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Five races remain in the 2018 Formula One world championship and following the controversial race in Russia a week ago, the title appears as good as Lewis Hamilton’s. Join The Roar for a live blog from 4pm AEDT.
Another race victory at Sochi through team orders, has given the Briton a mighty 50-point lead over Sebastian Vettel, meaning that he no longer mathematically has to win a race during the remainder of the season to be crowned a five-time world champion.
Hope fades then for Vettel and Ferrari coming into the driver favourite Japanese Grand Prix and the technically marvellous Suzuka circuit, where the Scuderia have not won since 2004.
Vettel’s own record at the 5.8km, 53-lap race is a lot better though, having won four races for Red Bull – though the past four seasons has seen Suzuka owned by Hamilton and Mercedes AMG.
Again, Ferrari have opted for an aggressive tyre selection which has been one of their Achilles heels in previous races, having had no practice running on the medium compound tyre and maxing out on the supersofts.
Though with a typhoon alert hanging over the race, there is the possibility for crazy wet conditions to mix up the grand prix.
Rain did affect the last part of qualifying though, catching out Ferrari and their strategists in Q3. The result was another front-row lockout for Mercedes AMG and an 80th career pole position for Hamilton.
Kimi Räikkönen was the best of the red cars in fourth, behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, whilst Vettel was a dismal ninth fastest in the final stage of qualifying.
A furious Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2 with further reliability issues from his power-unit in the Red Bull. A race of recovery beckons once again for the Aussie from fifteenth.
The Haas of Romain Grosjean was the best of the rest behind the top three teams, but it was the Toro Rosso cars that were the stars of qualifying, securing top ten berths at their engine supplier Honda’s home race.
Single stops beckon once more if the conditions are dry, with Hamilton set to the start the race on the soft tyre unlike the rest of the top ten on the supersofts. With that strategic advantage, is there anyone who can stop the Briton at Suzuka?
Tune in on The Roar from a more sensible 4pm AEDT for live blog coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix, as Vettel and Ferrari must look to roll the dice one last time to have a shot at the title.
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