The best thing that can happen today is for a Mercedes driver, or a Mercedes-powered driver, not to win, for only then might Toto and Woody join the growing chorus of critics of the 2026 regulations, in particular those relating to energy management.

As we've seen so far, as far as dissent is concerned it is a clear case of 'sing when you're winning', just go ask Charles Leclerc.

With the aid of the media and broadcasters, thus far Stefano and Mohammed are keeping a lid on things, but not for much longer, with every race weekend, particularly at tracks like Suzuka, the shortcomings of the regulations become clearer.

The sport now has a five-week break in which to finally listen and take action, but will it do so?

And Jenson, yes you Mr Button, cut the BS about how you wish you could be out there, you wouldn't, you'd hate it.

Drivers better than you ever were are insisting that the sport has made a mistake, that this isn't racing, that this isn't why they worked their way up the junior formulae, yet you ignore them and tell us how good it is, even though we can see how bad it is with our own eyes.

You are paid by Lawrence Stroll - isn't everyone these days - to be an ambassador for Aston Martin, to our knowledge you are not also an ambassador for Stefano and Mohammed, so stop trying to sell their inferior product.

Of course, we say this at a time the powers that be are pulling every trick in the book to deceive us into thinking that we're wrong, that things have never been better, but slowly the message is getting out.

A mistake has been made, and the fact is that it has to be rectified, and soon, otherwise the damage will be irreparable. It is all very well for Stefano and Mohammed to stick their fingers in the ears, while making full use of the media, broadcasters and other willing fools, but in the same way the sport grew on the back of the pandemic and a captive audience, it can all be lost again.

As Abraham Lincoln noted, you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but F1 fans are slowly waking up... even the newcomers. Yes, the inane social media interaction will help deflect attention for a while, but gradually all will become clear.

That said, Stefano, like Zak, has talked of a future for the sport similar to the Super Bowl, where the 'racing', such as it is, is part of the whole show and not centre stage, if this is Liberty's true vision for F1 then what do the thoughts of the actual drivers and current fans matter, for whole new markets can be tapped into when required, without the need for true purity, passion or tradition, instead only as buzzwords.

As far as today is concerned, once the start is settled, we can expect a few laps of yo-yoing before the Mercedes pair head off into the distance.

Thinking about it, that could play into our hands also, for if young Antonelli continues to get one over on Woody, perhaps the British driver will finally get to do a Donald Sutherland - think Invasion of the Bodysnatchers - and point to the folly of F1 2026.

Assuming Piastri gets to start, he and his teammate will battle with the Ferraris, leaving the rest of the field to battle for the scraps. Neither Aston Martin will make it to the end, Cadillac will open the Champagne to celebrate another milestone and Verstappen will look longingly at other things to do with his Sunday afternoons.

While Antonelli, quite rightly, is getting a lot of the media attention, let's not forget some of the other rising stars, not least Lindblad, Bortoleto, Bearman and Hadjar, while Gasly appears to have found a new lease of life and is responding to the challenge.

Mercedes was very strong on the long runs on Friday, and though Leclerc was next best he was 0.6s off their pace. Alpine and Haas both looked strong.

The fastest strategies involve a single pit stop and make use of all three compounds. The two combinations, medium-hard and soft-hard, are very close in terms of total race time, although it is believed teams will favour the more conservative first option.

Using the soft provides greater grip off the line and could offer an advantage to those who choose to exploit the distance between the grid and the first braking point to gain positions over their rivals. In this scenario, the pit window runs from Lap 13 to Lap 19, brought forward by two laps compared with the medium-hard solution.

Around ten seconds slower is the final possible one stop strategy, which involves using the soft and the medium, with the tyre change between Laps 18 and 24 and the need to manage the softer compound more carefully at the expense of performance.

Some might also consider bringing forward the switch from the soft quite significantly to get out of traffic, with the aim of tackling the final phases of the race, after the middle stint on the C1, with a fresh set of C3s. They would gain an advantage before the chequered flag but would need to stop twice. A safety car could favour two stop strategies, although historically neutralisations are not frequent at Suzuka.

Piastri and Norris have two sets of fresh hards, while the Mercedes and Ferrari pairs have two sets of new mediums. Verstappen has two sets of fresh softs.

Fifty minutes before the start, it is announced that said start will be delayed by ten minutes due to repairs to the barriers following an incident in one of the support races.

The pitlane opens and Antonelli leads the way, followed by Russell, Hadjar, Bortoleto and Hulkenberg.

Air temperature is 19 degrees C, while the track temperature is 37 degrees. It is bright and sunny.

As the pitlane closes, last to take his place on the grid is Hamilton.

All are starting on mediums bar Bottas who is on hards. Fresh rubber for all.

They head off on the formation lap, all getting away cleanly.

The grid forms.

They're away! Antonelli is slow off the line, as is his teammate, while Piastri, Leclerc and Norris are all quick out of the traps.

Into Turn 1 and Piastri leads while Leclerc is ahead of Russell, with Norris and Hamilton right behind, and ahead of Antonelli. Norris goes around the outside of Russell in Turn 1 to make it a McLaren 1-3.

Following his poor start Antonelli is falling into the clutches of Gasly who is battling Hadjar and Lindblad.

At the end of Lap 1, it's: Piastri, Leclerc, Norris, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Gasly, Lindblad, Hadjar and Verstappen, Antonelli having passed Hamilton on the pit straight.

Verstappen passes his teammate in spoon to claim ninth, as Ocon closes on the second Red Bull.

Russell passes Norris for third as Ocon nails Hadjar.

At the start of Lap 4, Russell passes Leclerc for second into Turn 1, as Antonelli hounds Norris.

In the process, Russell posted a new fastest lap (34.469), as he set about closing the 1.4s gap to Piastri.

Verstappen passes Lindblad in the hairpin for eighth.