{"id":16392,"date":"2018-10-08T13:02:41","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T18:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=16392"},"modified":"2018-10-08T13:02:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T18:02:41","slug":"lewis-hamilton-wins-japanese-gp-closes-on-fifth-world-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=16392","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton Wins Japanese GP & Closes On Fifth World Title"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hamilton’s Japan Grand Prix Win Puts Him Closer To Drivers’ Championship<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Japanese<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The scene for so many dramatic denouements to the Formula One season, this year\u2019s Japanese Grand Prix has now also surely delivered the decisive victory to ensure Lewis Hamilton<\/a> will secure his fifth world championship. For Hamilton at least, it went entirely to script, a drive of serene control where the win never looked in doubt. But for his rival Sebastian Vettel, Suzuka\u2019s glorious theatre simply closed the curtain on what has been a painful end to his title hopes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

@LewisHamilton<\/b><\/span> <\/a><\/h2>\n

Hamilton\u2019s 71st career victory is his sixth in the last seven races. However, the number that really matters as they leave Japan is the 67-point lead Hamilton now enjoys. He can clinch the title, to equal Juan Manuel Fangio\u2019s five, if he wins the US Grand Prix in Austin on 21 October and Vettel fails to come second. Even then it would likely only delay the inevitable until Mexico the following weekend.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamilton knows it is not quite done yet but tellingly he was willing to take pleasure in undoubtedly coming out on top in his bout with Vettel. \u201cI love that we have those races and those battles and I wish to have more of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI have always been able to go head to head with the guy you compete with, and to see who breaks earlier and who falters is the ultimate challenge. Mental stability under that pressure. I always welcome them and I am glad we have had those moments.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton moved to the brink of a fifth World Championship with a lights-to-flag Japanese Grand Prix victory.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mercedes’ Hamilton was dominant as title rival Sebastian Vettel ran into trouble attempting to gain ground from eighth place on the grid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vettel spun to the back after colliding with Max Verstappen when trying a move for third place at the difficult Spoon Curve – but recovered to finish sixth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The result means Ferrari’s Vettel is 67 points behind Hamilton.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Briton will secure the title at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, in two weeks’ time if he wins the race and Vettel is lower than second, or if Hamilton scores eight more points than him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

All action behind Hamilton<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • It was a soporific race at the front, Hamilton so in control on his way to his sixth win in seven races that he at one point asked his team if they were still there, so little did they need to talk to him.<\/strong>But behind him, there was action aplenty, much of it focused on Vettel.<\/strong>The German knew he had to make up ground quickly if he was to have any hope of stopping Hamilton’s apparently unstoppable march to the title which, for a long time, looked as if it could be the Ferrari <\/strong>driver’s.<\/strong>
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    \"\"All action behind Hamilton<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    It was a soporific race at the front, Hamilton so in control on his way to his sixth win in seven races that he at one point asked his team if they were still there, so little did they need to talk to him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    But behind him, there was action aplenty, much of it focused on Vettel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The German knew he had to make up ground quickly if he was to have any hope of stopping Hamilton’s apparently unstoppable march to the title which, for a long time, looked as if it could be the Ferrari <\/strong>driver’s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There was a short safety-car intervention to clear up debris left by a collision between Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and Charles Leclerc’s Sauber and bodywork strewn around the lap by the Dane as he returned to the pits with a puncture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    After the restart, Vettel was behind Verstappen and he saw an opportunity to pass into Spoon when the Red Bull slowed approaching the corner as the engine went into energy harvesting mode.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Vettel dived for the inside, Verstappen half defended but left space. The Ferrari was mostly alongside entering the corner, only for the two to collide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Verstappen continued without losing much time but Vettel spun to the back of the field and was now consigned to a long afternoon fighting back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The pace advantage of the Ferrari meant he easily climbed back up to sixth by half-distance but that was as far as he could get – and Ferrari declined to order Raikkonen in fifth to slow to let his team-mate by, to gain a couple of extra points.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"Verstappen pressures Bottas<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Hamilton was in total control, but while Mercedes looked to be heading to an easy one-two after the pit stops, his team-mate Valtteri Bottas found himself under pressure from Red Bull’s Verstappen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    After a virtual safety car, called after Leclerc pulled off with a mechanical failure, Bottas began to run into blistering problems with his <\/strong>tyres.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Bottas dropped back from Hamilton and Verstappen was soon on <\/strong>the Finn’s tail, and although he pressured him the end, the Red Bull driver could not get through.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    It was an impressive drive from Verstappen, despite a five-second penalty served at his pit stop for rejoining the track dangerously in the incident with Raikkonen<\/strong>.Verstappen’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also drove well, quickly making up ground from his 15th place on the grid following an engine problem in qualifying.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The Australian eventually taking a strong fourth place as Red Bull outwitted Ferrari, who had another disappointing race overall in a season that promised so much but which has <\/strong>unravelled dramatically in its second half.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hamilton’s Japan Grand Prix Win Puts Him Closer To Drivers’ Championship The scene for so many dramatic denouements to the Formula One season, this year\u2019s Japanese Grand Prix has now also surely delivered the decisive victory to ensure Lewis Hamilton will secure his fifth world championship. For Hamilton at least, it went entirely to script, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,144,1314,1456,1156,13,14,1,537,7,9,10],"tags":[1226,1341,1608,2912,2911,2652],"class_list":["post-16392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entertainment","category-f1-racing","category-global-business-entrepreneurs","category-global-news-updates-and-more","category-global-sports","category-health","category-most-commented","category-news","category-racing","category-sports","category-us","category-world","tag-lewishamilton","tag-1341","tag-1608","tag-2017-wins-71-podiums-131-career-points-2","tag-england-formula-one-world-championship-career-nationality-united-kingdom-british-2018-team-mercedes4-car-number-443-entries-225-225-starts-championships-4-2008","tag-lewis-hamilton-mbe-lewis-hamilton-2016-malaysia-2-jpg-hamilton-at-the-2016-malaysian-grand-prix-born-lewis-carl-davidson-hamilton1-7-january-1985-age-332-stevenage","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}