Rate the race: 2015 Japanese Grand Prix

2015 Japanese Grand Prix

27th September 2015, 7:3228th September 2015, 22:33 | Written by Keith Collantine

What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Japanese Grand Prix.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought of every race during the season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix out of ten

10 (2%)
9 (1%)
8 (3%)
7 (19%)
6 (24%)
5 (18%)
4 (14%)
3 (8%)
2 (5%)
1 (4%)

Total Voters: 544

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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2015 Japanese Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
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167 comments on “Rate the race: 2015 Japanese Grand Prix”

blazy
27th September 2015, 7:33
Yawn
1. Egorov (@egorov)
  27th September 2015, 9:12
  Agree.. Better hand over all the trophies to Merc, all the stats to Lewis.. Give team 6 months time to prepare for 2016 season
  1. gweilo8888 (@gweilo8888)
    27th September 2015, 18:54
    You’re joking, right? The 2016 trophies can also be handed over to Lewis and Merc now.
    Until we get the engine homologation rules relaxed and at least some reasonable amount of in season testing allowed plus perhaps a doubling of post season testing, nobody can or will catch up.
    1. Woody (@woodyd91)
      27th September 2015, 21:39
      Ferrari have made huge gains in the engine department, It’s not that they can’t catch up it’s that it takes time and some are making more progress than others.
      1. gweilo8888 (@gweilo8888)
        28th September 2015, 6:10
        No they haven’t. They are just as far behind as ever, their other rivals slipped even further backwards.
  2. Nali (@nali007)
    28th September 2015, 3:27
    Agree….Boring…………………………………………………………………..
    How can anymore catch up without testing…. F1 is killing them self…….. Same result every race then if there is a 1 off , the TV commentator get so excited….
    1. jack (@jackobite)
      28th September 2015, 11:56
      so right, its sporting suicide but for the race a 5, not too bad but a bit boring.
      What if Renault had left? how long will Honda accept insults? get some life into my fav sport!
2. Strontium (@strontium)
  27th September 2015, 15:47
  I agree. To the point where after half an hour I switched off and returned to bed. I got up again for the last five minutes and was pleased to see I had missed nothing except a driver hitting a bollard, a few radio messages, and Rosberg getting second.
3. Nali (@nali007)
  28th September 2015, 3:28
  I forgot to mention, first time I fast forward the race… My Sport is dying…
  1. The Blade Runner (@)
    28th September 2015, 9:10
    @Nali
    It’s a struggle isn’t it? I’m finding myself in an annual cycle which starts with pre and early season excitement but which unfortunately evaporates as the year progresses.
    I think the best perspective I can put on this is as follows:
    Yesterday I recorded both the F1 and the MotoGP. I decided to watch the MotoGP first as I was far more thrilled by the prospect of watching Lorenzo, Rossi and Marquez duke it out and to see a race with continual overtaking. Afterwards I dutifully, and with far less anticipation, watched the F1.
    Such a shame…
    1. Leo B
      28th September 2015, 11:45
      I watched both races live. I don’t understand how you can rate the MotoGP race any higher than the F1 race. It was the same riders leading as ever, bit of dicing between two of them at the end, but mostly a predicable, boring parade. Very small grid also, if you forget about the second division field fillers. Midfield on semi-factory stuff will never catch up. Most races depend on one of the top riders (usually Rossi) messing up the start and then having to catch up.
      In fact this MotoGP was so little exciting that I zapped back and forth to the WWF of Motorsport (DTM, which is stupid, but exciting).
      1. The Blade Runner (@)
        28th September 2015, 13:05
        Each to their own!
        To a degree you’re right, apart from the last few laps it wasn’t the most exciting MotoGP ever. It was still more exciting than the F1 for me. Your comments are also a little out. At the race before last (San Marino) 2 Brits got podiums, one of whom is normally very much midfield. Similarly, at Silverstone in the race prior to that a midfield rider started 18th and finished 2nd (followed by a midflield-ish Ducati).
        Anyway, this is an F1 site so I will say no more myself. I will however leave you with the comments of Niki Lauda from when he attended the Czech MotoGP this August:
        “It’s unbelievable, 350kph or more, and to watch how they control them – it’s the most incredible racing you can see today. Unfortunately, in Formula 1 it is the opposite. The cars are so easy to drive.”
4. Andy Johnson
  28th September 2015, 14:24
  yep boring… the most interesting part was the Beeb’s post race interview with Ron Dennis.. And I can’t imagine Button was too happy with him announcing it like that.
Mark (@marlarkey)
27th September 2015, 7:34
Dull Dull Dull… why did I get up at silly o’clock for this…. sigh
1. Guy (@)
  27th September 2015, 8:30
  Because you thought Ferrari has the genuine pace to challenge Mercedes :).
  Bernie is mad at Mercedes. Hence the “special” tires for Ferrari in Singapore and lack of coverage for Mercedes cars in Suzuka.
  1. Albrecht
    27th September 2015, 8:32
    Please spare us the silly conspiracy theories. They’re painful to read.
  2. Kribana (@krichelle)
    27th September 2015, 8:37
    Toto Wolff was asked something by Sky at the end of his interview, although I didn’t hear it perfectly. But it was something related to whether Bernie was upset or not and decided to stop the TV’s in showing their cars.
    1. Malik (@)
      27th September 2015, 9:12
      @krichelle: Maybe it is related to their refusal to supply RedBull with engines
      1. Woody (@woodyd91)
        27th September 2015, 21:44
        @Malik Well that may not have been as true as the media was reporting judging by Niki’s comments. It would also seem that Red Bull managed to talk their way out of Mercedes engines as well, probably by demanding things they were never going to get, such as a works engine appose to a customer engine.
        Now it would seem that Ferrari are offering them a 2015 engine so are we likely to see Ferrari disappearing from our screens as well for not supplying Bernie’s golden boy with a 2016 engine? Which sort of makes the people saying Mercedes are afraid of competition and Ferrari are not look a little silly.
  3. dynamite
    27th September 2015, 8:46
    I didn’t expect Ferrari to have the pace to challenge Mercedes. Like at all. So it was a bit weird and surprising that Vettel was as fast as Rosberg at the end.
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
27th September 2015, 7:35
Just yet another average 2015 race for me. The midfield was pretty frisky at times but nothing happening in the top 6 for 2/3 of the race. The action in the midfield was better than some races this year though, so I think 6 is about the right score. It certainly could’ve been worse, with no racing at all in the field.
1. ura
  27th September 2015, 8:26
  The moment Mercedes managed to undercut Vettel it was over. Only the possibility of Vettel catching up with Rosberg (which was ridiculous) brought some uncertainty, but even then nothing happened naturally.
Eduardo Holanda (@edu2703)
27th September 2015, 7:35
B
O
R
I
N
G
1. ceng
  27th September 2015, 9:10
  Post – race press conference Rosberg vs Vettel was hilarious. Arguably the most entertaining part of the weekend :D
  1. JayR (@deidunxf1)
    27th September 2015, 10:43
    What happened?
2. Master Luke (@masterluke)
  28th September 2015, 5:19
  W…e…l…l…s…a…i….d.
xivizmath (@xivizmath)
27th September 2015, 7:35
GP2/10
1. hobo (@hobo)
  27th September 2015, 7:36
  @xivizmath – Zing! And agreed.
2. Broom (@)
  27th September 2015, 12:36
  Nice!
3. Excuse me :D (@square-route)
  28th September 2015, 10:48
  Hah
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
27th September 2015, 7:36
2/10. Terribly boring.
ColdFly F1 - @coldfly (@)
27th September 2015, 7:36
6/10. It is so hard to overtake that cars that are 1.5sec faster cannot get past (even DRS doesn’t help).
As expected at the front. I was hoping that Rosberg would/could fight a bit harder and challenge for the win; but he never came close after turn 1.
1. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
  27th September 2015, 7:46
  I agree on the 6. Little bit better than average. Had Vettel managed to get back at Rosberg or something else unexpected it could’ve fought for a 7.
2. hamman
  27th September 2015, 8:29
  Pft. Watching this race I am convinced Mercedes chose the wrong German for their team. Guy wasn’t really faster than a Ferrari on hard tyres with Mercedes.
  1. Broom (@)
    27th September 2015, 12:37
    It’s the right German, fast enough to beat the cars, slow enough not to trouble to numero uno.
Eduardo Holanda (@edu2703)
27th September 2015, 7:36
I regret to wake up early to watch the race.I should have stayed in my bed
FullSpe3d (@dryyoshi)
27th September 2015, 7:37
decided to get up early for this last minute, one of the worst decisions of my life
Colonel RPG
27th September 2015, 7:37
Well, I stayed up late for this one.
I’m off to bed now. It’s a good thing I was playing computer games at the same time, because this was boring as hell.
As, after all, every single freaking race this year.
hahostolze
27th September 2015, 7:38
Boring, nobody in this F1 can overtake, look at how long it took Perez to overtake Ericcson… Is DRS making them lazy or incapable?
1. Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
  27th September 2015, 7:47
  More the 2015 nose rules change ;)
  1. Patrickl (@patrickl)
    27th September 2015, 12:51
    More like improved efficiency of the wings after developing them for a season and a half. The wings are so efficient that the slightest air disturbance stops them working with full effect.
    It’s always what happens when the regulations stay more or less the same season upon season. Overtaking gets more difficult.
2. StefMeister (@stefmeister)
  27th September 2015, 7:53
  look at how long it took Perez to overtake Ericcson
  I don’t really see that as a bad thing, Created a long lasting & proper racing battle rather than some of the immediate/easy passes we tend to see with DRS & tyres the past couple years.
  I love watching that sort of back & fourth battle where the car behind actually has to try & work his way past & put pressure on the car infront which may/may not force a mistake.
  1. hahostolze
    27th September 2015, 8:04
    That’s a good point but it wasn’t really the case here. Perez maybe had two or three moves that didn’t stick before Ericsson made the mistake. The rest of the time all he did was shadow. Which looks exciting but isn’t, not me at least.
  2. DaveW (@dmw)
    27th September 2015, 8:08
    I’m with you. That was the kind of battle you never see any more. Perez had to work like a fiend for that, setting up passes, and finally pushing Ericson into a mistake. Good stuff. Not another lame DRS drive by.
  3. hamman
    27th September 2015, 8:29
    +1
Kribana (@krichelle)
27th September 2015, 7:38
What a disgust. The TV didn’t show the Mercedes’ starts. What is this? 6 for the race.
1. darren
  27th September 2015, 8:30
  Who cares? 8th 1-2 of the season. All of them the same. If you want, watch one of the other 7.
2. Need4Speed (@need4speed)
  27th September 2015, 8:41
  If Rosberg had made the same move on Hamilton, Lewis would have been crying about it on the radio, no doubt.
  1. merabella
    27th September 2015, 8:56
    Hungary.
  2. Ola Ray
    27th September 2015, 12:54
    Rubbish, In Austria Nico jumped Lewis’s poor start and hanged him out side of the track at turn one and two, the same at hungary
  3. Becken Lima
    27th September 2015, 14:32
    Remember Canada start in 2014? I bet not…
naser
27th September 2015, 7:38
strategically , that was good especially for Merc
dex022 (@dex022)
27th September 2015, 7:40
Boring. BTW why nobody even SKY said except very shy once that ultra,giga,mega blonde rapper pushed Rosberg of the track in 1st corner?
1. Kribana (@krichelle)
  27th September 2015, 7:41
  It did look a bit too much in Lewis pushing Nico off the track…
2. hobo (@hobo)
  27th September 2015, 7:42
  @dex022 – Would like to see replays and onboards. They never really showed a useful shot of it.
3. Ju88sy (@)
  27th September 2015, 7:54
  Hardly, Rosberg missed his chance to squeeze Hamilton at the start and Hamilton was on the racing line through to exit of T2 letting the car come over, clear to see from the replay.
  1. Kribana (@krichelle)
    27th September 2015, 8:06
    But, Hamilton looked a little bit to aggressive on Nico in squeezing him out. I wonder how they will react once that move is discussed behind doors…
    1. DaveW (@dmw)
      27th September 2015, 8:19
      Nobody forced anybody anywhere. If Rosberg didn’t want to go off track, he should have held his ground. It’s a car race. But he had already lost the position and so a collision in that case , after Spa, would have caused Wehrlein to start appearing for some fp1s.
    2. Ju88sy (@)
      27th September 2015, 8:54
      Lewis was on the inside racing line at that point the driver on the outside has to be prepared to concede.
      No WDC’s have ever been won from being ‘nice’ on the track, for comparison look back to Schumacher and Senna if you want to see how aggressive and crazy things have been in the past.
      1. Pochyt (@tychop)
        27th September 2015, 12:17
        100% spot on.
        If Senna was next to you, you knew that you only had two options. 1. Keep your line & crash, 2. Backoff and be able to drive on. He made sure everybody knew that.
        Rosberg backed off too much in his career, so why would Hamilton think he wouldn’t do it this time…
        Nice guys finish last. Rosberg is Hamilton’s B1tch.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
27th September 2015, 7:41
6, good racing for Suzuka. Ham pushed Ros of track which ended the race at the front. Many cars went a lap down right early after collisions and reliability limitations. Renault was really disappointing. In the end the race was not that exciting. Outstanding drives for Verstappen and Hulk.
1. Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
  27th September 2015, 7:47
  Forgot Rossi, beat Stevens again. 2nd race and 13kg heavier than Stevens.
Pete (@petey84)
27th September 2015, 7:42
So boring the cameras where fixated on cars battling for a non points finish (12th) for so many laps.
1. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
  27th September 2015, 7:48
  If that is an issue you’re in the wrong sport mate. We want battles whether they are for first, tenth or last. What else would you like to have watched anyway? Hamilton cruising around? Just sit on your doorstep if you like to see cars do nothing.
  1. hobo (@hobo)
    27th September 2015, 7:51
    @xtwl – Fair point, mate. Except if the only battle on track is out of the points, and 3 cars following each other for half the race isn’t really a battle, it’s not a great race.
    1. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
      27th September 2015, 8:42
      It is a battle, just one where the following party didn’t succeed. That happens. The days of cars swapping positions three times every lap are simply (far) behind us.
    2. pete
      27th September 2015, 9:45
      Any battle for the lead in any car race other than f1 can be nothing more than battle for p21 or less.
  2. Woody (@woodyd91)
    27th September 2015, 21:51
    @xtwl Hmm I agree they aren’t going to show much of Hamilton in the race out in front leading, however they hardly showed his pitstop or even dropped in on him through the race, which was strange but ok, however for much of the race Rosberg was no more than 2 seconds in front of Vettel but that was also not shown much on TV either. So it’s not all about Mercedes being so far out in front that they wont bother showing the car on track.
Jon (@jons)
27th September 2015, 7:43
Disappointed, very. 3/10.
1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
  27th September 2015, 13:07
  Same. Made the conscious decision to go back to sleep
WheelToWheel (@lolzerbob)
27th September 2015, 7:45
Waking up at 5:30 am for this? This was alongside Russia 2014 and Australia 2015 for the honours of the worst race in the last two years
Nic Morley (@robocat)
27th September 2015, 7:47
2/10. As soon as Rosberg fell to fourth on the opening lap the race was doomed; Hamilton trounces away with no competition. 2016 cant come soon enough.
1. luis
  27th September 2015, 8:04
  You are rigth i need 2016 or 2017 maybe
  1. Jonny Edwards (@racectrl)
    27th September 2015, 13:43
    At this point i’d rather go straight to 2017. I really wish Mercedes would supply Redbull for the sake of entertainment.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
27th September 2015, 7:48
I thought it was a good race to be honest, Virtually always some close racing going on that was worth following & some good overtaking. Overall I enjoyed it.
If the poll was right I’d give it 7/10.
1. moriaty (@moriaty)
  27th September 2015, 9:32
  Thank you! I’m so tired of people complaining on boring races, particularly ones claiming to be life-long F1 fans. For a narrow old-school track, I thought we witnessed a cracker, or at the very least, a very entertaining race. Today’s start was definitely the most exciting of the season, and the chase between Rosberg – Vettel and Bottas – Kimi was more than enough to keep me alert. Add to this Alonso’s candour, Verstappen’s insane 130R half-move, and the numerous midfield battles, I say hell yes, it was well worth getting up for.
  1. John M
    27th September 2015, 12:18
    Some of us remember racing before DRS, that’s all. Hard to get excited over DRS overtakes, and engine/tire management.
    1. glynh (@glynh)
      27th September 2015, 17:33
      7 for me as well. There was always something happening and alot of close racing. I would have gone higher for a race like this normally but there were no stand out moments.
      Highlights include the first corner, fights for podium positions, lock ups, a big spin and lines of cars racing closely in the midfield.
Amin (@jbfan)
27th September 2015, 7:49
6/10
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
27th September 2015, 7:49
Good race. Will get a lot of complaints as usual since Vettel didn’t win.
Some great non DRS overtakes and good battles midfield.
Hamilton was perfect, nothing to add to that. Vettel made Rosberg sweat at least.
7.
Neil (@neilosjames)
27th September 2015, 7:50
Quite disappointing. After the first corners it was a bit dismal, didn’t seem to have a lot of drama and didn’t feel any sort of tension or excitement.
One or two half-decent overtakes but other than those the best bits were Alonso’s radio messages.
HK (@me4me)
27th September 2015, 7:52
Really frustrating race. Disappointing. It’s barely worth watching – 75% of the time it’s just not that exiting. It’s painful to see Alonso and Button being helpless in the race, and the Red Bull’s and Toro Rosso’s under-powered as well, not to mention the Saubers just under developed and the Manors so so far back. It’s just a too uncompetitive grid, too few cars, too few battles at the front, overtakes being done through the pit stops etc. It doesn’t matter if it’s Spa, Monza or Suzuka. Even these famous tracks can’t complement enought to liven up what is a poor state of F1.
1. Henrik
  27th September 2015, 8:09
  The fix is easy – go from 1.6 litre to 2.0 litre engines. The extra 200 BHp or so provided would make almost everyone competitive and force Pirelli to develop tires that didn’t just spin as soon as the throttle was touched coming out of corners.
  1. ColdFly F1 - @coldfly (@)
    27th September 2015, 11:57
    How would an extra 200bhp make the race more: competitive? increase cars on grid? increase battles (when all have same bhp increase)? or reduce overtakes being done through the pit stops?
bukester (@bukester)
27th September 2015, 7:53
horridly boring. 2
luis
27th September 2015, 7:59
I just need 2016
2015 is so boring
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
27th September 2015, 8:00
10/10 – the first time I got all top 5 of the race correctly predicted (I think). Just pole position wrong.
John M
27th September 2015, 8:01
To you people rating it a 5 or higher, I’d like to find out what would constitute a 3/10 race, or 2/10. Apart from the start there was absolutely nothing of note for the entire race bar the odd DRS overtake in meaningless race positions. To make matters worse we didn’t even see the turn 2 fight on live TV.
Awful. 2/10.
1. hobo (@hobo)
  27th September 2015, 8:02
  I don’t know if the comment above yours is sarcasm, but if not I think that is how it is getting anything above a 5.
2. John M
  27th September 2015, 8:03
  And I wouldn’t even mind these procession races that much, if the cars were V12s being driven at the limit. But we have a bunch of lawnmowers being driven at 75% to preserve tires. Yawn.
3. dragoll (@dragoll)
  27th September 2015, 11:26
  I rated it a 7. It had a good mix of battles through the mid field. Rosberg messed up his start and had to claw his way back and that was interesting to watch, to see if Vettel could hold his fight off. Then we had quite a few drivers out of position due to 1st lap issues, and there was interest to see how far Ricciardo and Massa could get up through the pack. We had Lotus well up in the top 10 for most of the race, due to others being out of the mix. Hulkenberg was out doing Perez despite starting 14th after his 3 grid penalty, and Perez’s race just didn’t happen. In amongst all of that, Sainz attacked the bollard on the way into the pits. We saw a couple of 2.2 sec pitstops from Ferrari.
  I don’t know what you watched man, but I got plenty out of that race.
  1. dragoll (@dragoll)
    27th September 2015, 11:29
    Oh, what I rate as a 2/10 or 3/10 is races where nothing happens at all… So if the entire grid lined up and finished in order, with nothing happening in between.
Janh Kougan (@sameercader)
27th September 2015, 8:03
one of the most boring races of the year (Australia, China, Bahrain, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Japan)
0 out of 10
unbelievably boring! it was so boring that i fell asleep!
Henrik
27th September 2015, 8:03
Best moment of the race? Nate Saunders (ESPN): “Stevens under investigation for speeding in the pit lane. At least the Manor is quick somewhere.”
Alonso’s comment (“GP2 engine, GP2 engine”) bodes ill for the future. Diplomacy is not his forte and Honda will not have taken kindly to that comment, especially not at their home GP. I can see why they are desperate to keep Button…
1. Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
  27th September 2015, 8:27
  Was Stevens actually penalised? Would have been the first time I see a message for speeding in the pitlane come up without penalty.
  1. Henrik
    27th September 2015, 9:09
    Five second penalty.
2. John M
  27th September 2015, 12:21
  Button is huge in Japan, partly due to his wife and the strange Japanese fascination with all things British. I think that’s the main reason Honda like him so much.
f1alex (@f1alex)
27th September 2015, 8:05
I think it was better than some of the races this year. The battle at the front was dead by the exit of turn 2 but the racing lower down the pack was quite entertaining. It was good to see the drivers working harder to make passes than in other races this year, with passes taking a few laps to build up similar to the pre-DRS days. Max Verstappen drove a great recovery drive once again, and Rossi continues to impress me by outperforming Stevens again in only his second race. It’s a shame for Massa and Ricciardo, the mid-top-ten battle would’ve been a bit better with them battling in there instead of being a lap or two behind.
In all I’ll give it a 6/10. Entertaining, but not particularly exciting.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
27th September 2015, 8:07
One of the worst races at Suzuka
Adam (@adamgoh)
27th September 2015, 8:08
4/10. Meh race.
Nelis
27th September 2015, 8:08
Shame Perez pitted as soon as Verstappen got up to Sainz and him. Would have been entertaining to see how the TR team would have reacted after last week ;)
Illusive (@illusive)
27th September 2015, 8:09
6/10 good midfield racing. Roseberg just cant get his act together. Great drive from Hulkenberg, just a single point difference between him and Perez now. Mock Laren is becoming a butt of jokes even among its drivers.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
27th September 2015, 8:10
I settled on a 6. Main argument is on the last page of the relevant F1 Fanatic Live session.
Bolide (@mim5)
27th September 2015, 8:11
when Nico didnt squeeze Lewis enough at the start, I was only hoping he would leave his front wing and let Lewis run over it at turn 2. A racing incident of that ilk is what the race needed but sadly lack of conviction is what epitomises Nico v Lewis. 6
Fixy (@)
27th September 2015, 8:14
I’m fed up of “Rate the race” being “Rate Verstappen’s overtakes”: when a car as dominant as Mercedes has to rely on strategy to overtake its rivals (it did get past Bottas after half race though, decent job from Rosberg there) that’s that. The double overtake on poor old Jenson was my highlight, a few good moves aided by wearing tyres are not enough for sufficiency. 5/10
1. hahostolze
  27th September 2015, 8:26
  Says quite something about the 17 year old rookie that he has become the big attraction point in these races, doesn’t it? Also says a lot about the problems of F1 right now, but still, impressive that he has become the colour in rather bleak times.
Canderous (@yoshif8tures)
27th September 2015, 8:20
Boring. Seeing how pathetic the Honda engine is pathetic and I’m sure the McLaren drivers will not be here next season.
Honda™ – the power to kill dreams
1. Barbara
  27th September 2015, 9:55
  Fastest sounding engine on Grid, even though it’s so slow – IRONY
Nelis (@nelis)
27th September 2015, 8:24
Shame Perez pitted as soon as Verstappen got up to Sainz and him. Would have been entertaining to see how the TR team would have responded after last week ;)
Mahesh (@m47e57)
27th September 2015, 8:27
Sadly I couldn’t drag myself out of bed! So no comments on this one. But I see that Hamilton wins, Rosberg second.. Vettel third. Pretty predictable. Last week Vettel was back with his one fingered salute. Also fairly predictable. Yawn!
Quin (@regeraf1)
27th September 2015, 8:29
2/10
Nico once again proving that he isn’t WDC material.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
27th September 2015, 8:32
A 7 from me. A decent race with lots of battles and decent overtakes on a beautiful track. Vastly superior to the awful borefest of Singapore which only got high grades from some here because Merc hadn’t won
Michal (@michal2009b)
27th September 2015, 8:33
Typical V6 era race.
JohnBt
27th September 2015, 8:44
3 upon 10
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
27th September 2015, 8:57
I’ll give it a 7.
A fair bit of good, close racing & some good overtakes through the field. Enjoyed that one!
banana88x (@banana88x)
27th September 2015, 9:05
I overslept and it seems I haven´t missed anything :) :) :)
Mayank (@mjf1fan)
27th September 2015, 9:06
It was an average dry race in Suzuka. Battle for lead over within few seconds at the start. Some good mid field racing, fights for the positions. DRS actually working as ot should be, bringing cars close but not allowing free highway passes.
I think race director was intellegent enough to focus on Max as he was again providing most of the exciting stuff in the race. This kid has got a great future ahead of him.
Voted 6/10.
andae23 (@andae23)
27th September 2015, 9:13
A generous 7/10. I don’t know, I didn’t think it was that bad to be honest. There wasn’t much tension at the front, but there were some battles further down the order that were shown on the main feed. You would watch a driver being stuck behind another driver for 5-10 laps and then see the overtake, just like we can expect from Formula 1. The race didn’t really ignite or something, very much business as usual, but it was not as dull as people present it here, in my opinion.
1. bezza695 (@bezza695)
  27th September 2015, 9:18
  @andae23 I agree, it was fun to see actual battles that span over 10-12 laps with the guy behind eventually finding a way past and not they close up and DRS past instantaneously, but that is apparently deemed as boring now, just like DRS overtakes are deemed as boring, in other words F1 fans haven’t got a clue what they want to see,
  1. peter
    27th September 2015, 15:42
    No, you overslept and nobody has missed you!
bezza695 (@bezza695)
27th September 2015, 9:15
The racing was good, sure there wasn’t a whole bunch of overtakes but the racing was good, we had a good battle between Alonso, Verstappen and Kvyat that lasted about 10 or 12 laps, the battle for 12th last for a while also, Verstappen again doing good overtakes, it wasn’t as boring as everyone is saying, there was good battles but apparently that doesn’t matter anymore, because there wasn’t a lot of overtakes well good battles don’t tend to have a lot of overtakes, DRS worked perfectly, Mclaren honda however are a joke, Button getting the Spa 2000 treatment was not nice, but overall I enjoyed the battles
Egorov (@egorov)
27th September 2015, 9:17
Keith, rather than choose a rating, just provide a blank text box where we can enter any number from 0.000 to 10.000
1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
  27th September 2015, 13:15
  If it ain’t broke…
altitude2k
27th September 2015, 9:24
It was certainly more interesting than the procession at Singapore.
1. Barbara
  27th September 2015, 9:48
  Got to be Joking, Singapore a procession? c.4 seconds gap between P1 & 2 – at least there the drivers at the front still had to keep their concentration, 1 locked wheel you are in the barriers or lose you place and there was more overtaking action after the last safety car.
  1. altitude2k
    27th September 2015, 10:17
    The gap was small, but did the positions actually swap? No.
Barbara
27th September 2015, 9:42
5/10 – very average.
Matt Buck (@thenewno2)
27th September 2015, 9:42
3/10. It had lots of racing, and a driver I like won, but I just didn’t enjoy it. Perhaps it was the waking up early part.
Matija (@matijaleader)
27th September 2015, 9:56
Just another typical race of this season… Wasnt spectacular but wasnt russia 2014-like neither. There were some interesting battles in the midfield with Ericsson and Perez, Verstappen making a few good moves as usual. Top 6 mostly decided by strategy… We’ve seen worse. 7/10
elio (@elio)
27th September 2015, 10:00
One word: Borefest (2/10).
tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
27th September 2015, 10:28
Not especially thrilling, but I just love watching the cars race at this track. Some nice fights outside of the points – especially the queue of cars behind Ericsson. I gave it a 7.
nomeg1 (@nomeg1)
27th September 2015, 10:50
4/10, lucky to have had the Toro Rosso guys…Verstappen is really one of a kind, like him or not…
ILuvSoundtracks (@)
27th September 2015, 11:00
5. Freaking hell, another race lacking action and drama.
1. Jonny Edwards (@racectrl)
  27th September 2015, 14:30
  4 in a row. We’re breaking records here!
Jure
27th September 2015, 11:11
Something majorly wrong with rules here. Nobody could follow car upfront and those that did nearly crashed.
Even Mercedes had to undercut on ferrari to have a chance. Bring 2017 Asap.
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
27th September 2015, 11:29
1/10 terrible. We need Alonso on that second Mercedes. This would be the best for F1 and the fans.
1. beneboy (@beneboy)
  27th September 2015, 11:48
  @pmccarthy_is_a_legend
  Almost feel sorry for him, at least with Felipe and Rubens during the Schumi years we knew they were being told not to fight and were outright number 2 drivers. Nico just looks slow and hasn’t got any fight left in him.
  He may be consistant enough to bring the car home on the podium most races, but he looks less than championship material every time he gets in the car.
  It’s a shame Mercedes gave him a new contract, the races would be so much better if someone who had the pace to challange Lewis was in their other car.
  1. PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
    27th September 2015, 11:54
    @beneboy +1
  2. Jonny Edwards (@racectrl)
    27th September 2015, 14:39
    Having to constantly watch Rosberg fight back to his rightful place (2nd behind Lewis) is simply not interesting me. I’ve lost count the amount of times he has had to do it. I would’ve respected him much more today if he had took up the option Lewis give him (to have an accident). Lewis has turned him into his litte you know what.
  3. Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
    27th September 2015, 19:53
    @pmccarthy_is_a_legend @beneboy Rosberg is turning himself into a top-class 2nd driver, to be honest. Mercedes offered him with his chance to beat Hamilton, he couldn’t capitalise and now has to realign himself.
    Good or bad, this is actually brilliant for Mercedes at the moment. Their multi-million dollars per year megastar gets to shine, while Rosberg picks up the pieces for the WCC without making a fuss out of it.
    Once Ferrari and (hopefully) Honda and Renault start posing a serious threat (I’m thinking 2017), and if Rosberg starts dropping down the order, I think that’s when they’ll start thinking about a replacement.
    They won’t sign neither Alonso or Vettel, however. That would be inviting trouble right in their own living room. If they get to supply Manor and put Pascal Wehrlein into one of those seats, well, there’s your replacement. :)
    1. PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
      27th September 2015, 22:51
      @antonionartea That is true, Mercedes won’t bring another driver who is truly competitive to rock the boat. Just imagine if they did though. It would be an unprecedented decision. That would be amazing. Great for the fans, great for F1. Nobody tends to complain if one team complete dominates if there is a true intra team battle. It would simply be epic. But thats just utopia isn’t it?
      1. Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
        28th September 2015, 20:49
        @pmccarthy_is_a_legend It would be great indeed, but it wouldn’t be an unprecedented decision. Red Bull did it when they brought Ricciardo in and he did beat Vettel straight up last year. Ferrari did it the year before when they signed Raikkonen to partner Alonso, everyone thought it would be a massive intra-team fight and look how that turned out.
        Sure, these fights weren’t for the championship, one could argue, but what I’m trying to say is that bringing in two competitive drivers, even if it’s in a potent car, doesn’t necessarily mean those drivers will be evenly matched. Imagine if Mercedes puts Hamilton and Alonso in those cars and one dominates the other for whatever reason. I’ll bet you everything that it will turn ugly fast and that the dominated one will be out of that team by the end of the year.
Chris (@tophercheese21)
27th September 2015, 11:50
I gave it a 6.
I actually thought it was a fairly good race. There were some really great battles mainly in the mid-pack (Ericsson-train) and it was hard racing. Suzuka is very tough to overtake on, so to see as many as we did today was a testament to how brave some of these drivers are. Vestappen was brilliant once again, and Hamilton has well and truly got 1.5 hands on the trophy now, he’s just beating Rosberg into submission now. Almost feel bad for the guy.
About the TV coverage, I think it was pretty poor. Missing fights, important pitstops and just general poor direction. Also, they need to stop showing so many super-slow-mo shots. Yes they look cool, but you miss too much of the action when there’s a slow-mo every minute.
AceAce
27th September 2015, 11:50
4/10
What can I say Rosberg is a mediocre driver. Ferrari slaughtered Williams again. DRS overtaking, without it, it would have been a 2/10.
Quite frankly. I don’t even know why I bothered to get up at 5am.
beneboy (@beneboy)
27th September 2015, 11:53
I’m glad I didn’t get up early for that.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
27th September 2015, 12:06
Rosberg looses again, great drive from Lewis, enjoyed watching Max and Hulkenberg, Ricciardo paid again for excessive aggressive driving.
Sham (@sham)
27th September 2015, 12:07
I’m so bored of this tyre formula. No battling even between cars of relatively similar performance, because you daren’t push the tyres even a little because it shortens their life – and a flat spot is a disaster.
And no, cars on different age or compound tyres and DRS passes do not count as battles.
Nase (@)
27th September 2015, 12:19
Bare minimum of racing action. The race was indeed decided at the start: Rosberg lost it, Hamilton won it, Vettel made it onto the podium, the races of Massa’s, Ricciardo’s and Pérez’s were irredeemably ruined.
After that, only Rosberg’s aggressive overtake on Bottas stood out as an unexpected moment (and even that was ruined for me by Martin Brundle’s comment with a yawn in his voice; I guess that’s another way of showing partiality). The rest was decided in the pits.
Also, the race was another bad moment for the championship. After the Monza weekend, it’s hard to feel excited anymore.
My vote: 4
Michael Baumert (@nothingreal)
27th September 2015, 15:09
Certainly not one of the better races in terms of results this year – another “2015 standard podium”.
Still, there’s something visceral and satisfying about watching a race on this course. The battles in the midfield for the last few points paying positions were fantastic – you really get a sense of how physically demanding this track is… and Max Verstappen drove the wheels off that car (again) which was great to watch.
It was also a quite frustrating race – listening to Kvyat plead with his crew to turn up the engine and then being denied because of reliability concerns and watching Button and Alonso struggle to keep even a modest pace going was a waste of good talent. Great drivers on exceptionally good chassis hampered by underpowered and unreliable power units.
Still the battles from 9th-13th positions made it a decent race to watch overall.
Nick (@npf1)
27th September 2015, 15:39
There was enough happening down the field to keep me interested, but once Rosberg was in front of Vettel and Raikkonen in front of Bottas the top 5 wasn’t going anywhere, Hulkenberg and the Lotuses weren’t going anywhere, which was a little frustrating I admit.
I feel bad for Kvyat, Ricciardo and Massa, as I think they could have provided more life during the race as well had they not had their incidents yesterday and at the start, respectively.
For once, DRS didn’t seem that prominent, but seeing a Toro Rosso or Red Bull unable to overtake because they can only keep up with competitors on the straights was kind of frustrating, since that also limited overtaking.
Frankly, a decent enough race, but can’t give it more than a 6/10. Honestly, if the TV director had focussed more on Mercedes, this could have easily been any random 2002/2004 Schumacher domination event.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
27th September 2015, 17:07
The best parts were Alonso racing in the midfield and his thoughtless outburst about his “GP2 engine.” Driver of the weekend!
tmax (@tmax)
27th September 2015, 17:11
Gave 6. Same like the last race. Pretty much the same like SGP. I did not expect much from the race. I was kind of feeling this would be the outcome. So there was no surprises for me.
marcus (@wombat1m)
27th September 2015, 17:40
5/10 a dullfest in general, with the main exception of Verstappen – again, and the start. Apart from that its a bit sad that the real life soap opera that Mclaren Honda has descended into is more interesting that the race itself….
Steven Smith (@ragwort)
27th September 2015, 18:12
Yawn………I should have stayed in bed. Surely the most boring face this season.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
27th September 2015, 23:20
I think this race deserves 4/10, it was very boring.
formevic (@formevic)
27th September 2015, 23:48
3 points: 0.5 for ham-nic fight at first lap, 0.5 for nic-seb overtake, 2 for alo team radio, very epic!
gunusugeh (@gunusugeh)
28th September 2015, 0:29
9 !! for Fernando’s mouth
Jon (@johns23)
28th September 2015, 2:01
Really nice change to watch a race during the day. It was an average race nothing spectacular.
Nali (@nali007)
28th September 2015, 4:43
Back in the day when Shumi and or Vettel dominated at least the cars were loud and fast, something to enjoy… Now , F1 , Bernie , FOM and teams have even taken that away from us , looking at the crowd in Japan, half of the people didn’t even seem to be having fun…. watching the cars…. Boring race… Why are they killing F1
DaveD (@daved)
28th September 2015, 5:50
Boring race, terrible coverage by the Director with the FOM feed, mostly DRS passes. 4 for me.
James Blutto (@blutto)
28th September 2015, 7:34
A generous 4/10 from me. Great track and fans but the actual race was the pits. I think most teams are shifting their focus onto 2016. 2015 can be considered as done and dusted.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
28th September 2015, 10:58
I gave it a 6 but that was only because of the Ericsson-Nasr-Kvyat battle near the end. Some very good racing from all three to keep the racing clean and to Ericsson for keeping them at bay for so long. Very skillful of Kvyat to use Raikkonen lapping Ericsson to his advantage.
I also admired the Nasr-Verstappen double overtake on Button. Some good racing there too.
All in all, a few highlights in an overall very dull race.
1. Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
  28th September 2015, 10:58
  Sorry, “Ericsson-Perez-Kvyat” is what I meant of course.
Harry Curtis (@baz888)
28th September 2015, 14:09
I think that without Max Verstappen this year would have been a lot less interesting. He is exciting to watch and you feel like he is going to do something. Without him I think a lot of the races would be a lot more boring.
Philip (@philipgb)
29th September 2015, 1:37
I gave it 7/10 because I think there was actually a decent race happening. Not that you would have known it from the coverage. Everyone is caught up on the fact it seemed like they were avoiding Mercedes, I actually think they were just avoiding good coverage.
They missed pit exit battles, changed cameras just as action was about to happen and the onboard camera usage was awful. You can’t appreciate an over take from a camera pointing at one side of the front wing and some of the other onboard angles looked like they were almost deliberately trying to point the camera away from the track.
m (@)
29th September 2015, 17:19
F1 2015 viewing = record the race, fast forward, look at top left hand corner of the screen to see the “Battle for ‘n’th position”, if it ever says there is a top 10 battle you can press play.
Most of the time the battle is for some pointless zero point position.
PJA (@pja)
5th October 2015, 18:49
I was busy last week and I forgot to vote in the Japanese GP post-race polls, but I decided I would enter what my rating would have been anyway.
I rated the race a 5, the same as I rated the previous race in Singapore.
It was back to normal with Hamilton and Mercedes dominating again.
I thought overall there was about the same amount of action in both races but in Japan it was spread out throughout the race, whereas in Singapore it mainly came at the end after the second safety car period.
It was another case of after the first lap the race winner was never really in doubt barring reliability problems, but because I watched the Japanese GP live and because Suzuka is a great circuit I probably enjoyed this race more than Singapore, although not by enough to give it a higher rating.

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2015 Japanese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

167 comments on “Rate the race: 2015 Japanese Grand Prix”