2014 Japanese Grand Prix

2014 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 15 of 19 in the 2014 Formula One World Championship
Suzuka Circuit
Race details
Date	5 October 2014
Official name	2014 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.807 km (3.608 miles)
Distance	44 laps, 255.508 km (158.752 miles)
Scheduled distance	53 laps, 307.771 km (191.224 miles)
Weather	Rainy periods with occasional dry spells. Maximum temperatures reaching 22 degrees during the day.
Attendance	142,000
Pole position
Driver	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time	1:32.506
Fastest lap
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:51.600 on lap 39
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Second	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Third	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the 2014 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 5 October 2014 at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Mie. It was the fifteenth round of the 2014 Formula One season and the 29th Japanese Grand Prix held as part of the Formula One World Championship. The 44-lap race was won by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton who started from second position. His teammate Nico Rosberg finished second and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel came in third. It was Hamilton's eighth victory of the season, his first the Suzuka Circuit and the 30th of his Formula One career.

Heavy rain from Typhoon Phanfone made the track surface wet and reduced visibility and the event was stopped after two laps after an attempt was made to start the race from behind the safety car. The race was resumed 20 minutes later. Rosberg immediately fended off an passing manoeuvre by Hamilton heading into the first corner. Rosberg's car was later afflicted with oversteer and Hamilton reduced the time deficit between the two cars. He challenged Rosberg for the lead over the next four laps and overtook him on the 29th lap and immediately pulled away by pushing hard. The race was prematurely ended on lap 46 when Jules Bianchi made contact with the rear of a tractor crane at Dunlop Curve three laps earlier. It was tending to the recovery of Adrian Sutil's car who crashed at the same corner. The result of the race was counted back two laps and Hamilton was declared the winner.

Bianchi was transported to hospital and was later moved to his native France in November. He remained there until his death on 17 July 2015 and was mourned by the motor sport community. Bianchi's accident prompted Formula One's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to research further methods of enhancing safety. The result of the race meant Hamilton increased his lead in the World Drivers' Championship to be ten points ahead of Rosberg, who was in turn 63 points in front of Daniel Ricciardo. Mercedes extended their advantage over Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship, while Williams remained ahead of Ferrari in the battle for third place, with four races left in the season.

Report

Background

The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix was the fifteenth scheduled round of the 2014 Formula One season, out of 19, and was the 29th running of the event as part of the Formula One World Championship. It was held on 5 October 2014 at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Mie. The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as constructors) were Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Force India. Sauber, Torro Rosso, Williams, Marussia and Caterham.

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought four types to tyre to the race; two dry compounds (medium "options" and hard "primes") and two wet-weather compounds (intermediate and full wet). The Medium compound was denoted by a white stripe on their side-walls while the hard tyres were similarly identified but in red. The drag reduction system (DRS) had one activation zone for the race which was on the straight linking the final and first corners. The circuit underwent changes following the previous year's race with parts of the track between the 14th and 15th turns resurfaced, TecPro barriers were installed on the inside after the exit of turn 15 and lamp posts located near debris fences outside turns 13 and 14 were moved back.

Before the race Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship with 241 points, ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg in second and Daniel Ricciardo in third place. Fernando Alonso was fourth on 133 points, nine in front of Sebastian Vettel in fifth. Mercedes were leading the Constructors' Championship with 479 points; Red Bull were second with 305 points. Williams (187 points) and Ferrari (178) contended for third place and Force India were fifth on 117 points. Mercedes had dominated the season with Ricciardo winning the Canadian, Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix. Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Alonso had taken second-place finishes, while Jenson Button, Sergio Pérez and Felipe Massa had all finished in third at least once. Mercedes had to outscore Red Bull by 41 points to clinch the Constructors' title in Japan.

Despite having reclaimed the lead of the Drivers' Championship Hamilton said that he was not relieved because of him having chased a gap only for it to be non-existent. He stressed that he would take a race-by-race approach that his teammate Rosberg utilised but was happy that he was performing well. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated his team's chance of securing the championship was out of their reach although he hoped further reliability problems with the Mercedes cars would lengthen the battle. He ruled out imposing team orders to advantage one driver over the other. Rosberg said he was looking forward to the race because of quick pace of his car which he hoped would achieve a good result.

Typhoon Phanfone, classified as a category four storm, was forecasted to make landfall over the eastern Japanese coast on the Sunday of the Grand Prix, accompanied by heavy rain and winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour (150 mph). Although the storm was predicted to miss Suzuka, the rain from the northern edge of the storm was expected to drench the circuit with steadily increasing heavy rain. The Russian Grand Prix was being held one week after the race meant it was not possible for the Japanese Grand Prix to be rescheduled to the Monday due to the delivery of cargo freight carrying the team's equipment into Russia, although the owner of Formula One's commercial rights Bernie Ecclestone raised the prospect of moving the start time to earlier in the day. He later revealed that the event would proceed as planned. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) race director Charlie Whiting suggested to race organisers that the start time should be moved and warned them the race would not occur unless it was declared safe but they refused.

There were some driver changes for the race's first free practice session. Max Verstappen replaced Jean-Éric Vergne as part of his preparation for a full-time seat at Torro Rosso in 2015. He was aged 17 years and three days which made him the youngest person in the history of the sport to participate in a Formula One race weekend. Caterham confirmed Roberto Merhi would drive in place of Marcus Ericsson, and that Kamui Kobayashi would take part in the race. Formula Renault 3.5 Series driver Will Stevens was announced as taking part in the first practice session in Max Chilton's car, but a problem with paperwork being sent to the FIA Contract Recognition Board caused by industrial action in Germany meant the plan was abandoned.

Practice and qualifying

Lewis Hamilton after he damaged his car in an accident during the third practice session.

Three practice sessions—two on Friday and a third on Saturday—were held before the main Sunday race. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted ninety minutes. The third session was held on Saturday morning and lasted an hour. Mercedes performed race simulations to see how the cars would behave with a heavy fuel load. Rosberg was fastest in the first practice session with a lap time of 1:35.461 seconds, ahead of teammate Hamilton in second. Alonso was third-fastest, ahead of Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen. Magnussen, Ricciardo, Button and Daniil Kvyat rounded out the session's top ten drivers. Mercedes performed race simulations to see how the cars would behave with a heavy fuel load. Verstappen's run was prematurely ended when he pulled over to the side of the track at the S curves with smoke billowing from his engine, and Merhi spun at turn 13 which caused Bottas to swerve to avoid him.

In the second practice session, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the day, a 1:35.078; Rosberg was second and Bottas third. Button was fourth-fastest, ahead of Vettel and Räikkönen. Alonso, Magnussen, Kvyat and Ricciardo followed in the top ten. Some cars went off the track; Ricciardo caused the session to be disrupted for eight minutes when he had oversteer that sent him into the turn 18 barrier. Kobayashi lost control of the back-end of his Caterham at turn three which damaged his rear suspension and front wing, and Vergne stopped his car on the back straight after he exited Spoon curve. Later Esteban Gutiérrez lost control of his Sauber entering Spoon curve and crashed into the tyre barrier. Vergne stopped for a second time after he exited turn 14 with an electrical problem which brought out a second red-flag and the session was prematurely ended due to the limited time available. Rosberg recorded the fastest lap time of the third practice session, a 1:33.228, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso. Massa was fourth-fastest; Bottas was fifth and Ricciardo sixth. Magnussen was seventh-quickest, Vergne eighth, Kvyat ninth and Button completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Hamilton drove quickly heading into the first turn but ran wide onto the run-off area and collided with the tyre barrier, which damaged the front-left quarter of his car. Gutiérrez lost control of the back-end of his car leaving turn 15 but avoided crashing into the wall.

Nico Rosberg had the twelfth pole position of his career.

The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished the session 17th or lower. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to change tyres before the race; these started the race fitted with the tyres with which they set their quickest lap times. Rosberg set the fastest time in the second and third sessions to clinch his eighth pole position of the season, the twelfth of his career, and his first at Suzuka, with a lap of 1:32.506. He was joined on the grid's front row by Hamilton who recorded a lap time nearly two-tenths of a second slower than his teammate. Williams teammates Bottas and Massa qualified third and fourth, and Alonso and Ricciardo took fifth and sixth. Mangnussen made mistakes on his quickest timed lap which cost him time and took seventh. His McLaren teammate Button secured eighth and locked one of his tyres which flat-spotted it and his timing in the first and second sessions were not ideal. Vettel struggled on corners which he normally was able to and was restricted to ninth. It was also partically due to Red Bull opting to use wet car set-ups in the expectations of wet weather conditions. Räikkönen rounded out the top ten qualifiers due to encountering problems with his car's balance which prevented him from pushing hard.

Vergne was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session; his best lap time of 1:34.984 was two seconds off Rosberg's pace in the second session. However he was issued with an ten-place grid penalty because his team had replaced his internal combustion engine, which was his sixth of the season. As a result, Perez inherited eleventh position. He encountered slower cars entering the final chicane which forced him to reduce his speed and lost brake and tyre temperature. Kvyat's final timed lap was disrupted by slower cars, and when he entered the first corner, his tyres had not reached their optimum temperature which compromised his run and took twelfth. Nico Hülkenberg qualified 13th after he locked his tyres at the final chicane. Adrian Sutil progressed into the second period of qualifying after making balance set-up changes and took 14th in the session's closing seconds. His Sauber teammate Gutiérrez took 15th having struggled with gaining more temperature into his tyres and was caught in traffic on his out-lap. Pastor Maldonado failed to advance beyond the first part of qualifying, but Lotus installed a new engine into his E22 chassis on Friday morning, his sixth of the year, which like Vergne, entailed a ten-place grid penalty, but was carried over to the next race because he qualified within the top ten bottom positions. His teammate Romain Grosjean took over 16th position and aimed to qualify higher up but a change of wind direction which prevented him from recording a faster lap time. Ericcson and Jules Bianchi qualified in the 17th and 18th positions. Chilton lost control of the back-end of his Marussia which caused him to start from 21st.

Race

The race took place in the afternoon from 15:00 Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00). The track had a large amount of standing water on its surface, as Typhoon Phanfone had brought heavy rain to the area. There was an air temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) and a track temperature of 24 °C (75 °F). Standing water on the track, which was causing heavy spray and impairing visibility, and all cars would use the full wet tyres. The race began behind the safety car, with no formation lap, and despite the slow speed drivers struggled for grip on the wet surface. Ericsson lost control of his car after acclerating out of the final turn and spun into the gravel trap at the same corner. Marshals pushed his car out of the gravel which allowed him to continue driving. Following complaints from Hamilton that visibility was poor, the race was suspended after two laps. The cars drove back into the pit lane who lined up in grid formation and their engines were turned off. The race was restarted 20 minutes later with all drivers behind the safety car, after less rain had fallen. Alonso stopped his car with an electrical issue, possibly caused a short circuit from the wet-weather conditions, and became the race's first retirement on lap three. His retirement promoted Ricciardo into fifth place, Magnussen sixth and Button seventh.

Lewis Hamilton who won the shortened Grand Prix.

Hamilton became worried with the brakes on his Mercedes which he was told was a sensor problem and not to place his focus on the problem. Hamilton and Vergne reported conditions had improved although Vettel and Massa were more cautious saying visibility remained poor. The safety car drove into the pit lane at the end of the ninth lap, and the cars were allowed to overtake. Button immediately made a pit stop to fit the intermediate tyres. Hamilton attempted to pass Rosberg heading into the first corner but was unable to overtake the German driver. Rosberg began to pull away from Hamilton, while Vettel attempted to pass Magnussen by driving alongside him going into the hairpin but was unable to complete the manoeuvre. He ran wide at Spoon corner but remained on the track by running onto the kerbs. Pérez overtook Kvyat to claim ninth position on the same lap. At the end of the first racing lap, Rosberg led Hamilton by 1.3 seconds, who in turn was followed by Bottas, Massa, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Vettel, Räikkönen, Pérez, Kvyat, Hülkenberg, Sutil, Gutiérrez, Grosjean, Bianchi, Kobayashi, Vergne, Ericsson, Chilton, Button and Maldonado.

Bottas, Ricciardo, Magnussen and Räikkönen made pit stops to change to the intermediate tyres on lap 12. Having his pit stop early, Button moved up to eighth place by the same lap. Massa and Vettel made their pit stops on the following lap, with Vettel moving in front of Massa and rejoined ahead of his teammate Ricciardo. Rosberg made his pit stop on the 14th and rejoined in second position 22 seconds behind Hamilton, who recorded fast sector times in attempt to move ahead of Rosberg after he made his pit stop. However, Hamilton went off the track at Spoon corner and rejoined the circuit by taking to the run-off area. The mistake reduced the time deficit by one second. Rosberg reclaimed the first position when Hamilton approached the exit of the pit lane after the latter made his stop. Rosberg reported his car was producing a large amount of oversteer, while Button held a 6.5 advantage over both Williams cars. Both Red Bull cars had reduced the gap to Massa in sixth by lap 16 and began a challenge for the position. Vettel moved to the inside lane and passed Massa with a narrow margin at the hairpin on the same lap. Ricciardo attempted to do a similar manoeuvre around the outside at Spoon corner but Massa was able to accelerate clear of the Red Bull heading into 130R.

Magnussen made a second pit stop at the end of lap 16 for a replacement steering wheel change. On lap 17, Ricciardo went to the outside of Massa in the Esses and moved to the inside lane which resulted in him passing Massa to move into to sixth place. Rosberg was informed via team radio that further rain was expected within eight minutes. Vettel affected an overtaking manoeuvre on Bottas by going wide and the former drove to the inside to defend his position but the Red Bull car passed him around the outside for fourth place on the next lap. Bottas fell to fifth on the 19th lap when Ricciardo went to the outside in the esses where Bottas initially held the position until Ricciardo moved ahead of him further round the sequence of corners. Vettel began to reduce the time deficit to third-placed Button and Ricciardo was driving at similar speeds to his teammate. Bottas, meanwhile, was being caught by his Williams teammate Massa, who was pulling away from Hülkenberg who went off the track at the second turn. Both Red Bull drivers were the fastest drivers of the field by lap 21 but were 13 seconds behind Button and were a further five seconds adrift of Rosberg, who despite running off the track at 130R, held a one-second advantage over Hamilton who gradually closed the time deficit.

Nico Hülkenberg finished in eighth position.

DRS was enabled on the 24th lap and Hamilton had closed the gap to half a second to Rosberg used the system to affect an pass but was unable to move ahead of his teammate. Räikkönen made a pit stop on the same lap which proved problematic: his mechanics struggled to install a right-front wheel nut correctly. Hamilton tried again on the following lap by running in Rosberg's slipstream and ran on the inside line but Rosberg had enough acceleration to defend first place. Hamilton held a tighter line while Rosberg complained of further large amounts of oversteer on lap 26. On the 27th lap, Hamilton had forgotten to deactivate his DRS system and lost control of his back end of his car; he locked his brakes and went into the turn one run-off area However he caught back up to Rosberg and ran closely behind his teammate heading into the hairpin but Hamilton did not make an attempt to overtake Rosberg. Hamilton moved across the race track during the lap in an attempt to affect an passing manoeuvre. Rosberg's car shuddered and Hamilton got a better run onto the pit lane straight. He ran in Rosberg's slipstream who went into a defensive position and Hamilton drove on the left side of the track and passed Rosberg around the outside heading into the first turn to take over the lead on lap 29. Hamilton immediately pushed hard and started to pull away from Rosberg who experienced a loss of car control heading into the pit lane straight.

Gutiérrez lost ninth position on lap 30 when he was passed by Kvyat who drove over standing water on the inside of the pit lane straight and used DRS. Vettel made his second pit stop for intermediate tyres on the same lap and rejoined in fifth behind Ricciardo but ahead of both Williams cars. Button recorded faster lap times than Rosberg which meant he closed the gap to 12.8 seconds by the start of lap 31. Pérez overtook Gutiérrez to take over tenth position on the same lap. Button made a second pit stop for new intermediate tyres at the end of lap 31 but it took longer than expected because his pit crew changed his steering wheel, and came out behind both Red Bull drivers. Vettel recorded a new fastest lap of the race, a 1:51.915, 2.3 seconds quicker than Hamilton, while Rosberg made his second pit stop which was for new intermediate tyres on lap 33 and came out behind Ricciardo. Magnussen was afflicted with understeer and spun 360 degrees after running onto the astroturf run-off area. Hamilton came into the pit lane at the end of lap 35 to a make pit stop for new intermediate tyres. More heavy rain started to fall in the pit lane on lap 36. Ricciardo took over the first position until he made his pit stop on the same lap and came out behind the two Mercedes drivers and Vettel and Button.

Magnussen ran wide onto the turn one run-off area on lap 38 but rejoined without spinning, while Vergne went off the track at the second corner. Vettel ran wide off the circuit and into the gravel trap at the Esses on the same lap which allowed Button to close up to the German driver. Ricciardo closed the gap to Button on lap and attempted to pass him by go around the inside at the hairpin but Button defended the position by driving to the outside and Ricciardo ran wide. DRS was disabled on lap 41 because the weather conditions continued to deterorirate. Ricciardo attempted a second pass on Button on the same lap by driving on the inside lane into the hairpin but could not complete the manoeuvre because Button took a wide line. He passed Button at the hairpin to move into fourth position on the 42nd lap. Button elected to make a pit stop for his pit crew to fit full wet tyres on the same lap. Sutil crashed at the top of the hill at Dunlop Curve on the 43rd lap. Double waved yellow flags were shown at the corner to warn drivers about the incident, and Whiting chose not to deploy the safety car. Sutil's was extracted from the track by a tractor crane on the same lap and reversed backwards towards an gap in the barrier. Bianchi lost control of his Marussia at 213 kilometres per hour (132 mph) which veered right towards the run-off area on the outside of the Dunlop Curve. He applied his throttle and brake pedals simultaneously but his fail-safe system did not work because the settings of his brake-by-wire system was incompatible.

Two silver cars with amber and headlights turned on. They are driving in wet-weather conditions.

The safety and medical cars were deployed following an accident involving Jules Bianchi on the race's 43rd lap.

Bianchi collided with the rear of the tractor crane which caused extensive damage to his car and its roll-bar destroyed as it slid under it. The impact was such that the tractor crane was partially jolted off the ground causing Sutil's car, which was suspended in the air by the crane, to fall back to the ground. Calculations in July 2015 indicated a peak of 254 g₀ (2,490 m/s²) and data from the FIA's World Accident Database (WADB)—which sources information from racing accidents worldwide—also indicate Bianchi's impact occurred 2.61 seconds after the loss of control, at a speed of 123 km/h (76 mph) and at an angle of 55 degrees. Bianchi was reported as being unconscious after not responding to either a team radio call or marshals. The safety and medical cars were subsequently deployed, and he was treated at the crash site before being taken by ambulance to the circuit's medical centre. Since transport by helicopter was not possible due to the inclement weather conditions, Bianchi was further transported by ambulance, for 32 minutes, under police escort. The destination was the nearest hospital, jp in Yokkaichi, which is located some 15 km (9.3 mi) away from the Suzuka circuit.

The race was prematurely ended when a second red-flag was shown on lap 46 and the final race results were accordingly taken from the running order at the end of lap 44. This gave Hamilton the victory with teammate Rosberg in second. Vettel took third ahead of his Red Bull teammate Ricciardo in fourth. Button clinched fifth position, ahead of Massa and Bottas in sixth and seventh. Hülkenberg, Vergne and Pérez rounded out the points-scoring positions. Kvyat, Räikkönen and Gutiérrez filled the next three positions, albeit one lap behind the race winner, with Magnussen, Grosjean, Maldonado, Ericcson, Chilton and Kobayashi the last of the classified finishers who were able not involved in any incident. Bianchi and Sutil were classified in 20th and 21st despite their accidents. Hamilton's victory was his eighth of the season, his first at the Suzuka Circuit, and the 30th of his Formula One career.

Post-race

Out of respect for the then seriously injured Bianchi, no champagne was sprayed by the top three finishers on the podium. At the podium interviews, conducted by 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell, Hamilton said it had been a difficult race weekend and that he felt his quick pace towards the end of the race was reminiscent of the 2008 British Grand Prix. Rosberg stated it had been a good weekend for his team and congratulated Hamilton on securing the victory. Vettel said he achieved luck with the safety car coming out on track and was very happy with his performance. In the later press conference, Hamilton revealed that he was confident with the balance of his car when he overtook Rosberg on lap 28 and said he did not see any difference in the amount of standing water on the track when further heavy rain fell. Rosberg had his car was similarly set-up to Hamilton's but had not been happy with his car's balance and attempted to find adjustments to it for his pit stop. Vettel felt the weather conditions were borderline and his team elected to make a pit stop because it had deteriorated.

Bianchi's crash overshadowed the race. Initial reports by his father, Philippe, to sports newspaper L'Équipe, were that Bianchi was in critical condition with a head injury and was undergoing an operation to reduce severe bruising to his head. The FIA subsequently said that CT scans showed Bianchi suffered a "severe head injury" in the crash, and that he would be admitted to intensive care following surgery. Bianchi's family subsequently reported that he had a diffuse axonal injury, which is a common traumatic brain injury, in vehicle accidents involving high deceleration. The first family update following Bianchi's emergency surgery was made by his father in the week beginning 13 October 2014. Bianchi was reported to be in a "desperate" condition, with doctors describing his survival as a miracle. Even so, his father openly stated that he drew hope from seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher waking from his coma. Marussia also issued regular updates on Bianchi's condition while rejecting initial speculation about their role in the accident. Former FIA president Max Mosley believed no apportion on blame should be placed upon any person and described the incident as a "freak accident".

Jules Bianchi (pictured in 2012) became the first driver since Ayrton Senna to be killed in a Formula One accident nine months after the race.

Controversy was courted after an amateur video clip of Bianchi's crash was uploaded onto social media showed a marshal waving a green flag at the crash scene. Four time World Champion Alain Prost opined that the marshal should have moved away from the crash scene, while Emanuele Pirro, five time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, stated that this is normal practice and that any person who stated otherwise was "mistaken". It was noted by several commentators that the marshal had committed no error. Former driver and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle called for recovery vehicles to be prohibited from driving on the track. Driver steward Mika Salo defended Whiting's decision not to deploy the safety car after Sutil crashed, and made claims about the race being stopped for the intensifying rain less important. Rede Globo lead commentator Galvão Bueno was vocal in his criticism in Whiting's choice, describing it as "the biggest mistake I've seen in 40 years in Formula One.” Sutil said after the race that he had aquaplaning in Dunlop Curve and that the rain was getting heavier. He noted that tyre wear was increasing and that there was deteriorating visibility and stated that he observed some cars moving around when the safety car was deployed.

The FIA announced a review panel to investigate the cause of the accident, which was made up of former drivers and team principals, and published its findings four weeks later. The report found that there was no single cause of Bianchi's accident. Instead, the contributing factors were found to include track conditions, car speed and the presence of a recovery vehicle on the circuit. The report also made several suggestions to improve safety when recovering stricken vehicles — which were subsequently introduced for the 2015 season — before concluding that it would not have been possible to mitigate Bianchi's injuries through changes to the cockpit design. Since 2015, on safety grounds, the FIA has implemented measures to alter the start time of certain Grands Prix by requiring that it is not less than four hours before either sunset or dusk, except in the case of official night races. In July 2015, Peter Wright, the Chairman of the FIA Safety Commission was quoted as saying that a closed cockpit would not have averted Bianchi's head injuries, while the Vice President, Andy Mellow, also confirmed that attaching impact protection to recovery vehicles was not a feasible solution.

While hospitalised in Yokkaichi, Bianchi remained in a critical but stable condition, and required a medical ventilator. He was taken out of his artificial coma in November 2014 and began breathing unaided, making his relocation to France for admission at the fr (CHU), possible. There, Bianchi remained unconscious and in a critical condition but more accessible to his family for their daily vigil. On 13 July 2015, Bianchi's father publicly conceded becoming "less optimistic" as a consequence of no significant progress and the lapse of time since the accident. He died four days later at the age of 25. His death made him the first Formula One driver to be killed by injuries sustained during a Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna in 1994. On 21 July, he was given a funeral service at Nice Cathedral which was attended by several figures in the world of Formula One.

The result meant Hamilton increased his advantage in the World Drivers' Championship to ten points over his teammate Rosberg. Ricciardo and Vettel maintained third and fourth places, while Alonso remained in fifth position despite his retirement. Mercedes moved further ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship and held a 180-point advantage over the Austrian team. Williams increased their advantage over Ferrari in the battle for third place, while Force India retained fifth position, with four races left in the season.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.671	1:32.950	1:32.506	1
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.611	1:32.982	1:32.703	2
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.301	1:33.443	1:33.128	3
4	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.483	1:33.551	1:33.527	4
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:34.497	1:33.675	1:33.740	5
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:35.593	1:34.466	1:34.075	6
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.930	1:34.229	1:34.242	7
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.150	1:34.648	1:34.317	8
9	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:35.517	1:34.784	1:34.432	9
10	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:34.984	1:34.771	1:34.548	10
11	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:35.155	1:34.984		201
12	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:35.439	1:35.089		11
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:35.210	1:35.092		12
14	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:35.000	1:35.099		13
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:35.736	1:35.364		14
16	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:35.308	1:35.681		15
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:35.917			221
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:35.984			16
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:36.813			17
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:36.943			18
21	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:37.015			19
22	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.481			21
107% time: 1:40.163
Source:

Notes:

• ^1 — Pastor Maldonado and Jean-Éric Vergne both received a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding their quota of five engine components for the season.

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	1:51:43.021	2	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+9.180	1	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+29.122	9	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+38.818	6	12
5	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+1:07.550	8	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	44	+1:53.773	3	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	44	+1:55.126	4	6
8	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	44	+1:55.948	13	4
9	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	44	+2:07.638	20	2
10	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	11	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	43	+1 Lap	12
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	10
13	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	15
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	7
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	16
161	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	22
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	17
18	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	21
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	19
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	41	Fatal accident2	18
21	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	40	Accident	14
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2	Electronics	5
Source:

Notes:

• ^1 — Pastor Maldonado had 20 seconds added to race time for pit-lane speeding.
• ^2 — Jules Bianchi died on 17 July 2015 from injuries sustained during the accident.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos.	Driver	Points
	1	Lewis Hamilton	266
	2	Nico Rosberg	256
	3	Daniel Ricciardo	193
1	4	Sebastian Vettel	139
1	5	Fernando Alonso	133

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos.	Constructor	Points
	1	Mercedes	522
	2	Red Bull Racing-Renault	332
	3	Williams-Mercedes	201
	4	Ferrari	178
	5	Force India-Mercedes	122

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.