Instead of Hamilton, it was the flying Finn Valterri Bottas, who arguably drove the best race of his career that day, handed the driver's and constructor's title to the Silver Arrows.
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Formula One three years ago was ruled undisputedly by one driver and one constructor, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. In 2019, Mercedes won their sixth consecutive world constructor’s championship which was shortly followed by Hamilton winning his sixth world driver’s title. The silver arrows became the first team in F1 history to win six consecutive double world championships, and it all unfolded at the Suzuka Circuit during the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix. There was one change in the script, however. Instead of Hamilton, it was the flying Finn Valterri Bottas, who arguably drove the best race of his career that day, handed the driver’s and constructor’s title to the Silver Arrows, etching the team’s name into motorsport folklore.
Qualifying was far from dull as two red flags were waved on a wet track in the first session itself. Two minutes into Q1, Robert Kubica’s car strayed onto the grass at the exit of turn 18 and rammed into the barriers. The session restarted after the Williams was cleared off but it was soon to be halted yet again. Four minutes after the restart, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen spun at the same corner and reversed his car into the barriers, damaging his gearbox and and wings in the process.
No session-stopping incident followed in the rest of qualifying but the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari was intense. Sebastian Vettel set a track record at Suzuka to take pole position while Charles Leclerc’s P2 finish guaranteed a front row lockup for the prancing horse. Valterri Bottas ended in P3 as Hamilton finished P4 with Max Verstappen completing the top five.
As the five lights appeared in front of the drivers, fans expected the top two battle to be between Hamilton and Vettel, but a poor start from both Ferrari’s saw Bottas swoop past down the right hand side into turn one into a strong lead right at the off. There were incidents behind him as Leclerc and Verstappen collided but there was no one to stop the Finn from building what would become an unassailable lead.
Bottas pitted on lap 17 from the lead, handing Hamilton the lead of the race. However, high tyre deg and time lost behind Vettel would have made it difficult for Mercedes to win the race with the reigning world champion as he was a pitstop down on his teammate. Hamilton pitted on lap 21 which saw Bottas take the lead and did not out a foot wrong for the rest of the duration of the race.
The race ended during a yellow flag as then Racing Point driver Sergio Perez spun on turn 1 on the final lap, leaving Bottas to finish the job a whopping 13.343 seconds ahead of Vettel in P2. The victory crowned Mercedes the constructor’s champion for the sixth successive time and brought the driver’s title race between Hamilton and Bottas, which meant that the silver arrows would win both titles for the sixth successive time, the first team to ever achieve the feat.
After he crossed the checkered flag, the usually calm and composed Bottas screamed out in jubilation and would go on to say one of the most iconic and fan-favourite moments in recent Formula One history. The Finn thanked Mercedes’ chief strategist James Vowles for a job well done. “James, it’s Valterri. Well done.” It is a fan favourite moment as Vowels often asked Bottas swap positions with Hamilton to help the Brit in his world driver’s championship battle.
