2016 Formula 1 Japanese Grand PrixFormula 1 

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After the heat and humidity of Malaysia we head north to the land of the rising sun, the talk on everyone's lips will be the continuation of Hamilton's mechanical troubles after his engine blew whilst leading. There's more accusations of sabotage within Mercedes, but they have already dismissed all of them. What it has done though is spiced up the title fight. Nico is almost a race win worth of points ahead with 5 races to go. Things are going to get tense, get ready for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Suzuka.jpg




SUZUKA CIRCUIT

FIRST GRAND PRIX
1976

NUMBER
OF LAPS
53

CIRCUIT LENGTH
5.807KM (3.608 Miles)

RACE DISTANCE
307.573KM (191.117 Miles)

LAP
RECORD
1:31.540 Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes, 2005

TYRE ALLOCATIONS
Soft, Medium & Hard

f1-japanese-gp-2016-tyres.jpg


SKY SPORTS CLASSIC RACE SCHEDULE
Tuesday - Japan 1994
Wednesday - Japan 1998
Thursday - Japan 2005
Sunday - USA 2007

2015 RESULT

1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

3 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)

2015 Fastest lap - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:36.145 (lap 33)

For those of you taking part, don't forget to submit your picks in @LMSCorvetteGT2's fantasy F1 league. Here.​
 
  1. Things are certainly getting more interesting, it was sort of nice to see red bull back at the top and Palmer get his first f1 point. If its a crap race, the japanese hats this year will be entertaining. I have seen a front wing hat, a drs hat and now the T camera hat, complete with built in gopro....brilliant !
 
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I'm wondering if this is going to be the race where Rosberg makes his move. He has a car that's good enough for at least second place, and with his championship lead, he only needs one win and four second place finishes to be champion. No doubt he'll want to win all five races, but I have a feeling that he'll try to win the title by picking his moment.
 
A tough track to overtake on, although not impossible. Qualifying and not being destroyed by Vettel on lap 1 will be key here.
 
Sureboss
A tough track to overtake on, although not impossible. Qualifying and not being destroyed by Vettel on lap 1 will be key here.
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[Nor]MclarenF1
I'm really struggling to tell the difference between F1 with and without Maldonado these days.
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Everyone was complaining about Ferrari keeping Raikkonen, but Vettel is going back to his 2014 days and looking more like the one needing to be dropped than Kimi.
 
I think Kimi has upped his game this season, he's having less "Where was he?" weekends. Vettel has had some bad luck, but yes, when things aren't going his way he shows a side of his driving and personality that isn't so great!
 
I think Vettel's dumb actions are him getting desperate. This season is pretty much a lost one for him. Even Button and Alonso are having a better one.
 
Who is Nico going to barge out of the way this week?

How is Maldonettel going to ruin someone's race by turn 1 this time?

Will McLaren bag a cheeky podium?

Find out on another exciting eposide of Mercedes wins lol.

In all seriousness though, Hamilton needs to win this one, but he can handle the pressure. Rosberg is under little pressure, he just has to do what he's done all year which is avoid all bad luck and cruise to victories. That new Honda engine looks solid, could push them into top 5 on merit rather than retirements and good starts and strategy.
 
At least we won't get people saying how utterly dominant Mercedes are this week.

Wonder if Max can tap into the Dutch layout of Suzuka...
 
Lets Analyse Vettel's season. Bold is a Ferrari error, Italic is a Vettel error
AUS: 3rd, should have won but screwed over by Ferrari's comical strategy.
BAH: Engine blew up before race
CHI: Left Kvyat space, panicked and hit Kimi. Somehow managed to end up second by the flag.
RUS: Taken out by Kvyat
SPA: Was put on the wrong strategy. Criticised Ricciardo for "Ping Pong overtakes" (Remember that)
MON: Anonymous in 4th, beaten by Perez
CAN: Bottled it a few times at the chicane, blamed Seagulls and was also unlucky in Ferrari's strategy.
EUR: 2nd place was the best he was going to get.
AUT: Stayed out too long and his tyre exploded.
GBR: Was never pointing forwards and penalised for a rash overtake on Massa (Ping Pong anyone?)
HUN: Anonymous race to 4th
GER: Ferrari were 3rd best team all race anyway. Slowed down a lap too early.
BEL: Squeezed Kimi at turn 1, but Verstappen's move pincered Kimi into Seb, spinning him.
ITA: Ferrari were not fast enough
SIN: Best race of the year really, recovered from last to 5th
MAL: -donado'ed Rosberg at Turn 1 in another "Ping Pong" move
 
No flow maybe, but it had the best wet and dry Japanese Grand Prix's of the last 10 yearsby a mile.
 
That is the other problem though, the location means it rains more often than not, and usually very heavily. Which leads to cancellations, red flags and safety cars.

Suzuka may be too tight for overtaking a lot of the time but it's certainly not impossible and it's still an interesting track to watch.
 
I love Suzuka. Suzuka had its best years before the overtake "button". With the cars they way they are, Fuji seems like a better circuit with the long straight and first half of the circuit.

As for the Hondas, top 10 for both cars, is all I'm asking. Zo will be pushing hard as always.
 
RAIN HYPE

On a more constructive note, I wonder if Red Bull's revival of fortunes allowed them to push Hamilton's power unit to its breaking point in Malaysia, and if that was far beyond what Mercedes are used to.
 
Jimlaad43
Bring back Fuji
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Uh, why?

It has maybe three good corners, compared to Suzuka, where every corner is a good corner. And because the circuit sits in the shadow of Mt. Fuji, monsoonal conditions are practically guaranteed.
 
Suzuka is great driving circuit, but isn't superb for racing.

Would Autopolis be out of the question? I don't really know much about it part from the layout. The circuit itself seems as though it would suit F1.
 
LumpiestFish
Suzuka is great driving circuit, but isn't superb for racing.

Would Autopolis be out of the question? I don't really know much about it part from the layout. The circuit itself seems as though it would suit F1.
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I don't think it would get a Grade 1 from Charlie.
 
psychoazubi
And Mercedes said it had nothing to do with it, because Hamilton was only pushing his tires to the limit.
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Of course they're going to say that. They're not going to admit that their engines can be forced into a catastrophic failure.

LumpiestFish
Would Autopolis be out of the question? I don't really know much about it part from the layout. The circuit itself seems as though it would suit F1.
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Yes. It was actually created to host Formula One, but the circuit is too isolated to be accessible. The company that owned it went bust, and it never got the upgrades it needed to host the race.
 

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