Formula 1: Valtteri Bottas wins 2019 Japanese Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas ended his 12-race Formula 1 win drought by winning the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit, the 17th race of the 2019 season.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas ended a 12-race win drought that began after he won the fourth race of the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he did so by capitalizing on poor starts by Scuderia Ferrari teammates Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

Bottas started this 52-lap race, shortened from 53 laps as a result of a system glitch that led to the checkered flag being displayed one lap early, around the 18-turn, 3.609-mile (5.808-kilometer) Suzuka Circuit road course in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan in third place, and he won it by 13.343 seconds over Vettel in second.

The first turn on the race’s opening lap effectively handed Bottas the victory. Vettel started the race from the pole position and had to catch himself to prevent being issued a penalty for a false start. Vettel correcting his initial early launch ended up hindering his start when the lights actually went out.

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This, in turn, negatively affected the reaction time of Leclerc from second place on the grid. It also affected Bottas’s reaction time from third, but in a positive way, as Bottas got a great jump on Vettel and took the lead, a lead he never relinquished via an on-track overtake by another driver.

Leclerc ended up making contact with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen a few seconds later, which damaged Leclerc’s car and ultimately forced Verstappen to retire from the race after his car was severely damaged.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton tried to gamble on a one-stop strategy to knock off Bottas, but it didn’t pay off. He ended up finishing in third place while Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon finished in a career-high fourth ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., the “best of the rest”, in a season-high fifth.

Leclerc ended up finishing in sixth place. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, SportPesa Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 by finishing in seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

Verstappen ended up being the one of only two of the 20 drivers who started the race but failed to finish it. Perez crashed late, although he was classified as finishing in ninth place since the race was considered complete as a result of the aforementioned system glitch even with only 52 of the scheduled 53 laps completed. Of the 18 drivers who finished the race, five finished on the lead lap.

Bottas ended up leading 43 of the race’s 52 laps while Hamilton led the other nine. Vettel did not lead any laps after starting from the pole position. The race featured five lead changes.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.

Race Results
1st – Valtteri Bottas
2nd – Sebastian Vettel
3rd – Lewis Hamilton
4th – Alexander Albon
5th – Carlos Sainz Jr.
6th – Charles Leclerc
7th – Daniel Ricciardo
8th – Pierre Gasly
9th – Sergio Perez
10th – Nico Hulkenberg
11th – Lance Stroll
12th – Daniil Kvyat
13th – Lando Norris
14th – Kimi Raikkonen
15th – Romain Grosjean
16th – Antonio Giovinazzi
17th – Kevin Magnussen
18th – George Russell
19th – Robert Kubica
20th – Max Verstappen

The Mexican Grand Prix is the next race on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule, and it is scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 27. This race is set to broadcast live on ABC from Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico beginning at 3:05 p.m. ET.