Driver comments 2018 Japanese F1 GP

Japan was again a mighty race for Mercedes. The German team definitely showed the paddock and the world that the combination of the Mercedes F1 team, the Mercedes W09 and Lewis Hamilton is an unstoppable combination for the 2018 titles.

Hamilton was flawless again. The British driver was fastest in every FP session, scored his 80th! pole. led the race from start to finish. The only thing Sebastian Vettel took was the fastest lap of the race.

It was strange to see Vettel making another mistake by trying to overtake Max Verstappen in Spoon, while he knew his Ferrari was much faster on the straights. By taking that risk, he threw away his great start and his last hopes on the title.

On strategy Ferrari again made a lot of errors. These errors added with the errors made by Vettel it's impossible to win against the very well organised Mercedes team and flawless drives of Hamilton.

Honda had their first home race with Toro Rosso. Their quali was like a fairy tale and was great for the Japanese fans. Brandon Hartley qualified 6th and scored the best grid position of his F1 career. Pierre Gasly started from P7. The fairy tale ended quite quickly after the start of the race. Hartley had a poor start and lost 6 places in lap 1. Gasly did better but finished just outside the points on P11.

Don't underestimate what Mercedes will achieve this season. Mercedes as a team is going to win the 2018 constructors championship for the fifth time in a row. An achievement that only Scuderia Ferrari has accomplished once in the Michael Schumacher area.

Sure Mercedes is a very good team and we all know that they won a lot and are quite dominating. We took a closer look and divided their performances by the total amount of races and compared them with the other top teams. We made an info-graph about it and were amazed by their performance.

For instance Mercedes scored a 1-2 finish in 24% of all 185 races they participated!

Below you see an info-graph we made to show Mercedes their amazing performance compared to the other 4 great F1  teams that have been very successful in the history of F1.

Lewis Hamilton already has 1 hand on the title now. For him it's now a case of when he will become F1 drivers champ for the 5th time. His name will then be on the very short list of 3 drivers who won more than 4 drivers titles: Juan Manuel Fangio (5x) and Michael Schumacher (7x).

We summed up all the driver post-race Japanese GP comments for you of all the 20 Formula 1 drivers that participated in the race.

Mercedes Japan 2018 comments

Lewis Hamilton (started P1 - finished P2)

Lewis Hamilton Winner Japanese GP F1/2018

""I was having so much fun driving this track," said Lewis. "I was really able to just embrace the moment and enjoy every single lap, every single corner and the feel of the car.

"Suzuka is such a unique circuit, you go down a hill into Turn 1, then up-hill, you go underneath the track - it's one of my favourite circuits. The pace was really great and this is definitely the best weekend I've had here and the best feeling I've had here balance-wise, it was really lovely.

"Everyone at the track and back home in the factories deserves a huge thank you for their continued efforts, they just continue to push and deliver, weekend after weekend. This result was really the best way to repay all their hard work.

"There's still 100 points available, so we have to try and focus and never be complacent. The team has done such an amazing job the last few weekends, we need to bring the same focus and performance and keep pushing.

"The harmony in the team and the performance of every single individual in the team is the best it's ever been. But we've always got areas that we can improve on, collectively and for me personally, so we will keep pushing and keep raising the bar."

Valtteri Bottas (started P2 - finished P2)

Valtteri Bottas

"This is a perfect result for the team and a great reward for an amazing performance from the entire team this weekend," said Valtteri.

"I'm happy that we could bring it home like this after qualifying on the front row yesterday. This was my first podium here in Suzuka which was great; I get a lot of support from the local fans, I can really feel it and it means a lot to me.

"My race was pretty straightforward, we actually had a bit of margin to save the engine. It probably looked much closer on TV than it actually was. I had one lockup going into the last chicane where Max got a bit closer, but otherwise I was just managing and it was all under control.

"The first stint on the Soft tyres was a little better than the second one on the Mediums, where blistering was a bit of an issue, but no drama. Overall, this was a great weekend for the team."

Red Bull Racing Japan 2018 comments

Max Verstappen (started P3 - finished P3)

Max Verstappen

“After the penalty and incident with Seb I’m really happy to come away with another podium in Japan.

The car felt good and we were able to compete at the front for the entire race, which at this track makes it even better. Judging by a few mistakes he made it looked like Bottas was pushing hard on the last few laps. It’s hard to follow anyway so I just did my best hoping he would make another fault and I could be in a position to take advantage.

I felt a little hard done by with the penalty I got while defending against Kimi. I was trying my best to get back onto the track as quickly as possible instead of just cutting the corner, perhaps next time I will just cut the track.

The incident with Sebastian was a very similar mistake to mine in China earlier this year, I think he could have passed easier if he had waited. It shows that even the most experienced drivers can make errors when under pressure. I’m now very excited to get to Austin, we have good performance and it’s a great place to visit.”

Daniel Ricciardo (started P15 - finished P4)

Daniel Ricciardo

“Surprisingly, I was able to come through the field and overtake quite easily. That’s not because I thought I couldn’t personally overtake, it’s just not that easy on this track, but I was able to make good use of the downforce we had on the soft tyre.

I knew we would be quite vulnerable on the straights as we ran very high downforce this weekend, but I could stay close enough in the corners that I could latch onto the tow of the cars ahead on the straights. It was a good set-up and the first part of the race was a lot of fun.

We went on to the mediums to try and cover Kimi and fourth place was kind of written after that. I would have loved a podium and I was kinda of hoping for something to happen up front, but I feel I earned at least a fourth today. It was good to come through the field and on the grid Helmut actually said that he thought fourth place was a little optimistic and possibly out of reach today. So, fourth is like a little victory from the back on this track and it was good to see our strong pace against Ferrari.

A podium would have been even sweeter but I can’t complain with the result and I’m pleased for the Team. All that’s left to say is, arigatooooo Japan.”

Ferrari Japan 2018 comments

Sebastian Vettel (started P8 - finished P6)

Sebastian Vettel

”Today, I found it quite inspirational walking through the garage and watching the guys work!

All the team is fired up and that certainly helps, as the last couple of weeks haven’t been that easy. The spirit is unbroken despite everything.

Races like this are a bit of a hand-over and we know it is difficult from where we are in the point standings, but we don’t have much to lose. We have given everything so far and I believe there’s still something we can learn and understand from the car. So we keep fighting and resisting and we’ll see what the other races bring.

As for the collision with Max, I was obviously pushing to pass, I knew he had a penalty, but I also felt that we were fast. I could see that his battery was clipping, while I had saved some energy from mine. I saw a gap and went for it on the inside, he obviously tried to defend and I couldn’t go anywhere, so we touched. However, this is part of racing.”

Kimi Raikkonen (started P4 - finished P4)

Kimi Raikkonen

“After the contact with Max I saw some parts flying off my car; it was damaged pretty badly on the left hand side. Obviously, this affected negatively the rest of my race. What happened is unfortunate and after that it was pretty difficult to drive on. I had lost a lot of downforce, but there was not much I could do.

It’s impossible to know what our performance would have been without that accident at the chicane; we had improved the car over the weekend, it was getting better and better, but unfortunately this is what we have got today.

It’s been a difficult and poor weekend overall, the result is not ideal. Now we need to look deeply on everything and hopefully we’ll come back at the next race on a more normal situation where we’ll be able to fight.”

Racing Point Force India Japan 2018 comments

Sergio Pérez (started P9 - finished P7)

Sergio Pérez

“Today we had a good result: the best I could realistically hope to achieve.

After yesterday’s poor qualifying we made up a lot of positions and I feel we really got the maximum from the race. Our pace was strong and the team delivered a great strategy.

We knew we had to be aggressive to beat the Haas and we nearly managed to undercut Grosjean at the pit-stop, but I lost a bit of time battling with Leclerc and I just fell short.

At the VSC restart I managed to get really close to Grosjean and when I saw an opportunity I went for it. I am so excited about our performance today. We had to push hard and make some good overtakes: it was a fantastic race.”

Esteban Ocon (started P11 - finished P9)

Esteban Ocon

“The team scored some good points today, but I’m not totally happy because our final result was dictated by the penalty yesterday.

We have shown great speed all weekend – as the fourth quickest team – but if we don’t start higher up it’s difficult to show it in the race.

There were some fun moments today and I had to make a lot of overtaking moves. When you had fresh tyres there was a big pace advantage and our strategy paid off in the end. I was close to catching Grosjean during the final few laps, but there wasn’t a chance to make a move.”

Haas Japan 2018 comments

Romain Grosjean (started P5 - finished P8)

Romain Grosjean

“We need to analyse what happened with the Virtual Safety Car restart. I was right on my delta time and Perez, when the gap was 2.4 seconds before, overtook me straight away. We need to check and see if there is not a problem in the system there. I thought I had done the job on my side.

We did our best. We had a few technical issues on the car, which didn’t make our life easy. I think without those, we clearly had the pace to be in front of all those guys. Onto the next one.”

Kevin Magnussen (started P12 - DNF)

Kevin Magnussen

“Well, I passed Charles (Leclerc) around the outside of 130R, then through the last chicane he kept close and slip-streamed down the main straight. I went to the right, I think he followed for a bit and then went back to the left and clipped my left-rear tire, causing the puncture. It’s unfortunate, but that’s what happens sometimes.

The tire delaminated and ripped all the floor. It damaged the rear wing, the brake ducts, etc., so we had to retire.”

Renault Japan 2018 comments

Carlos Sainz (started P11 - finished P16)

Carlos Sainz Jr

“It was good fun out there today and a very positive race from the team.

We made a decent start to be on the brink of the points and then we had to do some overtaking at the end. For us, a point here is the best we could achieve starting from P13, so that’s a very strong result for us.

The team executed everything very well; the strategy, the pit-stop, it all worked. We knew we were up against it this weekend, so it’s great value to score and now we need to build on this in the final four races.”

Nico Hulkenberg (started P13 - Finished P10)

Nico Hulkenberg

“We tried a different strategy today, starting from sixteenth on the Medium tyre. We were able to show respectable pace relative to the others on softer tyres, but it was always going to be a tough battle starting from where we did.

We thought we could make the Medium last a little bit longer than it did, and then it was unfortunate that I had to retire the car as something didn’t feel right at the rear after the pit stop. Whilst there were no points for me today, Carlos and the team had a great race so it was a good effort at a crucial time in the championship battle. We know we have a lot of hard work ahead of us until the end of the season, but we’re still fighting hard.”

Toro Rosso Japan 2018 comments

Pierre Gasly (started P7 & P10)

Pierre Gasly

"It was a good start as I managed to overtake Brendon and the first stint was great.

I felt good with the car behind Romain and I was pretty close to him, but then we went too long on the first stint as we didn't want to pit into traffic but then several cars undercut us.

We put the Soft tyres on during the pit stop and I enjoyed the battles and overtakes on the first few laps, but then I started to have massive blisters on the rear tyres and I was trying to survive at the end. It could have been better today so we need to analyse more deeply what happened.

We probably didn't make the best decisions, but that happens sometimes, it's easy to say in hindsight that we could have made different choices. It's just a shame after such a good Qualifying yesterday, It would have been great to reward the team and Honda here in Japan for their home race with some points today."

Brandon Hartley (started P20 - DNF)

Brendon Hartley

"I don't feel like I did too much wrong at the start of the race, but I just couldn't get the power down.

For the whole first stint I didn't have much grip and poor traction cost me a lot of time.

Then on the second set I found myself in traffic, I made a couple of overtakes on both of the Williams but in the end I got stuck behind Marcus.

It's a real shame that both cars are outside the points after such a promising result in Qualifying yesterday."

Sauber Japan 2018 comments

Marcus Ericsson (started P20 - finished P12)

Marcus Ericsson

“We knew that it would be a difficult race, but taking our starting position P20 into consideration, finishing in P12 is a result we can be satisfied with.

We had a good pace and the car also felt quite good. I drove on the same set of tyres for the majority of the race, which required a lot of management from my side. It is a bit of a shame not to have started the race from a better position, because points could have been possible.

Nevertheless, it was a positive day, and I look forward to our next chance in Austin.”

Charles Leclerc (started P10 - finished DNF)

Charles Leclerc

“It was a fun race, despite not ending the way we would have liked it to.

The start was busy – I was fighting with some of the cars around me but eventually had to back off. I lost some places there but fought hard to recover them later on during the race.

On the second lap, I was involved in an incident. We made a pit stop shortly after that and changed the nose on my car. We knew that it was not ideal to pit so early, but we had to do that to have a chance to fight for points. After that, it went quite well.

I was able to recover some positions, but, unfortunately, I had to retire from the race because of a mechanical problem on my car. It is a shame not to finish the race, but I look forward to the next one where I hope to fight for some points again.”

McLaren Japan 2018 comments

Fernando Alonso (started P18 - finished P14)

Fernando Alonso

“In spite of the poor result, I did enjoy driving around this track today. The first lap was quite good and intense, and in the Esses especially we were overtaking each other inside and outside and we recovered a few places. In the last couple of laps there was also a good battle with the Williams and [Marcus] Ericsson who were struggling on old tyres, so we had to fight a little bit.

“Even though we were too slow all weekend, in the end it was an enjoyable race.

“Unfortunately, the five-second penalty I received in the first part of the race dropped me down several positions. It wasn’t a big drama, because we were out of the points anyway, but it’s difficult to understand the stewards’ decision as I had nowhere to go but off the track when Lance [Stroll] came across not having seen me, as he said.”

Stoffel Vandoorne (started P19 - finished P15)

Stoffel Vandoorne

“It wasn’t a great race for us. It was pretty difficult at the beginning, and there wasn’t really any possibility to resist the quicker cars. We were more or less passengers on the straights.

“At least the race turned out a little bit better towards the end, and we managed to beat a few cars on pace. With the tyre degradation, we were able to make them last and make a one-stop work, catch up with some cars and hold some other cars behind us.

“I think that was more or less the maximum possible today.”

Williams Japan 2018 comments

Sergey Sirotkin (started P17 - finished P16)

Sergey Sirotkin

"Today was a difficult day. We had to turn our strategy around to a two-stop, which in the end looked like it could be the quickest strategy to the flag.

However, with traffic and other things happening on the track, we didn’t really get chance to fully exploit it, so it was a difficult race. We were able to avoid some of the trouble on the track and gain some positions here and there, so it’s been good in these terms, but at the end of the day we didn’t finish as high as we probably wanted.

A very difficult race but I think we as a team did the absolute maximum from what we could today. With our situation, none of us could do any better, so with this in mind I’m very proud of all the boys effort."

Lance Stroll (started P14 - finished P17)

Lance Stroll

"With Fernando, I just went around the outside of 130R, I got on the grass and then back on the racing line, we made some contact and then he just went straight on, so we both got penalties. It was just a typical first lap racing incident when things get heated.

I just wanted to say to him I didn't push him intentionally or anything like that. After that, the race was quite bad. Nothing went our way today, as races go, it was just a really bad one."

See complete 2018 Japanese F1 GP Results
See current 2018 F1 Championship Standings

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