Japanese Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton closes in on title after bad day for Vettel

At lights out, as polesitter Lewis Hamilton got a clean start and benefited for the rest of the afternoon from team-mate Valtteri Bottas once again defending him from any encroachment.

Sebastian Vettel - Mercedes's only rival for the drivers' championship now - must have fancied his chances as he worked his way through the field, but contact with a certain young Red Bull-driving Dutchman sent him flying right to the back of the pack and with it effectively ended his last hopes of the title.

Max Verstappen managed to get on the podium despite a time penalty for contact with Kimi Raikkonen, and then the incident with Vettel - both of which caused him very little concern.

Four stars out of five. A trouble-free race, and he even sounded fairly relaxed rather than his usual keyed-up self, managing a joke with his team over the radio as he enquired whether his race engineer had gone on a break and forgotten to give him any updates from elsewhere on the track.

"I love you guys!" Lewis Hamilton got a bit emotional as he crossed the line and moved ever closer to the title. He was a very happy man.

Vettel had such an excellent start, quick away from the lights and moving up three places in the first lap. Smart driving.

Daniel Ricciardo showed young pretender Pierre Gasly how it's done. The Australian demonstrated to his replacement at Red Bull exactly how one moves smoothly round the field.

With a consistent car, Ricciardo is always dangerous - he sees the overtaking opportunities so soon and reacts swiftly, and he fully deserved his fourth-place finish after yet another qualifying session marred by technical issues.

A clever early-ish pit stop switched Verstappen's tyres and left him out on track fighting for position until the very end - despite his time penalty. Quick thinking and quick work by Red Bull to get him back out there.

Carlos Sainz of Renault secured a tenth-place finish despite having few expectations of the day. He stayed out of the way of any shenanigans, and his radio message at the chequered flag was honest: "Bravo, guys, we knew it would be hard today but it's good to score a point."

Kevin Magnussen and Haas have promised so much and delivered so little - and a collision with a Sauber is the last thing they needed in Suzuka.

And the last thing everyone else wanted was this amount of debris all over the track.

Not a great deal of celebrity stardust in Suzuka, sadly - but the next race is in the USA, so gird yourself for plenty of Hollywood faces invading the garages.