The 2018 Japanese Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 2018 Honda Japanese Grand Prix)[1] was the seventeenth race of the 2018 Formula One season, the thirty-fourth time the Japanese Grand Prix was held on the Formula One calendar, and the thirtieth time it was held at the Suzuka Circuit. It was held between 5 October and 7 October 2018.
In qualifying, Lewis Hamilton took his eightieth overall pole position, his second at the Suzuka Circuit, after Sebastian Vettel was unable to qualify higher than ninth due to going wide on his first flying lap in Q3 while a rainfall hit the final minutes of qualifying, though he was later promoted to eighth following a three-place grid penalty for Esteban Ocon. Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen qualified second and third, respectively.
In the race, Hamilton kept the lead while Bottas held off Verstappen at the first corner. Verstappen went wide at Turn 15, but squeezed Kimi Räikkönen off the track after rejoining at Turn 16, thus allowing Vettel to pass Räikkönen. Charles Leclerc then went into the back of Kevin Magnussen on the start/finish straight on lap 2, giving Magnussen a puncture. The debris from Magnussen's tyre later resulted in the safety car being deployed on lap 4, and it stayed out until the end of lap 7. On lap 8, Vettel made a move on Verstappen at Spoon, but the two made contact, dropping Vettel to the back of the field while Verstappen remained in third place. Vettel made his way up to sixth, as Hamilton took his seventy-first overall victory, putting him sixty-three points ahead of Vettel in the championship, while Bottas held off Verstappen to take second, and Verstappen had to settle for third.
Background[]
Entry list[]
Practice Overview[]
FP1[]
FP2[]
FP3[]
Practice Results[]
| No | Driver | Team | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Pos | Time | Pos | Time | Pos | ||||||||
| 2 |  Stoffel Vandoorne
|
 McLaren-Renault
|
1:31.981 | 20 | 1:33.034 | 19 | |||||||
| 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo
|
 Red Bull-TAG Heuer
|
1:29.373 | 3 | 1:29.513 | 6 | 1:30.474 | 6 | |||||
| 5 |  Sebastian Vettel
|
 Ferrari
|
1:29.685 | 5 | 1:29.050 | 3 | 1:29.715 | 2 | |||||
| 7 |  Kimi Räikkönen
|
Ferrari
|
1:29.627 | 4 | 1:29.498 | 5 | 1:30.054 | 3 | |||||
| 8 |  Romain Grosjean
|
 Haas-Ferrari
|
1:30.814 | 8 | 1:30.440 | 8 | 1:31.636 | 11 | |||||
| 9 |  Marcus Ericsson
|
 Sauber-Ferrari
|
1:31.073 | 10 | 1:30.478 | 9 | 1:32.442 | 16 | |||||
| 10 | Pierre Gasly
|
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
|
1:31.073 | 11 | 1:30.795 | 13 | 1:33.105 | 20 | |||||
| 11 |  Sergio Pérez
|
Force India-Mercedes
|
1:31.272 | 13 | 1:30.510 | 11 | 1:31.483 | 8 | |||||
| 14 |  Fernando Alonso
|
McLaren-Renault
|
1:32.034 | 18 | 1:30.988 | 17 | 1:32.608 | 17 | |||||
| 16 |  Charles Leclerc
|
Sauber-Ferrari
|
1:30.929 | 9 | 1:30.906 | 15 | 1:31.760 | 12 | |||||
| 18 |  Lance Stroll
|
Williams-Mercedes
|
1:31.508 | 16 | 1:31.215 | 19 | 1:32.201 | 14 | |||||
| 20 |  Kevin Magnussen
|
Haas-Ferrari
|
1:31.274 | 14 | 1:30.956 | 16 | 1:31.521 | 10 | |||||
| 27 | Nico Hülkenberg
|
Renault
|
1:31.418 | 15 | 1:30.644 | 12 | 1:32.224 | 15 | |||||
| 28 |  Brendon Hartley
|
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
|
1:31.908 | 17 | 1:30.502 | 10 | 1:32.030 | 13 | |||||
| 31 | Esteban Ocon
|
Force India-Mercedes
|
1:30.591 | 7 | 1:30.035 | 7 | 1:31.088 | 7 | |||||
| 33 |  Max Verstappen
|
Red Bull-TAG Heuer
|
1:29.841 | 6 | 1:29.257 | 4 | 1:30.304 | 4 | |||||
| 35 |  Sergey Sirotkin
|
Williams-Mercedes
|
1:32.513 | 19 | 1:31.087 | 18 | 1:32.631 | 18 | |||||
| 44 | Lewis Hamilton
|
Mercedes
|
1:28.691 | 1 | 1:28.217 | 1 | 1:29.599 | 1 | |||||
| 47 | Lando Norris
|
McLaren-Renault
|
1:32.683 | 20 | |||||||||
| 55 | Carlos Sainz, Jr.
|
Renault
|
1:31.100 | 12 | 1:30.904 | 14 | 1:31.513 | 9 | |||||
| 77 | Valtteri Bottas
|
Mercedes
|
1:29.137 | 2 | 1:28.678 | 2 | 1:30.422 | 5 | |||||
| Source: [2][3][4] | |||||||||||||
Qualifying[]
Q1[]
Q2[]
Q3[]
Qualifying Results[]
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Grid | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Time | Pos | Time | Pos | Time | ||||||||
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton
|
Mercedes
|
1 | 1:28.702 | 2 | 1:28.017 | 1 | 1:27.760 | 1 | |||
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas
|
Mercedes
|
3 | 1:29.297 | 1 | 1:27.987 | 2 | 1:28.059 | 2 | |||
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen
|
Red Bull-TAG Heuer
|
4 | 1:29.480 | 5 | 1:28.849 | 3 | 1:29.057 | 3 | |||
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen
|
Ferrari
|
5 | 1:29.631 | 4 | 1:28.595 | 4 | 1:29.521 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 8 | Romain Grosjean
|
Haas-Ferrari
|
7 | 1:29.724 | 8 | 1:29.678 | 5 | 1:29.761 | 5 | |||
| 6 | 28 | Brendon Hartley
|
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
|
14 | 1:30.248 | 10 | 1:29.848 | 6 | 1:30.023 | 6 | |||
| 7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly
|
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
|
10 | 1:30.137 | 9 | 1:29.810 | 7 | 1:30.093 | 7 | |||
| 8 | 31 | Esteban Ocon
|
Force India-Mercedes
|
9 | 1:29.899 | 6 | 1:29.538 | 8 | 1:30.126 | 11* | |||
| 9 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel
|
Ferrari
|
2 | 1:29.049 | 3 | 1:28.279 | 9 | 1:32.192 | 8 | |||
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Pérez
|
Force India-Mercedes
|
13 | 1:30.247 | 7 | 1:29.567 | 10 | 1:37.229 | 9 | |||
| 11 | 16 | Charles Leclerc
|
Sauber-Ferrari
|
6 | 1:29.706 | 11 | 1:29.864 | 10 | |||||
| 12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen
|
Haas-Ferrari
|
11 | 1:39.219 | 12 | 1:30.226 | 12 | |||||
| 13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz, Jr.
|
Renault
|
12 | 1:30.236 | 13 | 1:30.490 | 13 | |||||
| 14 | 18 | Lance Stroll
|
Williams-Mercedes
|
15 | 1:30.317 | 14 | 1:30.714 | 14 | |||||
| 15 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo
|
Red Bull-TAG Heuer
|
8 | 1:29.806 | 15 | no time | 15 | |||||
| 16 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg
|
Renault
|
16 | 1:30.361 | 16 | |||||||
| 17 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin
|
Williams-Mercedes
|
17 | 1:30.372 | 17 | |||||||
| 18 | 14 | Fernando Alonso
|
McLaren-Renault
|
18 | 1:30.579 | 18 | |||||||
| 19 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne
|
McLaren-Renault
|
19 | 1:31.041 | 19 | |||||||
| 20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson
|
Sauber-Ferrari
|
20 | 1:31.213 | 20† | |||||||
| 107% time: 1:34.911 | |||||||||||||
| Source: [5] | |||||||||||||
- * Ocon received a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flags in FP3.[5]
- † Ericsson was given a fifteen-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change and the use of his third ES.[6][7]
Grid[]
| Pos. | Pos. | |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | Driver | |
| ______________ | ||
| Row 1 | 1 | ______________ |
| Lewis Hamilton | 2 | |
| ______________ | Valtteri Bottas | |
| Row 2 | 3 | ______________ |
| Max Verstappen | 4 | |
| ______________ | Kimi Räikkönen | |
| Row 3 | 5 | ______________ |
| Romain Grosjean | 6 | |
| ______________ | Brendon Hartley | |
| Row 4 | 7 | ______________ |
| Pierre Gasly | 8 | |
| ______________ | Sebastian Vettel | |
| Row 5 | 9 | ______________ |
| Sergio Pérez | 10 | |
| ______________ | Charles Leclerc | |
| Row 6 | 11 | ______________ |
| Esteban Ocon* | 12 | |
| ______________ | Kevin Magnussen | |
| Row 7 | 13 | ______________ |
| Carlos Sainz, Jr. | 14 | |
| ______________ | Lance Stroll | |
| Row 8 | 15 | ______________ |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 16 | |
| ______________ | Nico Hülkenberg | |
| Row 9 | 17 | ______________ |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 18 | |
| ______________ | Fernando Alonso | |
| Row 10 | 19 | ______________ |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 20 | |
| ______________ | Marcus Ericsson† |
- * Ocon received a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flags in FP3.[5]
- † Ericsson was given a fifteen-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change and the use of his third ES.[6][7]
Race[]
Report[]
Results[]
Milestones[]
- Lewis Hamilton's 225th entry and start.
- Sebastian Vettel's 215th start (216th entry).
- Lewis Hamilton matches his nine wins from 2017.
- Valtteri Bottas' 30th podium.
- Fernando Alonso beats Rubens Barrichello for the second-highest number of laps raced.
Standings[]
|
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Notes[]
- ↑ "Formula 1 2018 Honda Japanese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2018/Japan.html. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ↑ "2018 Japanese Grand Prix – Practice 1 results". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 5 October 2018. https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/races/995/japan/practice-1.html. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
- ↑ "2018 Japanese Grand Prix – Practice 2 results". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 5 October 2018. https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/races/995/japan/practice-2.html. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
- ↑ "2018 Japanese Grand Prix – Practice 3 results". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 6 October 2018. https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/races/995/japan/practice-3.html. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "2018 Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying results". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 6 October 2018. https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/races/995/japan/qualifying.html. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "FIA Stewards Decision — Document No. 30". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 7 October 2018. https://www.fia.com/file/73627/download?token=zJDCV5dX. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "FIA Stewards Decision — Document No. 31". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 7 October 2018. https://www.fia.com/file/73628/download?token=rEjP7-Pi. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ↑ "Japan Grand Prix 2018 Race Results". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 7 October 2018. https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2018/races/995/japan/race-result.html. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
| V T E |  Japanese Grand Prix
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Circuits | Fuji (1976–1977, 2007–2008), Suzuka (1987–2006, 2009–present) |  |
| Races | 1976 • 1977 • 1978–1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • | |
| See also | Pacific Grand Prix |
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