The biggest news coming into the Japanese GP were about Raikkonen’s haikus. In case you don’t know what they are (like I did), please have a look at the link. Joking aside, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have played well the team game called ‘F1’ and are on their way to winning both championships again.

The model thinks that Hamilton will once again take the win in Suzuka. This is also backed up his strong performances in both FP1 and FP2. Given that this is literally Vettel’s last chance to bounce back, I’d support him for a somewhat unexpected win. Of course, I’d love to see Kimi repeating his win back in 2005 when he started P17 and finished 1st.

Ocon has received a 3-place grid penalty for failing to slow down for red flag.

Driver	Qualifying Prediction	Actual Qualifying Result	Race Prediction	Actual Race Result
Hamilton	1	1	1	1
Bottas	2	2	2	2
Verstappen	5	3	5	3
Ricciardo	6	15	6	4
Raikkonen	4	4	4	5
Vettel	3	8	3	6
Perez	9	9	9	7
Grosjean	10	5	7	8
Ocon	8	11	8	9
Sainz	11	13	15	10
Gasly	13	7	10	11
Ericsson	16	20	18	12
Hartley	18	6	12	13
Alonso	15	18	16	14
Vandoorne	20	19	20	15
Sirotkin	19	17	19	16
Stroll	17	14	17	17
Leclerc	14	10	11	R
Hulkenberg	12	16	13	R
Magnussen	7	12	14	R