The Day After: Vettel Woes Put Hamilton on the Brink

Well, here we are again. Another commanding victory for Lewis Hamilton, and another disastrous outcome for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Already down 50 points to Lewis, Seb could hardly afford to put a foot wrong, and yet in his coming-together with Max Verstappen, that's exactly what he did.

Perhaps even more so than his similarly botched pass on Lewis at Monza, Seb's coming-together with the Dutchman as he tried to pass down the inside of Spoon was incredibly short sighted. Presented with two options, either to A: keep tucked-in behind and use the Ferrari PU's extra horses to make a move on the following straights, or B: play it safe and make the guaranteed pass when Max served his five-second penalty in the pit-stops, Seb instead went for C: YOLO and paid the price.

Indeed, even setting aside the obvious difficulty passing on that bit of track, it's fair to suggest Max is the one driver you wouldn't want to try such an already high-risk move on, given his reputation for very hard (fair or not) defending. Even in the unlikely circumstance the stewards had decided to penalise the Dutchman, the FIA doesn't hand out points for moral victories, nor would it have stopped Seb from spinning-out to the back of the field – either way, he's still further behind the Mercedes.

Of course, in the end it didn't

really matter – Lewis was as dominant as ever, and will wrap-up a deserved fifth title in the next two races. Still, Sunday was important if only to emphasize how far Seb has fallen. If he's to get back to title winning form, he's got some serious head-straightening to do, but it's too late to save this season.

A disappointing day for Toro Rosso, who started with both cars inside the top-10 yet went home without a single point. Raw pace can only take you so far, you still need to make the tyres and strategy work.

The fight for the title may be almost over, but the all-important battle for seventh is just getting started – after Sunday, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, and Nico Hulkenberg are all level on 53 points.

Moving to a reserve role at Sauber in 2019, Marcus Ericsson did himself no favours running into the back of Charles Leclerc's car as the safety car period was ending. I just hope the cheque for next year has cleared already.

Daniel Ricciardo: From starting 15th to finishing fifth, Sunday was the Australian at his late-braking best.

Kevin Magnussen: Two days after I called him "arguably the most underrated driver on the grid", the Dane had an absolute shocker, ruining his own race and Charles Leclerc's with his movement under braking.