Mercedes secures 2019 Constructors’ Title, their 6th in a row and now guaranteed a Drivers’ Title.
Valtteri Bottas winning the Japanese Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton coming third means Mercedes has now won their sixth straight record Formula 1 world championship. The race result at Suzuka (Japan) sealed the constructors’ title for Mercedes. 2019 Japanese GP outcome confirms only Hamilton and Bottas contenders for this season’s world championship, this is another win for Mercedes team. British motorsport superstar, Hamilton is leading Bottas with 64 points and he needs to be 78 clear of the Finn to win his sixth drivers’ title in two weeks’ time in Mexico (at the next race).
Mercedes has set a new record as the greatest in F1 history, breaking the former record set by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. Hamilton and Bottas praised the Mercedes team for winning their sixth title in six years in an interview.
Hamilton: “Congratulations to the team. So well deserved to win six years in a row. I just wanted to get the best points for the team today.”
Bottas: “I’m very happy. I had a really nice start. The pace was super good. I could control the race. I’m really proud to be part of the team. A sixth title is really impressive. I’m very happy. Obviously it was a pretty close qualifying and starting third here is never easy. But there’s no point giving up on anything and I knew opportunities were there today and I had a really nice start and Sebastian had an issue and I managed to get into the lead and then the pace was super good. I could really control the race and I really enjoyed it. So I’m very happy.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff dedicated their sixth successive F1 constructors’ title to Niki Lauda (late non-executive chairman).
He (Toto Wolff) said: “We want to dedicate this to Niki because he has been such an important part from the beginning of the journey and his sheer presence was always so important in the mixture between support and pressure. He was just a very special person.”
The Austrian added, “I miss him every day and I think about him every day…he was larger than life personality and I say to myself what would he say and would he think? But it doesn’t compensate for the loss, he’s simply not here anymore.”
Toto Wolff also took his time to commend the team for hitting their targets.
“When we embarked on the journey six or seven years ago, we wanted to win races more regularly and then fight for championships and then six years later it’s the sixth championship in a row. I feel so happy for everybody that was involved. Lots of hard work behind the scenes, lots of painful moments also, but the team was always able to pick themselves up. I think this team has become so strong because we have really been able to stand up when it didn’t go well, like this morning (in qualifying). And that is something we need to continue to work on.”
Results of 2019 Japanese Grand Prix
- Qualification
Position | Driver | Time |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | 1:27.064 |
2 | Charles Leclerc | 1:27.253 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:27.293 |
4 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:27.302 |
5 | Max Verstappen | 1:27.851 |
6 | Alexander Albon | 1:27.851 |
7 | Carlos Sainz | 1:28.304 |
8 | Lando Norris | 1:28.464 |
9 | Pierre Gasly | 1:28.836 |
10 | Romain Grosjean | 1:29.341 |
11 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 1:29.254 |
12 | Lance Stroll | 1:29.345 |
13 | Kimi-Matias Räikkönen | 1:29.358 |
14 | Daniil Kvyat | 1:29.563 |
15 | Nico Hülkenberg | 1:30.112 |
16 | Buddy Rice | 1:29.822 |
17 | Sergio Perez | 1:30.344 |
18 | George Russell | 1:30.364 |
- Race
Position | Driver | Race Time | Pts |
1 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:21:46.755 | 25 |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | +13.343 | 18 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | +13.858 | 16 |
4 | Alexander Albon | +59.537 | 12 |
5 | Carlos Sainz | +1:09.101 | 10 |
6 | Buddy Rice | + 1 lap | 8 |
7 | Charles Leclerc | + 1 lap | 6 |
8 | Pierre Gasly | + 1 lap | 4 |
9 | Sergio Perez | + 1 lap | 2 |
10 | Nico Hülkenberg | + 1 lap | 1 |
11 | Lance Stroll | + 1 lap | 0 |
12 | Daniil Kvyat | + 1 lap | 0 |
13 | Lando Norris | + 1 lap | 0 |
14 | Kimi-Matias Räikkönen | + 1 lap | 0 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | + 1 lap | 0 |
16 | Antonio Giovinazzi | + 1 lap | 0 |
17 | Kevin Magnussen | + 1 lap | 0 |
18 | George Russell | + 2 laps | 0 |
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