at the japanese grand prix, the ferraris locked out the front row, with sebastian vettel taking a track record pole position. however, the start of the race went badly for ferrari as vettel lost out to bottas at the start and leclerc collided with verstappen at turn 1. leclerc was instructed to stay out despite a clearly damaged front wing, showering bits and pieces onto the cars behind. finally, michael masi, the race director, instructed ferrari to call leclerc into the pits to repair the front wing. in the end leclerc finished a lap down in eighth place, promoted to sixth following the disqualification of the renault's, while vettel withstood a challenge from a charging hamilton to hold on to second.