Sebastian Vettel (P6, 8 pts): 9/10
Sebastian Vettel is clearly besotted by Suzuka, and the affection is entirely mutual. The fans adore him, and the circuit itself looked keen to reward the four-time champion for his devotion over the many years he has raced here, in what is set to be his final F1 outing at the iconic track. True, the Aston Martin driver was slowest of anyone with limited running in FP1, and still only 14th in the dry conditions of final practice, but Vettel poured all his enthusiasm into a strong qualifying session that saw him through to the final top ten pole shoot-out round and ninth on the grid. Unfortunately it all seemed for nought when he was sent spinning into the gravel on the first lap of the race after contact with Fernando Alonso. After the red flag and subsequent restart he had little to lose and was first to make a dive into pit lane for intermediates on lap 5. It worked a treat, and by lap 9 he was up to sixth behind Lewis Hamilton. He held onto that position with gusto all the way to the finish. The old master is going out with some style, that's for sure.
Lewis Hamilton (P5, 10 pts): 8/10
After little more than shakedown laps in FP1, Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton topped the times in the damp second session. Unfortunately any glimmer of hope that the team might be in with a chance of their fist win of 2022 were squelched when the track dried up on Saturday, leaving Hamilton nine tenths slower than pace setter Max Verstappen. Hamilton was also unhappy to be pipped by Esteban Ocon in qualifying, and it proved a significant development: when the race started in the wet on Sunday, Hamilton picked up a position from Carlos Sainz' early retirement but found himself unable to find anyway around the Alpine despite throwing everything he could into attack. He just didn't have the straight line speed to pull it off this week, although he said afterwards that the battle with the French driver had been "a blast".
