MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: Who nailed their strategy in Japan as a hot track saw the top 10 opt for differing tyre calls?

Although the Japanese Grand Prix gave an outcome which mirrored a very distinct competitive hierarchy among the teams, there was considerable variation during the race in how well each car was going. This was down to a track temperature that was around 40C at the race start, but which decreased by 8C as the race progressed.

This impacted each tyre compound differently and, with a wide variety of chosen compounds on the various cars, there was a definite ebb and flow in competitiveness. The medium C2 tyre and the C1 hard were overwhelmingly the favourite race compounds, as the C3 soft had quite a short range even for the favoured two-stop strategy, such are the demands of the fast long corners and the abrasive surface.