Enjoying a drama-free day that flew in stark contrast to the bubbling controversy surrounding their rivals, Mercedes came out decisively on top at the end of day one of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend at Suzuka on Friday.
As it was a week ago in Sochi, so it was again in Suzuka: Ferrari have some serious work to do if they want to catch Mercedes after Friday.
Topping the timesheets with a Lewis Hamilton-Valtteri Bottas 1-2, the Silver Arrows were once again comfortably ahead of the Scuderia at a time when the latter can least afford it.
Even if Sebastian Vettel remains unconcerned, and even if the ongoing brouhaha over Ferrari's battery system turns out to be much ado about nothing, the gap present on Friday would suggest their hopes of a positive result this weekend have taken a serious hit.
Owning the superior pace in terms of hot-lap speed (0.833s ahead), high-fuel runs on the supersoft (on average, 0.751s ahead) and low-fuel runs on the soft tyre (0.289s ahead), Lewis had the measure of Seb in every possible way.
Maybe Ferrari have more to show (Toto Wolff seems to think so), but it's hard to see how they close the gap
that much in 24-48 hours. Realistically, this is already Mercedes' weekend to lose, and the best bet for the Scuderia might be to start working out the steps to their rain dance.
Friday Figures
35%. Chance of rain on during qualifying, at the time of writing.
312.4 km/h. Speed trap recording of Lewis Hamilton in FP1, who was 1.3 km/h ahead of second-best Valtteri Bottas, but a full 10 km/h
26. Age Kevin Magnussen turned on Friday. It seems like only yesterday he was the up-and-coming driver McLaren booted Sergio Perez for, now he's a five-year veteran, and arguably the most underrated driver on the grid. Always good for a quote too.
Quick Hits
Watching on Aussie TV, I can't decide if this new commercial for Alpecin Hair Shampoo is the best or worst ad I've ever seen. Either way, it's endlessly fascinating.
Take it with a large handful of salt, but Brendon Hartley's got himself off to a nice start to the weekend, outpacing Pierre Gasly and finishing FP2 in P10. The Kiwi needs a few big weekends if he wants any shot at keeping his place in 2019, and it would certainly help to score his first points since Germany.
The Japanese fans really are something else.
The crazy hats:
The Max Verstappen puppet:
Hell, even Martin Brundle has his supporters!
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