Double shot for the Mercedes team. At the end of the Japanese Grand Prix, on Sunday at Suzuka, the German team was crowned for the sixth time in a row as best manufacturer. She also made sure to win the title. His men, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, are mathematically the last two in the struggle for world laurels.
The Briton, third at Suzuka, sees his lead over his team-mate, winner, reduce from 73 to 64 units. It can still be crowned for the sixth time - the fifth with Mercedes since 2014 - from the next GP in Mexico on October 27 if it scores 14 points more than Bottas.
At the end of the 17th round of 21 on the calendar, the Silver Arrows are 179 leaps ahead of the Championship and can no longer be reached by Ferrari, second. Unprecedented, this sixth consecutive double drivers and constructors will allow the German team to dethrone the Scuderia, sacred six times as a team between 1999 and 2004 but "only" five times with the German Michael Schumacher over the same period.
"Near perfection"
"If I had to summarize, it's the people who work on this project by giving all the best of themselves to their respective positions and the strength of this set that allowed us to win these Championships," said the boss of Mercedes , Austria's Toto Wolff, conductor with his compatriot Niki Lauda, who died on May 20, of these successive triumphs.
"It's pretty crazy to see this come as a reward for so much hard work," marvels Hamilton, "when I joined the team in 2013, I saw the dedication of everyone and it has not changed since , despite the successes year after year ". "From the outside, Mercedes is very close to perfection every time they take the track," said Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) of Germany, third Sunday, "they are very consistent and make almost no mistakes."
The Ferrari missed their departure
In Japan this weekend, the drivers and their teams had to deal with a revamped program due to Typhoon Hagibis' Saturday pass, with two free practice sessions only on Friday and pre-race qualifying on Sunday morning. They produced a surprising first line, driven by Vettel's Ferrari on pole and Monegasque Charles Leclerc in front of Bottas and Hamilton's Mercedes, who had flown over the trials.
But the men in red, especially the German, missed their start three hours later, allowing the Finn to take the lead.