 20-year-old is still awaiting a first win in the top category. His first lap attempt to get ahead of Marquez lasted only three corners. Marquez then led every lap as he made sure of his 54th victory in the top class, pulling him level in the all-time record books with retired Australian Mick Doohan.

Quartararo came under pressure at the finish on fading tyres, with Dovizioso closing the gap but running out of time to make a move. The Italian could still celebrate his 100th podium finish. Marquez has an unbeatable 350 points to Dovizioso's 231, with three races remaining in Australia, Malaysia and on home soil in Valencia. Honda have 356 points to Ducati's 270.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales was fourth with Britain's Cal Cruchlow seizing fifth at the line for LCR Honda from Quartararo's team mate Franco Morbidelli. Yamaha's Italian great Valentino Rossi crashed four laps from the end while in 11th place, and Marquez's triple world champion team mate Jorge Lorenzo finished only 17th and 40 seconds behind the winner.

F1 2019: Valtteri Bottas wins Japanese Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas became the first driver to win a Grand Prix at Suzuka from the second row of the grid, and the ecstatic Finn said it couldn’t have gone any better as Mercedes also secured their sixth consecutive constructor championship.

Formula One has had periods of team dominance but the achievement of Mercedes is unprecedented. The sixth team title matches that of Ferrari between 1999 and 2004 but – with Hamilton and Bottas extending their lead such that only they can win the drivers’ championship – a record‑breaking sixth double belongs to Mercedes.

Bottas has just kept his championship hopes alive but Hamilton remains on course to take a sixth of his own. His frustration with the team’s strategy swiftly turned to celebration and honour as he dedicated the title to Niki Lauda, Mercedes non-executive director who died in May this year.

The British driver leads Bottas by 64 points: 104 remain and he will take the championship if he is 78 in front after the Mexican Grand Prix. Bottas’s win was a controlled and impressive drive but it is Hamilton, with nine victories, who has done the damage this season and the vast majority of the previous five. He has taken four titles since 2014, when Mercedes emerged as pre-eminent in a formula defined by its engine as the turbo-hybrid era.

Ferrari showed exceptional pace over the single lap. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc locked out the front row, with Bottas third and Hamilton fourth. Indeed had both the Ferrari drivers not once more made mistakes, Mercedes would surely have been denied their celebrations for now at least.

F1 2018: Lewis Hamilton wins Japanese Grand Prix

It was a dramatic Japanese Grand Prix for most of the F1 field – but for lights-to-flag victor Lewis Hamilton, it looked to be a serene afternoon, as he swept to his fifth victory in Japan and his fourth at Suzuka while his title rival Sebastian Vettel ended up sixth.

It was Hamilton’s 71st career victory and his 50th for Mercedes, and sees him extend his title lead over Vettel to 67 points, with the German claiming just eight for P6 after a tough race that saw him spin early on following contact with Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Valtteri Bottas backed up his team mate to make it a Mercedes one-two, while Verstappen survived the Vettel contact and another run-in with the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen to complete the podium - his third rostrum appearance in Suzuka in as many years. A fantastic recovery drive from Daniel Ricciardo saw the Australian go from P15 on the grid to fourth at the race end, ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel, while Sergio Perez claimed P7 for Force India.

So post-Suzuka, Hamilton now sits 67 points clear of Vettel in the drivers’ standings, meaning that if he outscores Vettel by just eight points at the next race in Austin, he’ll be crowned world champion for the fifth time. And considering that Hamilton has won every race at the Circuit of The Americas since 2014, things aren’t looking too rosy right now for Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton wins Japanese Grand Prix

A thrilling finish saw Mercedes Lewis Hamilton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 1.2s to win 2017 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo taking third. The Suzuka round was equally notable, however, for Sebastian Vettel’s second retirement in three races, thanks to a technical problem on his Ferrari.

Hamilton now has a 59-point lead over Vettel in the standings, with only four races remaining and 100 points on the table. The German’s Ferrari was being inspected on the grid, just as team mate Kimi Raikkonen’s had been in Malaysia last week, but he seemed to be okay as he chased Hamilton away at the start. But soon Verstappen passed him in the hairpin to snatch second place, and the next time around fast-starting Esteban Ocon had moved to third for Force India as Ricciardo and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas also passed the Ferrari. Two laps later, Vettel’s troubled day was done, all thanks to a faulty spark plug.

Meanwhile, so was Carlos Sainz’s after the Spaniard lost control of his Toro Rosso in Turn 7 on the opening lap, prompting the first of three safety-car interventions. It was an unhappy ending to Sainz’s last race with the Italian team prior to switching to Renault in place of Jolyon Palmer. Hamilton and Verstappen soon resumed their battle, but gradually the Mercedes driver began to pull away. He was five seconds clear when Verstappen made his sole pit stop on the 21st lap, and Hamilton covered that next time around.

Haas also had a great day after Kevin Magnussen had forced his way by Massa’s Williams in Turn 2 on the 43rd lap; as the Brazilian ran wide, Romain Grosjean also passed him in the second Haas, to give the America team eighth and ninth places and move them a point ahead of Renault in seventh overall. It was a horrible day for the French team as Nico Hulkenberg ran in the points for a long time after starting on softs, but tumbled when he switched to supersofts and then ran into a retirement-prompting problem with the DRS mechanism on his rear wing. Team mate Palmer had an unhappy final race for the team to 12th place. Ahead of the Briton, Massa just held on for the final point by eight-tenths from the aggressive Alonso, as Pierre Gasly brought his Toro Rosso home 13th ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren and Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber.

Nico Rosberg wins Japanese Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg extended his championship lead to 33 points with victory in 2016 Formula 1 Emirates Japanese Grand Prix, as Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton recovered from a nightmare start to finish third, just behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The result gives Mercedes an unassailable lead in the constructor’s championship effectively securing them a third straight crown. Sebastian Vettel was Ferrari lead runner on a frustrating afternoon for the Scuderia, the German taking fourth place ahead of team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Also disappointed was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in sixth, the Australian having started the race in front of both the Scarlet cars.

The Force India of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were seventh and eighth, beating rivals Williams, who saw Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, complete the top ten, as all 22 drivers finished the race. Polesitter Nico Rosberg effectively had things won the moment Hamilton made a mistake and lagged so badly at the start that he plunged from second to eighth place.

Rosberg now has 313 points to his team mate’s 280, meaning he needs only three seconds and a third to clinch his first title over the remaining four races, even if Hamilton wins all of them. The final points went to the battling Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas who were separated by 0.5s at the flag and were only 0.9s ahead of Romain Grosjean Haas.

Japanese Grand Prix 2015

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix to widen his lead in the Formula One title race. Hamilton capitalized on a strong start and surged ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg at the first corner. He led the rest of the way, crossing the finish line a comfortable 18.9 seconds ahead of Rosberg.

Ferrari Sebastian Vettel was third, 1.8 seconds behind Rosberg, who started from Pole. Australian Daniel Ricciardo drove his Red Bull across the line in 15^th place. With five races left, Hamilton has a 48 point lead over Rosberg in the championship standings. Hamilton, who was forced to retire at last weekend Singapore GP, claimed his eighth win of the season. It was his 41^st career win, tying him with his childhood Hero Ayrton Senna.

Rosberg and Hamilton went through the first two bends side by side. Hamilton appeared to give Rosberg little room at the second turn, forcing the German partially off the track. With Hamilton comfortably ahead throughout the Grand Prix, the focus shifted to the tight battle for second place between Rosberg and Vettel. Vettel Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth followed by Williams Valtteri Bottas.

The podium positions were exactly the same as last year’s race at Suzuka which was marred by a crash involving Jules Bianchi, who died in July, having never gained consciousness. The Next race is the Russian GP in Sochi on October 11. Last year the race was won by Lewis Hamilton followed by Nico Rosberg and third place pole by Valtteri Bottas.