Mercedes seal constructors' title as Bottas wins dramatic Japanese GP!

No constructor has ever won six double championships in a row, sealing Mercedes' place in Formula 1 history as they dominated this season as they have every year in the turbo-hybrid era.

Their rivals Ferrari had started in one-two but finished nowhere near it, with Bottas' superb start getting him past both SF90's into turn one. With Lewis Hamilton eventually stopping for a second time, he allowed Bottas back into the lead.

Charles Leclerc lost a lot of track position after clashing with Max Verstappen on lap one, with the Dutchman retiring later from the contact and with the Monegasque finishing in sixth place.

Bottas ended his winless streak since Baku at the fourth round of the season, as in front of Leclerc were Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz in fourth and fifth respectively, with Leclerc making an extra point late to get the extra point for fastest lap.

How it happened

Ferrari had locked out the front row but had a poor start, with Bottas taking the lead into turn one and Verstappen clashing with Leclerc at turn two. Both cars suffered damage and Verstappen eventually had to retire. Leclerc had to make a long pitstop but had permanent damage on his car - his left rearview mirror was gone, for example. The stewards gave no penalty to Leclerc but opted to look at the incident post-race.

Hamilton led the race after a first pitstop but had to come back in for a second stop at a later time, leaving him to chase down pole-sitter Vettel in the latter stages of the race to complete the one-two. He failed to do so, however, despite being well within a second of the German for a lot of laps a the end.

Leclerc did very well to fight his way back into the points and unlapping himself as well, eventually finishing sixth. A good race but an unnecessary incident at the start that cost him and Ferrari heavily as their rivals won the championship because of it. He tried to get the fastest lap in the final lap but a Sergio Pérez crash that got t

Behind the podium places, Albon finished in a career-best P4 for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing as he beat Verstappen for the first time, albeit because of a retirement for the Dutchman.

Renault saw both cars finishing in the points as well with Daniel Ricciardo in P7 and Nico Hülkenberg in P10, with Pierre Gasly and Pérez in between the two RS19's. Pérez kept his P9 as he completed 52 of the 53 laps, crashing out on the final lap.