Morning After: Hamilton and Mercedes Make Early Statement

So it was after Singapore, so it still is after Friday: the man to beat is Lewis Hamilton, and Ferrari's quest to catch him is already in danger of floundering.

Two tenths ahead of Valtteri Bottas, five tenths ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton has already established an advantage at a track that, historically has not always been so kind to him. Indeed, Hamilton admitted afterwards this is his "weakest circuit" – to have such an advantage already speaks as much to his and Mercedes' continued improvement as it does Ferrari's failure to lift their game at this crucial juncture.

Perhaps even more foreboding, Ferrari's pace was noticeably lacking on the long-runs, as the SF71H could neither keep life in the hypersofts, nor match the Mercs on the ultras, with Vettel averaging 1:40.715 over 11 laps to Hamilton's 1:40.368 (12 laps) and Bottas' 1:40.304 (11 laps).

Maybe if this was earlier in the season, you could take the deficit for a bit of sandbagging, but really, it's hard to see how such a move benefits the Scuderia now when they still have so much to prove – as much to themselves as to others. Maybe they get it together on Saturday, but for now at least, they're decidedly on the back foot.

Four. The number of championships Max Verstappen is aiming for by his 30^th birthday, per Sky Sports. I wonder whether he's counting on Honda improving, or a seat at Mercedes/Ferrari opening up?

€200. Fine assessed to Renault for Artem Markelov speeding in the pit lane. I'm sure they'll really miss it after the fat cheque he gave them.

50. Amount of years on the planet for two-time champ Mika Hakkinen, who celebrated his birthday on Friday. Here's to 50 more… and maybe a comeback!?

Nearly a year on from their war-of-words with Toro Rosso, Renault seems set for another ugly break-up courtesy of Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Certainly, it doesn't help that Verstappen is a particularly straight shooter, while Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul takes criticism about as well as Donald Trump does.

On the flip side, it can't be particularly pleasing for Red Bull to see the Toro Rosso boys take their sixth and seventh engine components at the same race they're only taking their fifth and fourth. Hard to contend for championships when you're getting grid penalties even more often!

If there's such a thing as a cardinal sin in F1, it's binning someone else's car in practice. Count yourself lucky, Lando – you don't want to make Fernando Alonso angry… well, angrier than he already is, anyway.