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Was the final result of the Japanese Grand Prix predictable? Ultimately, yes, but how this year's Formula 1 race at Suzuka unravelled wasn't entirely typical thanks to the variance in strategies across the field. Max Verstappen chalked up a third win as he embarks upon a seemingly inevitable march towards…

The Milton Keynes-based team has a vacant slot for 2025 with Sergio Perez’s contract running out at the end of this season.

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Review – Normal Service Resumed

At the restart after the first-lap red flag caused by the crash between Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo, Mercedes swapped George Russell and Lewis Hamilton from medium tyres to the hard compound in a strategy switch that targeted a one-stop plan. But both drivers struggled for pace on the hards…

On the opening lap, Albon was hit by RB's poor-starting Daniel Ricciardo in Turn 3, at the start of the Esses.

Carlos Sainz completed the podium ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who popped up in Perez's race and gained several places from his mid-pack grid spot by completing a rare Suzuka one-stop strategy.

The Maranello outfit had hoped that the progress it had made with its SF-24 this year would allow it to pose a proper threat to Red Bull around the high-speed swoops of Suzuka.

But teams and drivers are already bracing themselves for what could be a game of patiently follow-the-leader thanks to the growing dirty air problem that F1 is experiencing right now.

For beyond the headline lap times that have hinted at signs of progress in unlocking pace from its W15, the mood of its drivers is far more upbeat than at any point this season.

Teams all too frequently bin off one of the choices – either because the soft is too aggressive, the medium falls into no-man's land, or the hard is too conservative – but this weekend's race in Japan has left what Pirelli's head of car racing Mario Isola says is a…

Russell was only ninth fastest in Q3, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton marginally better in seventh - albeit the latter was still 0.589 seconds slower than polesitter Max Verstappen.