Finnish drivers Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen are set to face mathematical elimination from 2018 Formula 1 championship contention in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Four of the 20 Formula 1 drivers are still mathematically eligible to win the 2018 championship, but two of them are set to face elimination in the 17th race of the 21-race season, the Japanese Grand Prix.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas and Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen currently sit in third and fourth place, respectively, in the driver standings, but both are at risk of being mathematically eliminating from winning the driver championship in this race.
Bottas is set to enter the 53-lap race around the 18-turn, 3.609-mile (5.807-kilometer) Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan with 189 points. He trails teammate Lewis Hamilton, who leads the driver standings with 306 points, by 117 points. Raikkonen is set to enter the race with 186 points. He trails Hamilton by 120 points.
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With five races remaining in the 2018 season and a maximum of 25 points on the table for each driver in each race, Bottas and Raikkonen are still eligible to win the driver championship because of the fact that their point totals are within 124 points of Hamilton’s.
This point total of 124 points is not 125 points because of the fact that neither Bottas nor Raikkonen has won a race yet this season and Hamilton has earned eight victories. As a result, neither driver can win a tiebreaker with the four-time Formula 1 champion.
Because just four races will remain on the 2018 schedule following the Japanese Grand Prix, Bottas and Raikkonen must remain within 99 points (not 100 points) of Hamilton once this race concludes to remain eligible to win the driver championship.
This means that Bottas needs to outscore Hamilton by at least 18 points in the Japanese Grand Prix to remain mathematically eligible to win the driver championship and Raikkonen needs to outscore him by at least 21 points to do so.
Aside of Bottas and Raikkonen, the only other driver who trails Hamilton in the driver standings and is still mathematically eligible to win the championship is Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who trails him by 50 points with 256 points.
Will Valtteri Bottas and/or Kimi Raikkonen remain mathematically eligible to win the 2018 Formula 1 driver championship following the Japanese Grand Prix? Be sure to tune in to the live broadcast of the race on ESPN2 from Suzuka Circuit at 1:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, October 7 to find out.