F1 2016: Japanese GP

The Japanese GP: The only one going around in a 8-figure. A challenging 8-figure. A grand prix with a lot of history: The immense battles between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, the bold moves from respectively Alonso on Schumacher and Räikkönen on Fisichella, both in 2005. But the most recent happening might be 2014, sadly enough. The horrible accident with Jules Bianchi, eventual leading in is death, is still a black page for this event. But enough of the history, let's review the highs and lows in terms of driver performances of this years Japanese GP.

Also, in this way, I'd like to congratulate Mercedes with the 3rd consecutive constructors title. Though we all expected it for so long, it's still a massive achievement to do it.

Winners:

Max Verstappen:

Source: Click here

Again voted as Driver of the Day, he was eventually the only one who managed to stay close within the both Mercedes drivers and even managed to stay ahead of Lewis Hamilton, to finish 2nd for the second race in succession. He is now also ahead of Vettel in the world championship standing, perhaps the biggest surprise for now. His defensive line in the second-to-last lap on Hamilton was a bit on the edge, but Lewis wasn't on his inside yet and he would probably not have made the corner anyway. The battle with Lewis also showed how intelligent he is in his racing: He used lots of energy onto the straight, getting away enough to keep Lewis at bay every time he got this DRS. The clever usage of it is the demonstration of what he is capable of.

Williams Martini Racing:

They took the gamble to start on the Medium tire and it eventually worked out, sort of. A longer first stint gave them a little edge over the others, which paid out with a double points finish with P9 and P10. I do believe that finishing fourth in the constructors is still possible, although they do need to raise the game for the last 4 races of 2016 to overhaul Force India. The gap is only 10 points, but in the current situation Force India seems to be in a stronger position. 

Losers:

Mclaren-Honda:

Source: Click here

In the home GP for Honda, Mclaren struggled for race pace. They did not finish close to the points with a P16 and P18 as results. It's a shame, as I felt they were getting close to usual point-scoring positions, but this race showed this might not be the case yet. There is still plenty of work to do for 2017, but they stated that they are ahead with their work for next season. 

Haas F1:

Qualification went great for the both drivers for Haas F1, with both cars in the top 10 qualifying.They could not keep that line up; Grosjean were just behind the 2 Williams drivers in P11, so that wasn't too far away from a single point. But Gutierrez made it even worse: Not even dropping back further, but also a overenthusiastic on Sainz going into the last chicane, leading to a spin and massive time loss. It seems like he is trying his best, but wanting it too much.