Race 2018 F1 Japanese Grand Prix Full Race Replay
Race 2018 F1 Japanese Grand Prix Full Race Replay
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Race Info
Date 7 October 2018
Official name Formula 1 2018 Honda Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.807 km (3.608 miles)
Distance 53 laps, 307.471 km (191.054 miles)
Formula One Japanese Grand Prix 2018 What to Watch
This weekend, Suzuka will host the 17th round of the 2018 Formula 1 season.
After winning in Russia last weekend, Lewis Hamilton leads by 50 points going into the Japanese Grand Prix.
There are four drivers on the current grid that have won in Japan before.
After starting his Mercedes on pole in qualifying, Hamilton secured his third victory in Suzuka in 2017 and his fourth Japanese Grand Prix victory.
After Valtteri Bottas suffered a grid penalty, Sebastian Vettel started in the front row with his championship challenger. However, a spark plug problem led the German to retire after just four laps, thus ending his title challenge.
Carlos Sainz's final race with Toro Rosso before joining Renault ended early as well after a collision on the first lap.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo both finished on the podium despite starting in the second row, while Kimi Raikkonen also started from the tenth position due to a grid penalty but recovered impressively to finish in fifth place.
Jolyon Palmer, who lost his Renault seat to Sainz following the Suzuka event, made his final Formula One appearance at the race. Palmer finished 12th in his final appearance and had only one point during the 2017 season.
With the same DRS zone down the pit straight and no alterations to the course, there aren't many changes to the race this year. The decision to not extend the DRS zone or introduce a second zone has drawn criticism from certain drivers, and it is anticipated that the issue will be brought up at tomorrow's drivers' meeting.
Compared to last year, the event is scheduled one round later. Despite being held on the same weekend, drivers will likely have more mileage on their engines going into this race, which might raise their risk of receiving grid penalties.
For the race this year, Pirelli is use the same tire compounds—mediums, softs, and supersofts—that they introduced to Japan in 2017.
Most of the drivers only took one pit stop last year, and only the softs and supersofts were used in the race.
Mercedes is employing a more cautious approach, bringing fewer supers and more softs and mediums than their closest competitors, while Ferrari seems to be favoring the softer tires this year, bringing ten pairs of supersofts to the weekend.
Given that McLaren has supplied four sets of the hardest compound for Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso, it appears highly likely that some drivers will use the mediums at this year's event.
Suzuka is expected to see mixed weather this weekend, with the possibility of showers during tomorrow's practice sessions.
Before sunny spells emerge for the race on Sunday, there will likely be a lot of rain and thunderstorms during qualifying. Drivers would have a free choice of tires at the start of the race if qualifying was wet, which might result in a jumbled grid on Sunday.
Mercedes has excelled at this track in recent years; Hamilton has won three of the last four races at Suzuka. Although Ferrari hasn't won at Suzuka since 2004, Vettel also likes the track; he has four victories there but hasn't done so since 2013.
In Japan, winning races isn't usually correlated with pole position. Only half of the pole sitters at Suzuka have won on Sunday in the previous eight years.
Some drivers may experience grid penalties at this event. Any modifications would cause a decline because the majority of the grid has already used up all of its allotted power unit components for this year. Before the Russian Grand Prix, five drivers made adjustments, although other drivers could follow suit to give themselves new parts for the year's last five races.
Romain Grosjean is only three penalty points away from a race ban, so he still needs to exercise caution in this race. Despite having only three top 10 results at the circuit in Japan, the Frenchman claims that this is one of his favorite races.
This weekend is the second of five straight raceweeks for Fernando Alonso, who will stay in Japan for the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji next week. However, Lando Norris will fill in during FP1, so he won't be racing the entire race weekend with McLaren.