The F1 circus arrived at Suzuka, the house of Honda in the country of the rising sun and one of the most loved tracks by the drivers, although with Typhoon Hagibis creating some havoc during the weekend, with the FIA and the JAF cancelling all activity on Saturday. Qualifying was done Sunday morning starting at 10:00 AM local time.

Mercedes came into the weekend with the possibility of clinching the Constructors' Championship if they outscored Ferrari by 14 points, and so they did…

FP1

Practice started and just a few seconds after, Carlos Sainz stopped his McLaren bringing the weekend's first VSC. Afterwards, drivers started to come out but not as fast as expected, considering Saturday's activities cancellation. The other news was the Japanese driver Naoki Yamamoto taking Gasly's place at Toro Rosso for this practice. 

At half time, the order was Bottas, just ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc, Verstappen, and Vettel. 

At the end of the session, it was Bottas leading Hamilton by just 0.07 of a second, with Vettel, Leclerc and Verstappen a bit behind. At the other end, Ant Giovinazzi was able to do just 4 laps in his Alfa Romeo.

FP2

Practice 2 became really important as if for any reason qualifying cannot be done on Sunday, grid position will be the same order at end of FP2.

Vettel was the first driver on track, followed by most shortly after. The Ferrari drivers set decent laps with Vettel's 1:28.392 standing as the fastest lap for some time, until the Mercedes drivers came out, swapping fastest laps between them. 

The all-important finishing order was: Bottas, ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc, Vettel, Albon Sainz, Perez, Gasly, Norris, Raikkonen, Kvyat, Grosjean, Stroll, Giovinazzi, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Kubica, and Russell. Remember, if for any reason qualifying cannot be run on Sunday, this will be Grand Prix starting grid, bar penalties later on.

FP3

Cancelled

Qualifying

This is not the first-time qualifying has been done on Sunday morning, last time was at COTA for the 2015 USGP. Typhoon Hagibis missed the circuit, although some other parts in Japan were hit hard. 

Q1

Ferrari No. 16 was the first on track, followed by No. 5, and Sainz's No. 55. Regretfully just a few minutes into the session, Robert Kubica went into the barriers hard, destroying his Williams and bringing out a red flag. Probably he was caught by the tail wind when entering the front straight. 

Session resumed and this time it was both Alfa Romeos coming out first, followed by both Toro Rosso, bot Racing Points and Russell's Williams. And a few seconds after it was Kevin Magnussen's Haas into the wall at the same spot. Second red flag. This time, Magnussen was able to continue, albeit with both wings broken. As with Kubica, it seems he was also caught by the tail wind affecting that area of the track.

Session was restarted, again. This time it was everybody going out creating a bit of a havoc. At the end it was Leclerc's 1:28.405 the fastest, followed by Hamilton and Verstappen. Out were Ricciardo, Perez, Russell, Magnussen, and Kubica.

Q2

The second part of qualifying started with the majority of the cars coming out. First times were set but with just 2 minutes to go Hulkenberg was advised to get back to the pits without changing gears as they had a major problem. 

At the end it was Bottas from Hamilton and Albon the top three. Out of qualifying were Giovinazzi, Stroll, Raikkonen, Kvyat, and Hulkenberg. 

Q3

The first round of laps was won by Sebastian Vettel's blistering fast 1:27.212, a new track record! he was followed by Leclerc, and Bottas. 

Everybody went back to the pits for the final tweaks, and with just 2 minutes to go went back on track for one last push. And it was Sebastian Vettel who broke the track record for a second time! 1:27.064! And it was a Ferrari front row lock-up with Leclerc in second, they were followed by Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen, Albon, Sainz, Norris, Gasly, and Grosjean.

Race

Everything was set for fantastic racing with two Ferraris ahead of two Mercedes ahead of two Red Bulls ahead of two McLarens. Robert Kubica started from the pit-lane. An interesting fact is that no-one has won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka from the second row.

It was a very slow start for both Ferraris, allowing Bottas to take the lead, a little bit behind, Verstappen was trying to pass Leclerc and they touched, Verstappen went out but could carry on, albeit far behind the leaders in 17th place and Leclerc had front wing damage but surprisingly did not came into the pits. He continued but the damaged part of his front wing fell off right in front of Hamilton, taking out the right-hand mirror from the Mercedes. Leclerc finally came into the pits for new tires and a new nose on lap 4. Later on that same lap 4, Albon misjudged the entrance to the chicane and hit Norris, both were able to carry on, albeit Norris had to come into the pits with his brakes literally on fire, came out last. Leclerc was 18th at the time, and adding to his problems, his left mirror fell off at 130R of all places. 

It took several laps for Leclerc to pass Raikkonen but finally did it in an amazing move entering 130R, he was 14th. On lap 15, Verstappen retired his RB15. 

On lap 17, Vettel came into the pits and changed tires to reds, so a two stop race it was for Ferrari. Bottas came in for mediums a lap later, coming out in second. By lap 21 Hamilton asked to change tires, which he did that same lap, coming out in third. 

Leclerc came back in for new softs (reds) on lap 27, falling back to 12th. Finally, Ricciardo came into the pits on lap 31 to change his mediums for softs. On lap 32, Vettel came for his last stop, coming out in third, that same lap Leclerc passed Hulkenberg for 8th at the same place as most of his passes, on the run towards Spoon curve. A lap later he passed Stroll for 7th, this time at the end of the front straight. Then again, a lap later, he passed Gasly for 6th going into Spoon. 

On lap 36, Bottas came in for his second stop, changing for softs, he rejoined in second, behind Hamilton. 7 laps later, on lap 43, Hamilton came into the pits for softs, coming out in third, just a bit more than 5 seconds behind Vettel. Leclerc came into the pits on lap 47 for reds, he didn't lose a place coming out in 6th. 

What a battle between the world champions, lap after lap Hamilton has tried to pass Vettel but just couldn't. On the last lap Perez went out on turn two, and Bottas won the Japanese Grand Prix, and Sebastian Vettel held off Lewis Hamilton to claim second place. 

With Bottas' win and Hamilton's third place and fastest lap, a new record by the way, Mercedes clinched their 6th constructors' championship in a row, first team in history to make that feat. 

After the race, Leclerc was penalized 5 seconds for hitting Verstappen and 10 seconds for continuing to drive the car in an unsafe condition, dropping him to 7th place.