2014 Japanese Grand Prix

  2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of 19 in the 2014 Formula One season
Suzuka Circuit
Date	5 October 2014
Official name	2014 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix[1]
Location	Suzuka Circuit Suzuka, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.807 km (3.608 mi)
Distance	44 laps, 255.508 km (158.752 mi)
Scheduled Distance	53 laps, 307.771 km (191.224 mi)
Weather	Rainy periods with occasional dry spells. Maximum temperatures reaching 22 degrees during the day.
Attendance	142,000
Pole position
Driver	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time	1:32.506
Fastest lap
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:51.600 on lap 39
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Second	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Third	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2014 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that was held on 5 October 2014 at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan.^[2] The race was the fifteenth round of the 2014 season, and marked the forty-first running of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Nico Rosberg started the race from pole position,^[3] but after an attempt was made to start the race behind the safety car due to torrential rain, a red flag was shown on lap 2 as the weather conditions were deemed to be unsuitable for racing. The race was resumed 20 minutes later with Rosberg leading until he was overtaken by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

The race was red flagged for a second time on lap 46 following a serious accident three laps prior involving Jules Bianchi, in which he sustained severe head injuries from which he would later die. Race direction chose not to resume the race for a second time and the official positions were taken from the running order at the end of lap 44 with Lewis Hamilton being awarded victory. The race marked only the third time that two red flags have been shown in a single Formula One race after the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix and the 1990 Belgian Grand Prix.

The event resulted in the first driver fatality since the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, as Bianchi died of his injuries on 17 July 2015 after spending nine months in a coma. It is the most recent Formula One Grand Prix in which a competitor has been fatally injured.^[4][5]

Report

Background

Lewis Hamilton crashed during free practice 3

Typhoon Phanfone, classified as a category one storm, was forecasted to make landfall over the eastern Japanese coast on the Sunday of the Grand Prix, accompanied by heavy rain and winds of up to 240 km/h. Although the storm was predicted to miss Suzuka, the rain from the northern edge of the storm was expected to drench the circuit with steadily increasing heavy rain.^[6]

Race

Nico Hülkenberg, pictured during free practice

Eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton in the race

Heavy rain meant that the race was initially started behind the safety car, but the race was red flagged on lap 2, when it became clear that the track was far too wet for racing. Unconventionally, instead of requiring all participants to stop on the grid, they were permitted to line-up in the pitlane (which was reportedly done to cater for the possibility of the event being cancelled altogether and allowing easier access by the each team to their cars). Nearly 20 minutes later, the rain had eased up and the race was restarted, once again behind the safety car. Fernando Alonso had to retire from the race due to electrical issues with his car shortly after the restart.

The safety car pulled in and the race was green flagged on lap 9. Jenson Button benefited greatly by immediately following the safety car into the pits for intermediate tyres, moving up to third position after the remaining drivers followed suit shortly after. Lewis Hamilton, having started the race behind his team-mate Nico Rosberg, managed to overtake him for the race lead at the first turn on lap 29, with Rosberg struggling with oversteer.

Red Bull had elected to run a set-up more suitable for wet conditions in this race, sacrificing qualifying performance.^[7] This gamble paid off for them in the race, with Sebastian Vettel finishing third and Daniel Ricciardo fourth, from ninth and sixth on the grid respectively.

Jules Bianchi's crash

The race was ended under the safety car, with the red flag shown on lap 46 and the final race results accordingly taken from the running order at the end of lap 44.^[8] This premature ending was due to Jules Bianchi, on lap 43, colliding at high speed with a marshal's crane tractor that was tending to the removal of Adrian Sutil's Sauber car, which had spun and crashed on lap 42 in the run-off area on the outside of the Dunlop Curve (turn 7) of the circuit. Bianchi was unconscious after the crash. He was taken by road ambulance to the Mie University hospital under police escort as the FIA stated that the medical helicopter was unable to fly due to the precarious weather conditions.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Bianchi underwent an operation to reduce severe bruising to his head that same day.^[13] The FIA subsequently released a statement that CT scans revealed Bianchi suffered a "severe head injury" in the crash, and he would be transferred to intensive care following surgery.^[14] Bianchi's family subsequently reported that he had a diffuse axonal injury, which is a common traumatic brain injury^[15] in vehicle accidents involving high deceleration. Bianchi succumbed to his injuries on 17 July 2015,^[4] nine months after the accident occurred.^[5]

Post-race

With Kimi Räikkönen finishing 12th and Fernando Alonso retiring, this marked the first Grand Prix that Scuderia Ferrari failed to score a point since the 2010 British Grand Prix (81 races), as well as the first time since the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix (94 races) that a Ferrari-powered car failed to score.

Out of respect for the then seriously injured Jules Bianchi, no champagne was sprayed by Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel on the podium.

Driver reactions

After the race Adrian Sutil told reporters: "I had aquaplaning in Turn Eight. The rain was increasing and the tyres were going down, the light was going down. It was hard to see." Sutil added: "our tires were closer to the end, so the resistance to aquaplaning was not so good any more. I saw quite a few cars shaking around even when the safety car came out."^[16][17] Kimi Raikkonen stated: "Behind the safety car we drive 100kph and you could aquaplane, so even if you slow down you might get into trouble. If there's too much water you can go off, simple."^[18]

Felipe Massa stated: "I was already screaming on the radio five laps before the safety car that there was too much water on the track, but they took a bit too long and it was dangerous. So we saw that there were some crashes at the end."^[16]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.671	1:32.950	1:32.506	1
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.611	1:32.982	1:32.703	2
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.301	1:33.443	1:33.128	3
4	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.483	1:33.551	1:33.527	4
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:34.497	1:33.675	1:33.740	5
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:35.593	1:34.466	1:34.075	6
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.930	1:34.229	1:34.242	7
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.150	1:34.648	1:34.317	8
9	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:35.517	1:34.784	1:34.432	9
10	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:34.984	1:34.771	1:34.548	10
11	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:35.155	1:34.984		20^1
12	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:35.439	1:35.089		11
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:35.210	1:35.092		12
14	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:35.000	1:35.099		13
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:35.736	1:35.364		14
16	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:35.308	1:35.681		15
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:35.917			22^1
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:35.984			16
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:36.813			17
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:36.943			18
21	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:37.015			19
22	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.481			21
107% time: 1:40.163
Source:[3]

Notes:

• ^1 — Pastor Maldonado and Jean-Éric Vergne both received a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding their quota of five engine components for the season.^[19][20]

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	1:51:43.021	2	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+9.180	1	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+29.122	9	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+38.818	6	12
5	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+1:07.550	8	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	44	+1:53.773	3	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	44	+1:55.126	4	6
8	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	44	+1:55.948	13	4
9	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	44	+2:07.638	20	2
10	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	11	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	43	+1 Lap	12
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	10
13	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	15
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	7
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	16
16^1	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	22
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	17
18	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	21
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	19
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	41	Fatal accident^2	18
21	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	40	Accident	14
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2	Electronics	5
Source:[21]

Notes:

• ^1 — Pastor Maldonado had 20 seconds added to race time for pit-lane speeding.^[21]
• ^2 — Jules Bianchi died on 17 July 2015 from injuries sustained during the accident.^[4]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Lewis Hamilton 266 2 Nico Rosberg 256 3 Daniel Ricciardo 193 1 4 Sebastian Vettel 139 1 5 Fernando Alonso 133

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Mercedes 522 2 Red Bull Racing-Renault 332 3 Williams-Mercedes 201 4 Ferrari 178 5 Force India-Mercedes 122

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "2014 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Management. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
2. "World Motor Sport Council". FIA.com. FIA. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
3. "Japanese Grand Prix 2014 Qualifying Results". formula1.com. 4 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
4. DiZinno, Tony (18 July 2015). "Jules Bianchi dies at age 25, his family confirms". NBC Sports. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
5. "Formula One: French driver Jules Bianchi dies aged 25, nine months after Japan crash, Formula One News & Top Stories". The Straits Times. 18 July 2015. Archived from the original on 1 August 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
6. "Formula 1 - Typhoon threatens Formula One's Japanese Grand Prix". uk.eurosport.yahoo.com. Reuters. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
7. "Red Bull drivers take the wet weather gamble at Suzuka". http://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/. Paul Hensby. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014. External link in |website= (help)
8. "2014 Japanese Grand Prix Race Results". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
9. "Formula One driver Jules Bianchi in critical condition after horror crash". ABC. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
10. "AUTOSPORT Live: Sunday - Japanese Grand Prix - F1 2014 Japanese Grand Prix". Autosport. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
11. "Formula 1 - Bianchi 'undergoing surgery' after Suzuka crash". Yahoo Eurosport UK. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
12. Jules Bianchi taken to hospital unconscious following crash. Smith, Luke. NBC Sports Network, 5 October 2014.
13. "Bianchi operato per grave ematoma (update)" (in Italian). Autosprint. 5 October 2014.
14. "F1 driver Jules Bianchi injured after crash in Japan – latest updates", The Guardian, 5 October 2014
15. "Jules Bianchi: Family confirms Formula One driver sustained traumatic brain injury in Japanese GP crash". ABC News Online (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 8 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
16. "Jules Bianchi seriously injured in Japanese Grand Prix crash". BBC Sport. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
17. Cooper, Adam (8 October 2014). "F1: Sutil gives firsthand account of conditions that led to Bianchi's fateful crash". Fox Sports. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
18. Gill, Pete; Galloway, James (6 October 2014). "The questions to be asked after Jules Bianchi's accident in the Japanese GP". Sky Sports. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
19. Collantine, Keith (3 October 2014). "Maldonado set for ten-place grid penalty". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). Retrieved 3 October 2014.
20. Collantine, Keith (3 October 2014). "Vergne also gets grid penalty for engine change". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). Retrieved 3 October 2014.
21. "2014 Japanese Grand Prix results". formula1.com. 5 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.

External links