Japanese Grand Prix

[truefan72]

Jeez Grosjean. That was some shunt. Guenther Stein does not look happy.
Stroll can claim perez impeded him but tbh he was nowhere near the times to get out of Q1

[AndyL]

Great first pole at Suzuka for pole king Hamilton. With all the penalties, Vettel moves up to the front row so the start should be pretty interesting tomorrow.

[driveace]

Dare Vettel squeeze Hamilton if he gets away quickest and take the chance of taking them both out ?Lets hope it does not get dirty and spoil what could be a good race .

[Tazio]

Let's get it on! :crazy:

[AndyL]

Morning :snore:

[Tazio]

Boss baby

[Tazio]

Vettel just got smoked

[Tazio]

Morning :snore:Good evening!

[truefan72]

Safety car for what???
Seriously?

[Tazio]

Ferrari are giving it up like punks!

[AndyL]

Ferrari are giving it up like punks!

They are trying really hard to lose this championship.

[Tazio]

Vettel has had the course.....Bye :wave:

[truefan72]

Ericson showing us once again why he is the worst driver on the grid. Smh

[longisland]

Great move from Ricciardo!

[steveaki13]

Shame for the title battle today. That is really it all over.

Hamilton looks to have this race sown up too

Interesting how well the Red Bulls are keeping Bottas behind.

[truefan72]

Oh my Renault. Failing Hulkenberg yet again. Sigh

[N4D13]

Oh well, that was a deserved victory from Lewis, although I was rooting for Mad Max to win it.

It's sad but fair to point out that 11th and 14th has been the best result for the current McLaren-Honda alliance at Suzuka in their three years together.

[AndyL]

It's sad but fair to point out that 11th and 14th has been the best result for the current McLaren-Honda alliance at Suzuka in their three years together.

It could get worse if Alonso takes a penalty for ignoring the blue flags. Not sure how far behind Palmer and Gasly were.

[AndyL]

Another nice result for Force India. Ocon's fourth 6th place of the season and Perez' fourth 7th place. They've had great consistency.

[AndyL]

Taku :D

[truefan72]

Another nice result for Force India. Ocon's fourth 6th place of the season and Perez' fourth 7th place. They've had great consistency.

What I found funny was perez asking to overtake ocon which was meaningless as both were well adrift of the car ahead and perez was like 1.7secs behind. And good on Force India to tell him no.
same for serial complainer Grosjean who really had nothing on Magnussen.

[The Black Knight]

It's difficult to see Vettel becoming world champion now. Regain 59 points over 4 races will unlikely happen, especially given Lewis current level of performance. Lewis needs a 1st and second place to seal the championship. In all likelihood it'll be sealed in Mexico or Brazil. If Lewis wins in USA and Vettel doesn't finish in top 5 it's game over.

[zako85]

Some heads are going to roll in Maranello.

[Zico]

Good race but a real shame for Vettel... I think most of us would have loved to see the title going to the wire.

There is talk of Max going to Mercedes for 2018 but I honestly can't see it. Based on the level Max is at who wouldn't want him?... but having two great No1 drivers in the same team with no team orders fighting for wins would only serve to cost Merc a lot of points so I think only if Lewis ever moves to Ferrari... and I doubt Seb would entertain that notion.

[The Black Knight]

Good race but a real shame for Vettel... I think most of us would have loved to see the title going to the wire.

There is talk of Max going to Mercedes for 2018 but I honestly can't see it. Based on the level Max is at who wouldn't want him?... but having two great No1 drivers in the same team with no team orders fighting for wins would only serve to cost Merc a lot of points so I think only if Lewis ever moves to Ferrari... and I doubt Seb would entertain that notion.

Actually, I can see Max going to either Mercedes or Ferrari. I think it may be that Lewis will retire at the end of 2018. This would open the window for a Max pairing with Bottas. I also don't think Hamilton would mind Max being his teammate.

You're probably right about Seb and he probably not wanting Max as a teammate. The question is will Ferrari want Seb? They gave him the car to win the championship this year and, barring a Mercedes implosion, he isn't going to do it. His frailties have been exposed badly in Baku, Singapore and Mexico last year. I think people are realising now that his previous four championshios were, as I and many others said all along, simply down to the car he was driving. In the meanwhile, Hamilton will have won a championship with the second best car on the grid. So were I Ferrari, I'd say to him you can either have Max as teammate or move.

Whatever happens, I think Max will either be in a Mercedes or Ferrari in 2019. The last two races have shown Ricciardo can't live with him in either qualifying or race pace. Scary thing is I reckon Max has plenty of more pace to find such is his incredible talent.

[AndyL]

I think it may be that Lewis will retire at the end of 2018.

Well Lewis did seem very taken with Taku's Indy 500 winner's ring... should we read anything into that I wonder ;)

[AndyL]

What I found funny was perez asking to overtake ocon which was meaningless as both were well adrift of the car ahead and perez was like 1.7secs behind. And good on Force India to tell him no.

The TV broadcasting of the radio messages can be a bit deceptive in terms of timing. They played that when Ocon and Perez were both tucked up behind Hulkenberg on lap 39, but to be charitable to Perez, I'd assume he actually said it a couple of laps earlier, when they were still a few seconds from catching Hulkenberg, and Perez had caught Ocon and been circulating within 1 second behind from around lap 35 onwards. But it was pretty clear that as far as the team was concerned, the possibility of the two drivers racing each other ended at Spa.

Looking back at the results of the season, if they'd avoided crashing into each other they'd have scored points with both cars in every race bar Monaco, which would be pretty remarkable.

[Big Ben]

Well Lewis did seem very taken with Taku's Indy 500 winner's ring... should we read anything into that I wonder ;)

He just likes jewelry but it doesn't match with that thing in the nose. Perhaps he should give that back to his girlfriend.

[Jag_Warrior]

Same for serial complainer Grosjean who really had nothing on Magnussen.

Between this and his constant whining about brakes, I've grown SO tired of Grosjean. I'd love to see him gone from Haas after next season. He has this fantasy that he has a shot at a Ferrari seat. Maybe a Ferrari seat in a 488 GTE at Le Mans, Sebring or Daytona. But not an F1 seat (IMO).



He just likes jewelry but it doesn't match with that thing in the nose. Perhaps he should give that back to his girlfriend.

Speaking of girlfriends, was it my imagination, or did Lewis try to pick up one of the podium cuties in the room behind the stage? I could have sworn that a mic picked him up saying, "does she party?" But then again, maybe it was the voice in my head, and not him at all. I have to admit, the voice in my head was saying some naughty things on the grid and on the podium. I thought that maybe Lewis had seen that scene from Grand Prix when Nino Barlini had a babe on each arm after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. :talk:

[AndyL]

I still had the race on the Sky+ box so I just watched again and couldn't hear anything like you described. The Sky coverage did cut away a couple of times for Rosberg taking selfies with Mo Farah and some other guy though. I just thought it was odd that all those girls had turned up in their P.E. kit!

[jakebarrell]

Ferrari is in a different league alltogether!!