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Nico Rosberg wins Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton comes third

Nico Rosberg comfortably secured the first position at the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix, while his team mate Lewis Hamilton came third after a pathetic start off the grid. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was second at the podium.

In a race that didn’t have much drama, Rosberg dominated the track from the start. Hamilton, who was second on the grid, wasn't able to control the Mercedes' revs and thus had an extremely slow start. This resulted in his position dropping from second to eighth, even before the first corner. Meanwhile, Rosberg managed to pull ahead and secure enough gap to lead the race throughout.

However, Hamilton managed to show some brave manoeuvres, especially after his first pit stop on Lap 13. He quickly overtook Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen. Left with Rosberg, Verstappen, and Vettel at his front, Hamilton gave in some great lap times to cut Vettel's lead from 12.9 seconds on lap 26 to just 4.2 seconds on lap 33. The British driver made his second pit stop on lap 33, while Ferrari brought Vettel into the pits on lap 34. This gave enough room for Hamilton to go past Vettel to secure the third position. He then tried to attack Verstappen's second spot, but the Dutchman held on to his position to finish second, with Hamilton trailing by just 0.7 seconds.

The Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen secured the fourth and fifth spot, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and the Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. Williams' Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished the top 10 chart of the Japanese GP.

With just four races to go, Nico Rosberg now leads the World Driver Championship by 33 points.
1. Nico Rosberg - 313 points
2. Lewis Hamilton - 280 points
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 212 points

 
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