SUZUKA, JAPAN // Nico Rosberg moved a step closer to winning his first drivers’ title by winning the Japanese Grand Prix to extend his lead over Mercedes-GP teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The German’s ninth victory of the season moves him 33 points clear of the world champion with four races to go.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing was second as he held off Hamilton in the final laps to finish runner-up for a second successive weekend.
Rosberg controlled the race from the start and he paced himself to his 23rd career victory and Mercedes’s 15th of the season.
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Rosberg’s calm afternoon at the front was in contrast to his teammate’s race.
Hamilton made an awful start from second on the grid, his car struggling for grip on an area of track that was still damp from overnight rain, and he fell to eighth by the first corner.
He quickly passed Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, and then gained track position on the second Force India of Sergio Perez and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen during the first round of pit stops.
He overtook Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull for fourth on Lap 14 and then leapfrogged Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari at his second and final pit stop by pitting a lap earlier.
Although he closed in on Verstappen in the closing laps, the Dutchman held his nerve, despite being on older tyres, and held off the Briton.
Hamilton tried to overtake at the chicane on the penultimate lap, but Verstappen dived to the inside and the Mercedes driver ran wide when he out-braked himself.
Vettel and Raikkonen were fourth and fifth respectively, with Ricciardo, the winner in Malaysia last weekend, a distant sixth.
The result also gives Mercedes their third successive constructors’ title.
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