Championship Trophy

Honda obviously wanted a strong result at its home race, especially in a season that has seen the Japanese power unit return to winning ways after a 13-year drought. In the end, the power unit saw its best result in Suzuka achieved by rookie star Alexander Albon , who finished just off the podium, taking the best result of his short career to date in Formula 1. More significant still was his showing in qualifying, given that the Thai was able to equal team-mate Max Verstappen’s time to the nearest thousandth of a second before the Dutchman’s race was spoiled by the collision with Leclerc soon after the start. Once he and his team had worked a two-stop strategy to bypass one-stopping Carlos Sainz, Albon had a lonely race, but he made no mistakes and got the best result possible, even if he was almost a minute down on Bottas. “Fourth is my F1 career best finish and this weekend has definitely felt like my best with the Team. Immediately from FP1 I felt comfortable with ...

How did Ferrari manage to lose a race it looked set to win? The answer is simple; it lacked reliability. The MGU-K failure on Vettel’s car was the key, not just because it put him out of the race, but also because it came at the only moment when Leclerc was vulnerable, following the Monegasque’s pit stop but prior to either Mercedes driver doing likewise. Once he lost track position, Leclerc was never able to go for a win that, after an emphatic march to pole on Saturday, had seemed more than likely. However, while it’s true that, overall, Ferrari had an advantage in Sochi, it was not significant enough for Leclerc to get past Valtteri Bottas, especially as he Finn did an excellent job in denying the Ferrari driver any opportunity for a late charge. And so for the red cars, the race ended in the red. The mid-race implosion was not the only talking point for Ferrari, however. The tow Leclerc provided to Vettel after the start and the somewhat testy radio chatter that went on...