Sebastian Vettel, on an emotional Suzuka swansong, took sixth, crossing the line almost side-by-side with Alpine's Fernando Alonso. The conditions forced a halt to the race on the second lap and, after the two-hour delay, it resumed with a rolling start.īehind the top three, Esteban Ocon finished an impressive fourth for Alpine, fending off seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in fifth. Incidents involving several cars brought out the safety car before the opening lap could be completed, while a recovery vehicle deployed on the track caused alarm as Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri sped past. He was beaten off the line by Leclerc in the wet but went wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari, spray streaming behind them, over the first two corners and seized back the initiative. Verstappen started Sunday's race from pole.
"We will try to push over the last four races to improve as a team and hopefully put more of a challenge next year." VERSTAPPEN POLE "Max has just been incredible," said Leclerc, the early title favourite who held a 46-point lead over Verstappen after the opening three races. With four races left, the Dutchman is on course to beat the record for most wins in a season which, shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, stands at 13. Verstappen's win in Japan was his 12th from 18 races.
He needed at least 112-point gap to his closest challenger to be crowned champion on Sunday. Verstappen as a result leaves Japan with a 113-point margin over Perez, who moved into second in the overall standings.
#FORMULA ONE DRIVERS#
Sunday's race was halted after two laps due to heavy rain but it resumed a little over two hours later, with drivers completing 28 of the scheduled 53 laps and full points awarded.
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