Suzuka is one of the best tracks on the calendar, and for once it actually also followed through and delivered one of the best races in a while (Red Bull’s easy victory notwithstanding).

Combination of a lost FP2 and drastically different temps than earlier during the weekend probably helped. Lots of teams struggling with strategy, every compound in play and no obvious fastest line meant lots of tyre offsets all over the race and lots of action all the time. Fantastic strategy battle in lots of places with some really interesting results, most notably of course Leclerc doing that fantastic one-stop and ending up gaining 4 places. Plenty of overtakes too, especially for Suzuka, with some really nice ones too. I loved Yuki’s move on Hulk.

Alonso had a quietly impressive weekend I thought, did well in qualy to start in front of a couple of faster cars and managed to keep all of them bar Leclerc behind. Thought the soft gambit would backfire but he managed 12 laps on them and Aston timed both his pit stops perfectly letting him spend most of the race in clean air. Good defense at the end against Piastri, too.

Lastly, Yuki shines again, happy for him on his home race. The pit crew deserves almost half the credit as his perfect pitstop probably earned him the point, but he did everything he needed to to secure it and drove great all race. Even got to make that move on Hulk in front of the home fans.

Was great entertainment overall and a good reminder of how great strategy battles can be. We had too many M-H onestoppers last year.