The race was the fourteenth round of the 2015 World Championship, and marked the forty-first running of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton entered the race as the defending winner of the Grand Prix and Drivers' Championship leader with a 41-point lead over his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton won the race, having overtaken Rosberg at the start, who fell back to fourth, but recovered to finish second.

Pirelli cited the nature of the track and the high lateral energy loads experienced in the corners, in particular 130R – typically taken at full throttle and top speed in dry weather racing – as reasons for the hardest tyres being used.

[4] The Japanese Grand Prix was one of only two events in the 2015 season to have only one drag reduction system (DRS) zone, the other being Monaco.

[11] In the wake of the accident, the Dunlop corner was slightly changed and revised in safety standards, and the organisers of the Japanese Grand Prix installed a large crane in place of the tractor that Bianchi hit.

[13] Going into the weekend, Lewis Hamilton was leading the World Drivers' Championship on 252 points, 41 ahead of his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

Nico Rosberg ran with the power unit that he had used briefly at the Italian Grand Prix before it was changed due to a coolant leak.

[16] While the rain had stopped at the beginning of the second session, the track was still damp and all drivers initially ran on intermediate tyres.

This included Fernando Alonso, who had been forced to wait forty minutes to start his running due to an unspecified issue with the power unit.

Kvyat in the other Red Bull did not have a good session, ending up eleventh fastest after running wide at both Spoon and the Degner corners.

[15] The first part of qualifying (Q1) was disrupted towards the end, when Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso came to a halt at the hairpin, preventing a number of drivers from improving on their lap times.

Those were Hülkenberg, the second Toro Rosso of Sainz, Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso, who said his lap was likely the best he had ever driven at the circuit.

Valtteri Bottas put his Williams in third while Massa lost fourth on the grid to the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel due to a mistake towards the end of the lap.

[22] The positions remained unchanged as the drivers were prevented from setting better lap times, when Daniil Kvyat crashed into the barriers at turn ten, bringing out the red flag.

[23] At the start of the race, Lewis Hamilton was able to pass teammate Nico Rosberg, who had less power available due to a temperature problem.

By lap eleven, Rosberg was told to resume his attempts to overtake Bottas, who in turn went into the garage for his first stop, rejoining in sixth place.

Another lap later, Stevens went into a spin while fighting for position with Alexander Rossi, who finished ahead of his more experienced teammate for the second race in a row.

[26] At the podium interviews, conducted by Kai Ebel, a German TV reporter, Lewis Hamilton stressed that it was important to him to "strike back" after his retirement in Singapore.

But to be honest I'm not a teary guy, so I'm just full of joy and happiness and light and I'm really grateful for [...] all the people who have helped me get to where I am today and this team, because without them I would not be here."

[28] While successful on track, the Mercedes team got into a discussion with Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone over the TV coverage time their drivers received during the Grand Prix.

[31] Daniil Kvyat, who finished 13th after starting in the pit lane complained about the race, saying: "It was pretty boring for me out there this afternoon because a combination of circumstances meant I had to just sit back and was unable to attack.

"[35] Jenson Button had expounded the problems of the power unit on team radio as well, lamenting the fact that other cars had been able to pass him into 130R corner.

Ron Dennis admitted publicly to not having dealt with the question of Jenson Button's role in 2016 earlier, following much debate over the driver's future.