Lewis Hamilton has eased to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, beating Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by over 18 seconds.

Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo collided on the first corner and were forced to crawl to the pit lane on lap one to effectively leave them without a chance for a point.

Rosberg, who started on pole, began poorly and slipped to fourth after the first lap, with Hamilton increasing his lead over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel held off the challenge of Rosberg until lap 26, but the Mercedes driver passed him and eventually finished just under two seconds ahead of the German, who finished in third.

Results in full:

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Nico Rosberg
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Kimi Raikkonen
5. Valtteri Bottas
6. Nico Hulkenberg
7. Romain Grosjean
8. Pastor Maldonado
9. Max Verstappen
10. Carlos Sainz
11. Fernando Alonso
12. Sergio Perez
13. Daniil Kvyat
14. Marcus Ericsson
15. Daniel Ricciardo
16. Jenson Button
17. Felipe Massa
18. Alexander Rossi
19. Will Stevens
DNF Felipe Nasr