Nico Rosberg wins in Japan to move 33 points clear in the title race (Race Result & Highlights) #F1 #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵

Lewis Hamilton's title hopes suffered a second blow in a week as he finished third in the Japanese Grand Prix, won by team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton is now 33 points behind the German with only 100 still available in the remaining four races.

After an engine failure cost him a chance to retake the lead in Malaysia last weekend, at Suzuka it was a poor start, dropping him to eighth.

He recovered with aggressive driving and strategy but Rosberg was serene.

His ninth victory of the season means he can now afford to finish second behind Hamilton in all the remaining races and still win the championship.

The result means Mercedes win the constructors' championship for the third consecutive year.

Race Start & First few laps:

If you have missed the live action you can always tune in here for full race replay of Japanese Grand Prix 2016 which will be available later in the day.

Hamilton's terrible start

The win Hamilton badly needed after the blow of Malaysia was always going to be difficult after he was beaten to pole by Rosberg by just 0.013 seconds, and it was made impossible within a second or two of the start.

Hamilton's side of the grid was damper than Rosberg's after overnight rain but the world champion said that had nothing to do with his terrible start. "I just made a mistake," Hamilton said.

He was swamped by those behind him and down to eighth by the first corner.

Hamilton passed Force India's Nico Hulkenberg on the outside into Turn One on lap seven but otherwise drove a controlled first stint, running slightly longer - to lap 13 - than those in front of him.

A stirring comeback

It was an inspired move by Mercedes' strategists, as Hamilton jumped Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and Force India's Sergio Perez and then passed Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull down the straight towards the flat-out 130R corner further around the lap.

Hamilton carved his way through the field impressively - including an audacious attempt to pass at the famous 130R corner

That put him into a de facto fourth behind Rosberg, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, and the Williams cars that had not yet stopped.

Hamilton then quickly passed Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to move into an actual fourth place and set his sights on Vettel.

Hamilton closed from nearly 14 seconds behind the Ferrari on lap 15 to 4.2 on lap 32, and then stopped on the next lap.

Vettel followed him in a lap later and came out behind, but on the faster soft tyres rather than the hards Hamilton was using.

The German quickly closed in on his first two laps out of the pits but Hamilton soon began to edge away, and begin instead to close on Verstappen's second place.

Hamilton caught Verstappen with nine laps to go but, despite the Mercedes being a faster car on tyres fresher by five laps, the Dutchman controlled his position superbly and Hamilton could not pass.

Hamilton made a last-ditch attempt on the penultimate lap on the outside line at the chicane but went straight on, complaining over the radio that Verstappen had "moved under braking", which drivers have a gentlemen's agreement not to do, although it is not specifically outlawed.