JAPANESE GRAND PRIX

Well. That didn't work.

If the super typhoon cancelling all of Saturday's activities wasn't enough, Sunday sure sealed the deal.

Overall, I would call this weekend one big sad face emoji.

Except for the track and the fans, of course. There's nowhere quite like Suzuka circuit on an F1 race weekend.

But as far as the Japanese grand prix, itself, was concerned, the misfortunes began before the lights even went out.

Actually, that was the problem. Seb jump started, and it all went downhill from there, (although, weirdly, not for Seb, who snagged that second place podium). Seb didn't get a penalty for the jump start because I guess the steward's magic eight ball said "no" on this one. That's just fine with me, since I love Seb and want to see him succeed.

But we need to talk about the stewards decision-making at this race. Maybe they were still traumatized from the chaos of the typhoon predictions on Saturday, or maybe it was just another day at the office, but whatever was going on in that room during the race is not what F1 needed on Sunday.

Just take a look at my notes below. What you'll notice is that their rulings are all over the place. Their worst crime this race was ruling that the (personally heartbreaking) incident in Lap 1, turn 2, where Charles Leclerc collided with Max Verstappen merited no further action, only to then rule later in the race that the investigation had been reopened, then to rule that the incident will be investigated after the race.

Huh????

Is this under investigation or not?

The feeling of relief I experienced when they first ruled "no further action" on the Leclerc / Verstappen incident was only replaced by rage, then a dull throbbing of disappointment and, eventually, bitterness.

Because once that incident happened, the whole race was given to Mercedes. Again.

It was all over before it even began.

And don't even get me started on that post-race demotion and penalty they slapped on poor, innocent, future champion Charles Leclerc.

The good news for this weekend was that the SUPER TYPHOON was less severe than predicted, and that the drivers were still able to qualify on Sunday morning. And the on-track action was very exciting for the first third of the race.

But still. I can't believe we survived a super typhoon for that race.

See my note below.

Free Practice 1 (Friday)

- Japanese driver Naoki Yamamoto is in this session with Toro Rosso replacing Pierre Gasly

- Announced that in light of the forecast of Super Typhoon Hagibis, all activities for Saturday are cancelled so no FP3 and Quali rescheduled for Sunday morning before the race

- First car out on the track was Carlos Sainz and he barely got out of the pit lane and got stuck in first gear and his Renault powered Mcclaren just died. Virtual Safety car and it hasn’t even been five minutes. Now they have to push it back a steep uphill to the pits.

- This may be the only dry running the cars get all weekend 

- Gio has a hydraulic problem and has to not shift all the way back to the pits

- Daniel lost the front and shot off at the turn but got back on track 

Free Practice 2 (Friday)

- Between FP1 and FP2, the FIA decided that if Quali is cancelled on Sunday morning, then the times done in this session, FP2, will be considered Quali times. So now everyone is frantically trying to go fast in this session 

- Bottas spins and yellow flags it but doesn’t hit the wall so he goes back on track 

- Gunther Steiner got fined 7500 euros for speaking badly over the radio about the FIA after Russia FIA stewards gave Magnussen a penalty about the bollards 

Qualifying (Sunday Morning)

- Quali does go ahead and the typhoon didn’t do damage to the track or anything so the times in P2 that were potential Quali times in case Quali didn’t go ahead don't matter now

- Almost immediately, Robert Kubica goes into the wall coming through the turn into the pit straight during his out lap in a way that looked like he just wasn’t even paring attention. Red flag right away in Q1. 

- 12 min left of Q1 and it’s a red flag again and Kmags went into the wall and he’s actually reversed back out of the wall and then drove back out into the track and now there’s parts everywhere and driving back to the pit so they can work on it right away.

- They’re saying it’s wind that’s caused both Kubica and Kmags to go into the wall in the same place Out in Q1: Kubica, Kmags, Russell, Perez and Ricciardo 

- Nico Hulkenburg has a major hydraulic issue and has to go back to the pits without a time on the board so he won’t get a time down on Q2 

- Out in Q2: Gio, Stroll, Raikkonen, Kvyat and Hulk  

- Very stressful Q3 waiting til the last second to see if Charles or Vettel would get pole and for once Seb got pole

- Top three is Seb, Charles then Bottas, then Ham. Beautiful that Ham is down in P4

(No grid walk shown this weekend)

Race 

- Kubica starts from pit lane after crashing in Quali earlier today 

- Charles runs into Max in the second corner and Charles has front wing damage. Max in back of grid now after spinning and then they didn’t call Charles into the pit to repair the car and goes out for second lap after the team called him in and Charles suggests they continue a little more even though the front wing is sparking and then he does a THIRD LAP without coming in and there’s carbon fiber flying everywhere 

- Race control investigating the Charles and Max incident 

- Hamilton complains about wing damage coming into his face from Charles car

- They said no investigation necessary about Charles and Max 

- When the end plate of Charles wing fell off and hit the wing mirror but now the front wing is fine minus endplate

- Charles pits on lap 4 and gets new front wing and tires 

- Max very upset Charles didn’t get a penalty and stewards rule no investigation necessary on it

- Vettel jump started and moved before lights out so investigating that 

- Alex Albon shunted Norris off the track on a turn and had to pit and brake was on fire but they sent him back out

- Incident between Alex Albon and Lando Norris noted

- And then the stewards changed their minds and reopened the investigation on the turn 2 incident with Charles and Max even though they already ruled no investigation necessary 

- Now Charles left wing mirror flies off after just wiggling and Charles trying to hold it in place

- Seb under investigation for a false start 

- Charles passing Max again from 16 to 17 was so drama but Charles did it and Max didn’t fight because he’s having downforce problems after being hit 

- Rules no penalty for Seb’s alleged false start because apparently he didn’t go past the line where he would gain an advantage 

- Charles is doing insane moves picking off the people ahead one by one 

-15/53 they retire Max after the significant damage on the first lap and decided it would be better to retire to avoid further damage

- Seb locked up really badly going into the pit lane 

- Announce now the incident between Charles and Max will be investigated after the race even though they previously ruled no investigation ughhhhh

- Hamilton’s whining on the radio in this race is truly next level 

- Perez got pushed off on the last lap by Gasly and Perez went into the wall 

- A lot of good chasing in this race,  especially with Charles recovery drive and Seb and Hamilton at the end 

- Final podium: Bottas in 1st, Seb in second, Hamilton in third (which he refuses to celebrate because it's not good enough for him, ughhhh)

Post-Race

- Charles finished P6 but was demoted to P7 after the race by the stewards who gave him a double penalty, 5 seconds for the collision with Max (even though it wasn't his fault) and 10 seconds for driving with damage, although the team were the ones who told the race director they would bring in Charles on the next lap with his damage only to go back on their word and instruct Charles to stay out, which he then did, trusting his team. Ferrari also have a 25,000 euro fine for this whole debacle.