The Losers
Ferrari’s disastrous deja vu
In a horrible echo of Sepang the previous weekend, when Kimi Raikkonen hit trouble even before the race, Ferrari mechanics were inspecting Sebastian Vettel’s engine on the grid. Of all things, a spark plug was playing up.
Initially it seemed the problem was okay. Vettel got off the line second to Hamilton, but by the hairpin Verstappen had seen he was in trouble and pounced for second place. A lap later, Ocon and Ricciardo demoted the Ferrari to fifth going down to Turn 1, and Bottas cheekily blew past, too.
After two laps in sixth place, Vettel was told to pit and retire the car.
"Of course it hurts, and we're all disappointed,” he said, taking the massive disappointment of his nightmare race much better than might reasonably have been expected. “But now we need to get back, get some rest and then go flat out for the last four races and see what happens.
"We still have a chance, but obviously it's not as much in our control as we'd like. Overall the team is in a good way and we are improving race by race. We've gone a lot further than people thought. So, there's also some positives. But, now you don't look at the positives, because it's not the day to look at positives."
In the course of three races, as Hamilton and Mercedes have battled back to competitive pitch, Ferrari’s challenge has literally fallen apart, leaving it a mountain to climb in the final four events. And just to rub salt in the wound he received a reprimand for missing the national anthem and thus risks a grid penalty if he commits one more driving offence before the year is over.
Oh, and while he is now 59 points adrift of Hamilton (having six weeks ago been ahead), he has the other Mercedes of Bottas only 15 points adrift. What it means is that should Hamilton win the next race in Austin, Vettel must finish at least fifth there to keep his meagre title hopes alive.
Sainz’s unfortunate farewell
After the news that he would, after all, be joining Renault before the season was over, Carlos Sainz really wanted to go out with a bang in his last race for Toro Rosso. But not literally. Instead, he clobbered the wall at Turn 7 on the opening lap, and that was it.
“This wasn’t the way I wanted to end my time with Toro Rosso, that’s for sure!” he rued. “I’d like to say sorry to the whole team for retiring on the first lap. I was trying to risk everything at the start to try and gain some positions, so I went around the outside at Turn 6 and I found a lot more dust on the track than I was expecting, and lost it; as simple as that.
“It’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to finishing on a high here in Suzuka with the team. But these three years here have been absolutely amazing – it’s been an ideal preparation for me; the driver I am today, compared to the driver I was in 2015, is a more complete and better one, and this is thanks to Toro Rosso.”
Sainz, who has racked up the second-most starts in Toro Rosso's history, leaves the Italian team as their all-time record points scorer.
