Starting from pole, one would usually take it for granted that Max, especially with the added support of his teammate, will sail away into the distance this afternoon not to be seen again until the trackside interviews.
However, other than that little reliability blip we witnessed in China, and the lack of vital data as a result of Friday's 'lost' session, said teammate appears to be in a feist mood this weekend and might well fancy a shot at victory himself.
With FP2 essentially washed-out, the teams had to use yesterday morning's session for their long runs and qualifying sims, hence the lack of data. The teams tried to acquire data from the various compounds over their long runs, using mainly the soft and mediums, the only exception being Aston Martin, both of whose drivers did a long run on the hards.
The pole-winning time was almost seven tenths quicker than the fastest time from six months ago, and this is mainly down to the lower temperatures as well as the obvious improvement from this year's cars over last year's.
Though unhappy with their qualifying performance, Ferrari appears happier with its race pace, though, interestingly, both Max and Sergio have expressed doubt over theirs.
And while Mercedes is also a little happier than last time out, McLaren appears to be the bigger threat.
Once again Fernando is in the mix, but the Aston Martin generally tends to lose steam over the course of the afternoon. That said, the Spaniard, like Suzuka, is full of surprises, and one should never write him off.
Over the years Suzuka has witnessed more than its fair share of incidents, and only six months ago a number of drivers had their races compromised as a result of clashes on the first lap. Indeed, Williams lost both of its drivers due to incidents involving Valtteri Bottas.
Other than the big guns we can expect some drama from the midfield with Tsunoda set to face a stiff challenge from his RB teammate, not forgetting Valtteri, Alex, Nico and Lance.
Overtaking is anything but easy here, and, as we have seen so far this season, the current generation of cars increasingly suffer from instability when closing on another car, making it even more complicated to pass, even with a big speed advantage. Consequently, the undercut is very efficient here and will definitely be a factor.
Then there's degradation, which is high here, and therefore rules out a one-stopper.
The quickest strategy is based on using the softs and the hard, but some teams, such as Ferrari, Red Bull and Aston Martin as well as Magnussen, who only have on set of the C1 available, will have to try something else.
They could opt to discard the soft in favour of the medium, which proved to be competitive in free practice, or they could use all three compounds. It all adds up to what should be an interesting race from start to finish.
Air temperature is 22 degrees C, while the track temperature is 40 degrees, noticeably up on yesterday and therefore adding to the conundrum... especially for the likes of Mercedes.
For the first time this weekend the sun is shining as the pitlane opens and the drivers begin to head out.
Due to the warmer temperatures the drivers complete more laps than usual before taking their places on the grid.
Russell complains of an anti-stall issue, while Alonso has lost the "protection of the power switch".
On the grid, Fred Vasseur fears that Alonso will go aggressive and start on his fresh set of softs... teammate Stroll has three sets.
"The deg will be important as it is much hotter," adds the Ferrari boss. "Yesterday, the deg was under control for us but let's see."
Verstappen, Perez, Norris, Sainz, Piastri, Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell, Tsunoda, Ricciardo, Magnussen and Zhou all start on mediums, the rest are on softs. All are on fresh rubber. As expected, Alonso is the first of the soft runners.
They head off on the formation lap, all get away without any issues.
The grid forms.
They're away.
All get away cleanly, and through th4e first complex of corners, as Norris and then Piastri frustrate Alonso. However, the race is red flagged as a result of an incident further back at Turn 3 involving Albon and Ricciardo.
Replay shows the pair battling for position and as Albon goes for the gap on the outside of Ricciardo, the Australian moves to his right to avoid Stroll and clips the left-front of the Williams with his right-rear in the process.
"He just squeezed me, there was nowhere to go," says Albon.
There is significant damage to the Williams and the barrier.
At the restart the order will be: Verstappen, Perez, Norris, Sainz, Alonso, Piastri, Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Tsunoda, Ocon, Gasly, Stroll, Magnussen, Sargeant and Zhou.
Leclerc is told that it will be at least 15 minutes before the restart and that it will be a standing start.
Race Control confirms that the race will restart at 14:32, as the stewards confirm that the clash that caused the red flag will be investigated after the race.
Hamilton has switched to hards, as has Russell, while Alonso sticks with his softs. Hards for the Alpine and Sargeant pair also, while Tsunoda switches to softs. Sainz and Leclerc are on fresh mediums.
They head off for the second formation lap.
The grid forms (again).
They're away (again). This time the entire field gets through the first complex cleanly. Again, Alonso is under pressure from Piastri.
At the end of Lap 3, it's Verstappen, Perez, Norris, Sainz, Alonso, Piastri, Leclerc, Hamilton, Tsunoda and Russell. Hulkenberg had a poor start, while both Mercedes drivers were passed, Russell the result of a lock-up
"Pierre gave me a hit at the side," reports Ocon, "let me know if it's OK!"
"Ocon is struggling on the hard," Stroll is told, "it's important to get past him if we can." The Canadian duly obliges.
Perez goes wide in Turn 9 on Lap 6, allowing Norris to close the gap.
Bottas and Hulkenberg both pit at the end of Lap 6, both switching to hards. No dramas for the Stake team this time around.
Next time around Tsunoda pits as does Zhou.
While it is nice and warm it is also very windy.
Magnussen leaves Gasly for dead to claim 12th.
"I see Lando is struggling a bit," reports Sainz.
Norris is told that the power of the undercut is significant.
"Steering is starting feel a bit strange, a lot of vibrations," reports Russell.
Alonso has dropped 3.5s behind Sainz as his softs appear to fall off the cliff.
"We are seeing high deg on the medium runners," Hamilton is told.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka here.
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