Japanese GP: Bottas wins after terrible start for Ferrari

Bottas launched from third to first on the run to the first corner, passing both Ferraris as Leclerc got away slowly and poleman Vettel erred significantly, losing time by moving slightly before the lights went out.

That put Bottas into a lead he never relinquished, while Vettel avoided a jump-start penalty – despite replays clearly showing he moved before the red lights went out – to finish second but could not stop Mercedes wrapping up the teams' title.

After Vettel immediately dropped to second, Leclerc's race was massively compromised moments later at the first corner.

Max Verstappen swept around the outside of Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc after a superior start in his Red Bull, but Leclerc then ran deep into Turn 2 as the corner tightened.

He went wide and clattered into Verstappen, throwing the Dutchman off-track and breaking his own front wing.

Leclerc continued for two laps in third place, irritating Hamilton as the Ferrari's damaged wing showered the chasing Mercedes with sparks and then debris – which broke Hamilton's right-side wing mirror.

On lap three, Leclerc pit, dropping to the tail of the field and behind Verstappen, as race control communicated their first-lap incident would be investigated after all, having initially said it was not necessary.

As Leclerc charged back to sixth, Verstappen struggled with an oddly-handling, damaged car and retired on lap 15, with the clash investigation moving to after the race.

Vettel's fortune with the officials allowed him to stay in the lead fight and hold up Hamilton, allowing Bottas to take control and he stretched his lead.

Ferrari moved first in the strategy fight, pitting Vettel on lap 16 with Bottas following suit one lap later and Hamilton stopping on lap 18.

In that time, Bottas's advantage over Vettel rose while Hamilton fell more than 20s adrift, a move that left him irate over the radio.

All three committed to a two-stop strategy, but executed it differently: Vettel pit on lap 31 of 53 and ditched his softs for mediums, while the Mercedes ran longer and opted for softs.

Bottas stopped on lap 36, at which point he was 14s clear of Hamilton, and Hamilton ran an extra seven laps before making his final visit to the pits.

That left Bottas leading Vettel by under 10s, with Hamilton within five seconds behind the Ferrari and armed with fresher, softer tyres.

With five laps to go Hamilton moved into DRS range and had half a look into Turn 2 but Vettel didn't budge and Hamilton ran slightly wide.

Hamilton had a better chance with three laps to go when Vettel got stuck at the final chicane trying to lap a Toro Rosso, backing Vettel into Hamilton and giving Hamilton a great run.

However, Hamilton closed too late on the straight to attack, and Vettel retained the place to the end.

Bottas's win, his first since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, trimmed Hamilton's championship lead to 66 points with 104 still on offer.

Alex Albon scored his best F1 result with fourth place for Red Bull, despite falling behind both McLarens at the start.

He made one of those places back early on with a lunge on Lando Norris that resulted in wheel-to-wheel contact into the final chicane.

Albon got ahead of Carlos Sainz by stopping twice as Sainz implemented a one-stop strategy to finish a fine fifth.

McLaren should have had a double points finish but, after being hit by Albon, Norris had to make an early pitstop because debris from Leclerc's broken wing got caught in his brake ducts. He eventually finished 13th.

Daniel Ricciardo charged to seventh place, executing a very long first stint on medium tyres then switching to softs at the end and picking off several cars with just a few laps remaining

He passed teammate Nico Hulkenberg for ninth and promised his Renault team "I'll get them" as he pursued Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly, who he then picked off on successive laps.

Stroll faded from the top 10 late on, with Hulkenberg nicking ninth and Sergio Perez set to steal the final point from Racing Point teammate Stroll on his penultimate lap.

But having also passed Hulkenberg, Perez crashed out on the final lap after contact with Gasly.

However, it then emerged that the chequered flag light panel had been erroneously illuminated a lap in advance, meaning the results were rolled back. Perez was thus reinstated into ninth place and Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

Race results

Cla	#	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	77	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	52	1:21'46.755
2	5	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	52	1:22'00.098	13.343
3	44	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	52	1:22'00.613	13.858
4	23	Alex Albon		Red Bull	52	1:22'46.292	59.537
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	52	1:22'55.856	1'09.101
6	16	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	51	1:21'51.731	1 Lap
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	51	1:21'57.458	1 Lap
8	10	Pierre Gasly		Toro Rosso	51	1:22'09.795	1 Lap
9	11	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	51	1:22'10.165	1 Lap
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg		Renault	51	1:22'10.780	1 Lap
11	18	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	51	1:22'13.40	1 Lap
12	26	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	51	1:22'17.115	1 Lap
13	4	Lando Norris		McLaren	51	1:22'24.504	1 Lap
14	7	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	51	1:22'37.491	1 Lap
15	8	Romain Grosjean		Haas	51	1:22'44.514	1 Lap
16	99	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	51	1:23'03.072	1 Lap
17	20	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	51	1:23'05.388	1 Lap
18	63	George Russell		Williams	50	1:21'43.978	2 Laps
19	88	Robert Kubica		Williams	50	1:23'11.838	2 Laps
	33	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	14	22'58.020	38 Laps
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