Tag: Victor Archakis

“I’m proud of the business that I built over the past 40 years and all that I have achieved with Formula 1. I would like to thank all of the promoters, teams, sponsors and television companies that I have worked with.

“I’m very pleased that the business has been acquired by Liberty and that it intends to invest in the future of F1. I am sure that Chase will execute his role in a way that will benefit the sport.”

After 40 years in the sport, Bernie Ecclestone stepped down from his role as a chief executive in the Formula 1 Group and replaced by Chase Carey. Liberty Media signed former Mercedes and Ferrari chief, Ross Brawn, as motorsport managing director. Ross Brawn returns to Formula 1 after three years of absence.

Furthermore, the ex-ESPN executive Sean Bratches will be responsible for the commercial part of the sport.

Bernie Ecclestone played a significant role in the recognition of the sport and it was his decisions which boost the publicity of Formula 1. In the last few years, the British were not as famous as he used to be, and the fans were tired of his decisions and the ideas which he proposed in order to make the sport attractive.

How everything started

 

Ecclestone’s enrolment with the motorsport started after the World War II, Bernie was driving in the Formula 3 series, but his career as a driver didn’t last for long. After his short career as a driver, he became Stuart Lewis-Evans manager but the British F1 driver died at the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix.

In the late 1960s, Bernie was the manager of the Austrian Jochen Rindt and a partial owner of Lotus Formula 2 team. Jochen was killed in a crash at the Italian Grand Prix, but he was awarded the championship after his death.

In 1971 Bernie made his first steps as an owner of an F1 team, the British had a talk with Ron Tauranac, the owner of the Brabham team and offered him £100k for the acquisition of the Brabham team. Tauranac accepted the deal and remained in the team as a designer. The Australian didn’t manage to work with Bernie and in 1972 decided to leave the team. Despite some positive results and podium finishes, Ecclestone had to wait until 1981 to celebrate his first Formula 1 title as a team owner. Nelson Piquet won the championship in 1981 and two years later, he became the first driver who won the F1 championship with a turbo-powered car.

During Ecclestone’s final season as an F1 team owner, Brabham scored only eight points. In 1987 made a deal with the Swiss businessman Joachim Luthi and sold Brabham for around $5m.

His role as a Formula 1 Executive

Bernie Ecclestone had a bigger picture for Formula 1 in his mind, as long as he was Brabham’s team owner he also formed the Formula One Constructors Association (a.k.a FOCA). He transformed the F1 from a low publicity motorsport to one of the most competitive and expensive sports.

His basic idea was to increase F1’s exposure on television, at that time the television companies had signed deals with some circuits and even those deals were not permanent. Ecclestone, decided to change that and made deals with the companies and sold the Formula 1 TV rights as a package. Hence, by the 1980s, F1 had become a global sport and almost every race was shown live on TV. A key role in F1’s popularity growth played some famous drivers such as Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.

In the late 1990s, Bernie Ecclestone made a deal with his friend Max Mosley, who at that time was the president of FIA. This deal led to huge profit for Bernie’s company as he took the control of Formula 1 rights from the teams.

Another deal which shocked the F1 community was in 2000 when Mosley sold F1’s commercial rights to Ecclestone until the end of 2110 for a one-off fee of $360m. This led to a domino, as a German TV company bought the rights to F1 but then collapsed and banks took the assets. Finally, in 2006 the German bank BayernLV sold its 47% stake in F1 to a company known as CVC Capital Partners.

For the last ten years, CVC had F1’s TV rights and Ecclestone was the chief executive of the company, hence no one could stop him as he was the one who was responsible for Formula 1 future.

Bernie Ecclestone was accused of bribery by the German authorities and forced to pay $100m to the German courts in order to buy his innocence.

In the last few years, Ecclestone’s publicity is decreasing, that is happening mainly because the British suggested some ideas which aimed to increase the popularity of F1.

In 2014 he suggested a double-points at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi and at the beginning of 2016 suggested to change the format of the qualification session. Finally, Ecclestone was criticized by the Formula 1 fans because he added countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain in F1’s calendar which secured high fees for CVC.

Even if I personally didn’t like and agree with Bernie’s ideas in the past the past few years I have to admit that Formula 1 would not be the same without him, he raised the price of the product to $8bn.

A new era begins for Formula 1 as Liberty took control of the sport and we have to wait to see what Brawn, Carey and Bratches can do in order to improve the quality of the sport and bring the fans back to the circuits.

Victor Archakis

Twitter: @FP_Passion

Almost three years have passed since the announcement of the deal between McLaren and Honda. A very promising deal between two major motorsport teams/engine suppliers, McLaren is one of the most historical teams in Formula 1 and Honda had participated in Formula 1 from various roles. From 2006 to 2008 Honda had its own team, between 2000 and 2005 they supplied BAR and Jordan with engines and from 2015 they signed a deal with McLaren and since then McLaren’s official engine supplier is Honda.

The partnership did not start as well as the majority of the fans was hoped for. In 2015 the two drivers, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, faced several technical issues and forced to retire twelve times in total. Furthermore, in Bahrain Jenson Button did not even start the race as McLaren announced that his car suffered from electrical problems, in Monza Fernando Alonso was penalised with 10 place grid penalty, because his mechanics changed for the ninth time his ICU, Button was also penalised for the same reason, but the British received a five-place grid penalty. The Spaniard retired on lap 50 of the race due to loss of power.

Despite the bad results and the poor engine performance, the two drivers managed to collect 27 points combined. Jenson Button finished four times in the top-10 and scored 16 points, while his team-mate Fernando Alonso scored 11 points and finished two times in the top-10, the first was in Silverstone and the second time was in Hungary where he finished fifth.

McLaren did not set the bar too high for the 2016 season, although the results were positive and showed that the endless work at Woking is paying off. There were still some technical issues which did not allow to the team and to the drivers to score more points and be as competitive as they wanted but made it clear to everyone that McLaren-Honda made huge steps of improvements.

McLaren-Honda completed the season in the sixth place in the construction standings ahead of Toro Rosso and collected 76 points in total, 49 more than the previous season.

Fernando Alonso scored the majority of the points, 54 points in total and finished 10th ahead of the Brazilian driver Felipe Massa. The Spaniard retired at the first race of the season in Australia, but despite the bad start he managed to recover in the following races. Fernando, finished nine times in the top 10, he finished two times in the fifth place. The two best races for Alonso were in Monaco and in the USA.

From the other hand, Fernando’s team-mate, Jenson Button collected 21 points and finished 15th in the driver standings. The Brit champion finished seven times in the top-10 and his best result was in the sixth place in Austrian Grand Prix.

In the upcoming season, McLaren will run with a fully restructured Honda engine and they hope that they will return to the top.

“For 2017, the Honda engine architecture and layout have been altered to serve both for performance and packaging needs,” said McLaren-Honda technical director Tim Goss.

“The new power unit takes much of the learning from the past two seasons, but has been specifically redesigned for this season. This season’s changes rank as some of the most significant we’ve ever had in the sport. That’s likely to change the competition order, because it’s such a big disturbance.” Goss added.

McLaren-Honda is hoping that the new regulations will allow them to close the gap with the other teams and especially with the top three teams and catch Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Personally, I believe that it is an achievable aim and it will be very positive for Formula 1 to see one of the most historical teams to return to the top and fight for a place on the podium.

Jenson Button will not be able to race with the new McLaren, but I am sure that Vandoorne will cover Jenson’s gap with his passion and his driving skills.

The exact date of the 2017 car launch is not known yet, but it will be before the first test in Barcelona.

Victor Archakis F1 Editor
Follow on Twitter: @FP_Passion

(Image courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

It’s almost Christmas, so I decided to send a letter to my dear friend Santa Claus! Enjoy!

Dear Santa (a.k.a. Bernie)

I was a good editor this season and I hope that this Christmas you will visit my desk at the crew towers.

I don’t want something expensive or very complicated for present this year, I wish to bring me a more interesting and exciting 2017 F1 season.

Next year, many new rules will be applied in Formula 1. The aesthetics of the cars will be different, more aggressive, the wings will be wider, the cars will become lighter and the tyres will also be wider than this years.

FIA believes that next year’s cars will be faster by three seconds and that it won’t be necessary to increase my TV’s or laptop’s volume in order to hear the noise of the F1 cars.

I agree that all these changes will improve the sport, but Santa the fans want to see wheel to wheel battles, different winners in almost every race and at least three or four different drivers ready to fight for the title until the end of the season.

By changing the rules doesn’t mean that F1 will become as it used to be. Formula 1 is not the sport that only one team dominates and win 19 of the 21 races of the season and where only two drivers from the same team fight for the title.

Please, Santa can you bring back the sport which we loved?

P.S. I was wondering if Channel 4 or Sky could hire Button, Massa and Rosberg as commentators.

Yours sincerely,

Victor Archakis

(Image Courtesy of North Pole)

Abu Dhabi was the final pit-stop for the Formula 1 teams and fans. After a very long season, the longest in Formula 1 history, and 21 races, the 2016 season belongs to the past. After a dramatic finale, Lewis Hamilton took the last chequered flag of the season, but Nico Rosberg was the big winner.

The German finished second and celebrated his first world title, but he decided to retire a few days after the race. Rosberg’s decision to retire from Formula 1 surprised the majority of the fans and the press. Nico decided to retire from F1, before the final race, but he kept it secret between him and his family.

How did everything start

As I said earlier, 2016 was a long season, we saw the five lights for 21 times and some of these races were very dramatic and emotional. From the beginning it was clear the Mercedes will dominate once again, hence the title would be decided between Hamilton and Rosberg.

The odds were with the Brit, as he won the 2014 and 2015 title and he was in a top form, whilst Nico didn’t seem able to challenge him.

Everything changed in the kangaroos’ land, at the Australian Grand Prix Nico Rosberg made a strong and a very promising start, but he didn’t stop there. The German won the first four Grands Prix, whilst at the same time Lewis Hamilton had to fight for points due to mechanical issues.

In Russia, Hamilton had a problem with the MGU-H unit in Q2 and he qualified tenth. Despite the problems that Lewis faced, he managed to climb up to the second position and finish ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

After the Russian Grand Prix Mercedes’ drivers scored 157 scored combined, Nico Rosberg was leading with 100 points and Hamilton scored only 57 points.

Max Verstappen, The magic Dutch

Rosberg’s winning streak stopped in Spain, a collision between him and Hamilton on the opening lap, forced both drivers to retire and allowed to Max Verstappen to shine and become the youngest driver who wins an F1 race.

The Dutch had been promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing after the Russian Grand Prix, and he had the pleasure to win his first Grand Prix in F1 in his debut with Red Bull. After a thrilling racing, Max showed a very mature side of his personality and with his great driving skills, he managed to stay ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and take the chequered flag in Spain.

After Spain, Hamilton made his first attempt to comeback in the championship. The Brit won two consecutive races in Monaco and in Canada respectively. Nico Rosberg struggled in Monaco and the heavy rain allowed him to finish only seventh.

In Baku, it was Rosberg’s turn to take the chequered flag and win the European Grand Prix, whilst Hamilton made a mistake on the qualifying session and started the race from tenth place and finished fifth. That gave the chance to Nico to increase his gap in the championship.

Hammertime

In Baku, Hamilton released his hammer and he won the four remaining races before the summer break. Lewis won in Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, and Germany. After an amazing comeback, the three times world champion had the chance to enjoy his summer holidays as he was now leading the championship. The scores were Hamilton 217 and Rosberg 198 points.

In Spa, Hamilton started from the back of the grid, after massive grid penalties, but he managed to recover and finished third, while Rosberg had a quiet evening and took the chequered flag.

The German won in Monza and in Singapore as well, these results moved him up to the first place in the championship, just eight points ahead of his team-mate.

In Malaysia everything was under control for Lewis Hamilton, he was leading for 40 laps, but on the 41st lap, his engine suffered a bearing failure and had to retire the race.

That was a big hit for Hamilton’s chances to win the title. Daniel Ricciardo took advantage of Hamilton’s retirement and won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The final countdown

 

In Japan, Rosberg won for the last time in 2016. After a thrilling race and a bad start from Hamilton, Nico increased his championship lead to 33 points. Max Verstappen finished second, behind the German followed by Lewis Hamilton.

The scores after the Japanese Grand Prix were: 313 for Rosberg and 280 for Hamilton.

The German had the upper hand and the only thing that he had to do in the four remaining races was to finish in the top 3. That was what exactly happened, Lewis Hamilton won in USA, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

That was not enough as Nico Rosberg finished second in all these races and celebrated his first world title in Formula 1.

Get Ready for 2017

A few days after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix the world champion decided to retire and focus on his family. Now Mercedes are looking for Hamilton’s new team-mate, which will probably be Wehrlein.

The 2016 season was not very exciting, the sure thing is that 2017 will not be the same. Massa, Button and Rosberg will be watching the new season from their sofa or from their ex-teams paddocks.

The new regulations will shake the things up, wider tires, more downforce, and fastest cars will make the 2017 season more interesting and fascinating.

Enjoy the break and wish you Merry Christmas.

Victor Archakis – @FP_Passion

(Images Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

I could describe the Brazilian Grand Prix in just two lines, these lines would be like:

Rain, Safety Car, Race, Safety Car, Red Flag, Safety Car, Red Flag, Safety Car, Verstappen flies, Hamilton wins the race.

Then I decided to say a few more words about the race, which my opinion is that it was one of the most boring and excited, at the same time, races in Formula 1.

Hamilton qualified first on Saturday’s qualifying session and started the race from the pole-position. The stewards, after a ten minute delay, decided to start the race behind the Safety Car, which automatically gave an advantage to Lewis Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg qualified behind his team-mate and he simply wanted to avoid any contact with other cars. When the race started, Nico lost his second place from the young Max Verstappen, but not for long.

The Dutch passed Rosberg on lap 32, but a few laps later, Red Bull Racing decided to pit Max Verstappen and gamble with the intermediate tyres. The weather had different plans from Red Bull. On lap 48, Felipe Massa crashed on the pit straight and the safety car deployed once again. The track’s conditions after the heavy rain were not ideal for intermediates, hence Red Bull called immediately Verstappen in the pits and swapped back to full wets.

On the same lap, Red Bull did the same with Daniel Ricciardo, but the Australian received a 5-second time penalty, because he pitted when the pit lane was close.

Verstappen re-joined 13th and it was when he started to dance in the rain. The Dutch, recovered and from the 13th place he moved up to third. Max Verstappen was dancing with the wet tyres, it was impossible for anyone to stop him or catch him. Felipe Nasr and Esteban Ocon didn’t want to risk their places and picked not to fight. With two laps remaining, Sergio Perez was third, but then he saw the Dutch in his mirrors. Checo, tried to defend his place, but Max had other plans. Verstappen passed the Mexican after a wheel to wheel battle and finished third behind the two Mercedes.

Max proved once again that if he keeps his head down and work hard he will become one of the greatest drivers in Formula 1.

Sauber was one of the biggest winners in Brazil. Felipe Nasr, after a great drive secured the seventh place for Sauber and scored their first two points of the season. It was a good day for Felipe, he scored his first points in his home race. With these two points, Sauber is now ahead of the Manor in the championship with only one race to go. Marcus Ericsson crashed on the pit straight on lap 8 and retired.

Despite the delays, the safety cars and the red flags, the Brazilian Grand Prix were one of the best races of the season. I know that the life of the drivers was at risk, Kimi Raikkonen avoided the worst when he crashed on the wall same with Felipe Massa when he stopped at the pit entry, but the conditions were hard and they proved why their salaries are high.

Final turn of the championship will take place in Abu Dhabi. It will be Hamilton’s last chance to make the comeback and Rosberg’s time to show how much he want to become world champion for the first time in his F1 career.

Victor Archakis F1 Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @FP_Passion

(Images Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

I had to drink many cervezas and eat tacos to stay awake during the Mexican Grand Prix. The only positive think was the atmosphere from the crowd. Once again, the Mexicans showed how passionate are with Formula 1.

From the other hand, FIA proved again that they don’t want to make the sport interesting and increase the attendance in every race.

Classic Scenario

The scenario of the race was the same with the previous races. The two Mercedes were unstoppable, the only thing that matters is who will get the pole and who will lead the race after the first few laps. It is a battle between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Behind the two Mercedes, there is a battle for the third place between Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. That is not happening very often, only when Ferrari selects the right strategy and don’t ruin their drivers’ race.

Further, behind there is usually a battle for the tenth place, where many drivers want to score a point and finish in the top 10.

McLaren is the only team which sometimes makes the difference and finish in the top 10 like they did in the American Grand Prix.

Food for thought

After the race, I was trying to think what to write about the race because I had to write a review of the Mexican Grand Prix. After a while I decided not to write about Vettel, Ricciardo, and Verstappen, they were by far too many reports about them on the web.

Hence, I took the decision to express my anger on FIA and give some food for thought.

I have only one question for Charlie and Bernie, why they don’t just replace drivers with robots?

It will be exactly the same, and let the drivers to race from their homes. There are so many rules that they don’t allow to the drivers to express their skills and drive as they want. It is a joke after almost every incident to see a message at the bottom of my screen which says, “The incident between the drivers is under investigation”.

Last week a new “under breaking” rule made its debut in COTA. It is ridiculous, if you don’t agree with Verstappen’s move, simply punish him after the race and explain to him that what he did it was very dangerous and it could harm Kimi Raikkonen or any other driver.

You don’t have to apply a new rule for everything. I understand that Max is too young and his brain is above his head, but to set new rules for every incident is not the solution.

Also, it is not necessary to punish with no reason other drivers in order to support the new rule which FIA applied a week earlier.

The sport is going down, and we must do something. It is very sad to see a sport which I loved not to be as it used to be. To pray for rain during a race, to make it more interesting or a mistake from the pit crew during a pit-stop.

I am close to forgetting what “racing incident” means.

It is sad to wait for next season, and hope that because of the new rules the balances will change.

At this point, I want to add, that I want the drivers to race and fight each other under logical conditions. Not to harm each other. But I believe that the majority of them are capable drives and can achieve that.

Next Grand Prix will take place in Brazil, which is one of my favorite circuits. I hope that we will see something different for the teams.

Victor Archakis F1 Editor

Follow me on Twitter: @FP_Passion

(Image Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

From the start until the end of the race, Lewis Hamilton was in charge. For 56 laps he avoided any mistake because he knew that he had to win the USA Grand Prix if he wanted to remain alive in the championship battle with Nico Rosberg.

Nico Rosberg’s only purpose was to finish in the points and as high as possible. Hence, he didn’t have to do much, only to drive safe and quick, as he usually does.

The only driver who managed to challenge Rosberg for the second position was Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian passed Nico on the second turn on the first lap of the race. Ricciardo remained second after his first pit stop, but during the second pit stop Nico took advantage of the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) and regained the second position.

Red Bull called Ricciardo into the pits for his second stop on lap 25. A few laps later Mercedes did the same for Nico, but the VSC deployed because Max Verstappen stopped his car cause of a gearbox problem. Hence, Mercedes pitted both cars and Ricciardo couldn’t do anything.

The Australian finished third, behind the two Mercedes.

A misunderstanding between Max Verstappen and Red Bull, lead to a bad pit stop on lap 26, the Dutch thought that his team called him into the pits, but Red Bull’s mechanics were not prepared for a stop. That cost time to the young driver and from the fourth position he dropped to sixth. A few laps later he retired, due to a gearbox problem.

Ferrari didn’t have the speed to follow the Red Bulls and the Mercedes. The Italians decided to go on a different strategy between their drivers. Kimi Raikkonen was fifth, behind his team-mate Vettel, when Ferrari pitted the Finn for his third and final stop. When he left the pits, his mechanic told him to stop the car, because a wheel was not attached properly, hence Raikkonen stopped at the exit of the pit lane and let his Ferrari roll back where he parked it in Ferrari’s garage.

Ferrari got a £4,500 fine for unsafe release.

McLaren had the pleasure to enjoy a double finish in the points. Jenson Button had a quiet day and finished ninth ahead of Romain Grosjean, who scored Haas’s first point in their home race. From the other hand, Fernando Alonso reminded us, how good and skilful driver he is.

During the final laps of the race, there was an epic battle for the fifth place, between Sainz, Massa and Alonso. Sainz was trying to defend his fifth position from Massa and Alonso, but his tyres were old, so it was difficult for him to remain fifth. Massa attempted to pass Carlos Sainz, but he couldn’t find the right moment to do it. Fernando Alonso was close to the two drivers and on lap 53 the Spaniard made his move at Turn 15 and passed Massa after a wheel to wheel battle.

The Brazilian got a small puncture, but he secured the seventh place. The stewards investigated the incident between the two drivers but no further action was taken.

Alonso was closing the gap to Sainz. Time was pushing, with only one and a half lap to go, Fernando had to make his move. He attempted to pass Sainz on the first corner, but Carlos closed the door. Fernando attacked for the second time, this time dived into the inside in Turn 12 and managed to take the fifth place from Toro Rosso.

The battle for the fifth place was one of the best battles this season for me. Because Alonso is pushing his McLaren to the limits and showed us that McLaren-Honda is here. They are getting better and better and next year they will be close to the top three teams.

Lewis Hamilton, after his victory in Texas, he closed the gap with Nico Rosberg to 26 points. Still, if Lewis wins the three remaining races and Nico finish second, Rosberg will become the new champion.

The Brit needed this victory for psychological reasons, it was his first win since the German Grand Prix in July.

Next stop Mexico City 28-30 Oct 2016

Laps: 71

Circuit Length: 4.304 km

Race Length: 305.354 km

Lap record: 1:20:521 (Nico Rosberg, 2015)

Tyre Allocations: Medium (White), Soft (Yellow), Supersoft (Red)

Mexico circuit returned to the F1 calendar in 2015. Last season Nico Rosberg took the pole position and won the race, followed by Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas with his Williams finished third behind the two Mercedes.

This year the battle for the championship is not over, still, the two Mercedes drivers have to fight each other and Lewis Hamilton must finish above Rosberg at any cost. It will not be easy to achieve that. Rosberg is very concentrate and fast this year, he gets what he wants from almost every race and a disadvantage that Lewis has is that the other teams can’t challenge Mercedes.

It will be interesting to see if Lewis can win the remaining races and if Nico will lose points from Mercedes’ rivals.

Don’t miss my live race coverage on twitter this Sunday. Follow me and @PitCrew_Online.

Victor Archakis

Follow me on Twitter: @FP_Passion

(Images Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

In Japan, Mercedes won their third consecutive constructor’s championship. Nico Rosberg took the chequered flag and extended his championship lead to 33 points from Lewis Hamilton, who finished third behind the young Max Verstappen.

It was Nico Rosberg’s fourth victory after the summer break. The German was faster than anyone else on Saturday’s qualifying session and took the pole position. He started and finished the race from the first place. No one was able to challenge Nico, even when Verstappen closed the gap to almost two seconds, Rosberg put his foot on the throttle and increased the difference between them.

Lewis Hamilton had a bad start, he dropped from the second to eighth position. During the first laps, Hamilton struggled to find the pace and fight back to gain position. On the seventh lap, Lewis passed Nico Hulkenberg and moved up to seventh place, where he remained until his first pit stop. Mercedes made the right call to pit Hamilton on lap 14 and they gave him an advantage compared to his rivals.

When the British rejoined the track he was in front of Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez, it took him a few seconds to catch and pass Ricciardo and move up to the fourth position. Hamilton was almost 14 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel, who was third. On lap 32, Lewis managed to reduce the gap to just four seconds. Mercedes decided to pit the Brit on the next lap.

Vettel remained on the track for one more lap. Ferrari decided to take a risk and swapped from hards to softs. When Sebastian re-joined the track, he was behind Lewis Hamilton. The German closed the gap, but he couldn’t find the space and the pace to attack. After a few laps, Vettel decided not to attack and secure the fourth place.

At the same time, Hamilton closed to Max Verstappen for the second position. The Dutch showed once more his great defending skills. During the nine final laps, Hamilton was within a DRS zone from Verstappen, but the Brit could not get too close.

The British made a last attempt on the final lap on the outside line at the chicane, but he didn’t have the space to break and went straight on.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified third, but he got a five-place grid penalty because Ferrari had to change his gearbox. The Finn had a good fight with Daniel Ricciardo for the fifth position and with Ferrari’s good strategy he managed to secure it.

McLaren wanted to have a better weekend in Japan, as it was a home race for Honda. Alonso and Button finished 16th and 18th respectively.

Nico Rosberg remained focus to his aim, he controlled the race and secured the victory which gave him a 33 points advantage from Hamilton. Now Lewis has to win the remaining races and hopes that his team-mate will lose points.

Next race will take place in Austin.

Victor Archakis F1 Editor
Twitter: @FP_Passion

(Image Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)