Valtteri Bottas jumped from third to first with an electric start to win the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and the Finn's Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
AFP
Charles Leclerc finished sixth in the second Ferrari, and with only Bottas now able to overtake Hamilton in the standings, that means Mercedes clinched an unprecedented sixth successive drivers'-constructors' world championship double.
"I'm happy, very happy," said the flying Finn Bottas, who ended a six-month wait for his third victory of 2019 after winning the season-opener in Australia and the Azerbaijan race in April.
"Starting third isn't easy. I had a really nice start, managed to get the lead and then the pace was super good, I could really control the race," he added.
"I'm really proud to be part of the team. A sixth title is really impressive."
"Firstly congratulations to the team," said Hamilton, who now leads the drivers' standings by 64 points from Bottas.
"That's the main point. I just wanted to bring home good points for the team."
Ferrari had enjoyed a front row lock-out in a rare morning qualifying session caused by Typhoon Hagibis but their race unravelled right at the start.
Vettel twitched before the lights went out and his hesitation enabled the fast starting Bottas to leapfrog from third into the lead.
"It was my mistake," admitted Vettel. "It was worse than a poor start, it was a really poor start. With the lack of pace today, second place today was probably the maximum."
Earlier Vettel had produced a perfect lap in the delayed qualifying session to outqualify his teammate, Hamilton, for the first time in 10 races.
The day had been dubbed "Super Sunday" with qualifying and the race taking place back-to-back because of the track having been safely locked down Saturday as Typhoon Hagibis roared past.
