Yuki Tsunoda (P10, 1 pt): 8/10
Yuki Tsunoda was the star of the show in Japan as far as the local fans were concerned, and the RB driver used the wave of support to build on the momentum of claiming his first championship points of the season last time out in Australia. He was in the top ten in both dry practice sessions and spent much of the wet FP2 at the top of the timesheets after an early run on intermediates, although he was inevitably shuffled back by when slicks became possible in the final minutes. He did a solid job getting through to the final round of qualifying just ahead of his team mate Daniel Ricciardo. He lost two spots at the start to Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas but made them up at the restart, using a set of softs to briefly get ahead of George Russell whose Mercedes had switched to the hard compound during the red flag stoppage. Tsunoda was one of the earliest drivers to pit under race conditions and spent the rest of the afternoon on the hard tyres, making his final stop on lap 22. After that he was able to use the stability of the second half of the race to concentrate on pulling off some key passes to secure his first home race F1 career point.
Lewis Hamilton (P9, 2 pts): 6.5/10
By his own declaration, Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his best practice session of 2024 on Friday morning, and was one of only three drivers to set a time on slicks in FP2. Saturday also had its positives, where a good showing in final practice fed into a solid qualifying in which he made it through to the final round to pick up P7 on the grid for Sunday. However the race itself proved frustrating, and it seemed as through the once seamless relationship between himself and the Mercedes team is starting fracture. At one point he was heard coldly commanding the Mercedes pit wall to change the race strategy, which was clearly not working, which might have come back to bite him when he was instructed to let team mate George Russell past during the middle stint. But by then any hope of a satisfying outcome had slipped out of his hands, and his rare lack of grace in the media pen after the finish showed the seven-time world champion's current depth of despair.
