There was a close fight for the top spot in Edd's driver rankings from the entire Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
Here's how he rated the 22 drivers' performances across the weekend from best to worst.
How do the rankings work? The 22 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 11 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd
Oscar Piastri described this as "probably one of my best weekends in F1", which tells you a lot about how good it was.
While his advantage over team-mate Lando Norris is partly explained by the problems on the other side of the garage that limited practice, there's no doubt Piastri was getting the maximum out of the McLaren.
The timing of the safety car denied him a shot at pulling off an unlikely victory after doing a superb job in the first stint to keep George Russell covered, although he would have faced a stern challenge from Kimi Antonelli.
Had he been granted access to that particular mission, then it's possible this would have been elevated to his outright best weekend.
Verdict: Couldn't have done more.
Started: 4th Finished: 3rd
Charles Leclerc heads the second tier of drivers, all of whom were operating at a high level and delivered strong weekends.
He was the quicker Ferrari driver, and it was only the disadvantage of pitting before the safety car that meant he had to battle with Lewis Hamilton for that privilege in the final stint of the race.
Leclerc prevailed in the wheel-to-wheel fight between the duo, and ended up with a richly deserved podium finish after getting ahead of the energy-starved Russell.
The only real negative of the weekend, which is what puts him to the top of the second tier of drivers in this ranking, is that Q3 wasn't well-executed, as had he shown the sort of pace he did earlier in qualifying he could well have beaten Piastri.
Verdict: Led the line for Ferrari.
Started: 14th Finished: 9th
Looked to have the edge over team-mate Arvid Lindblad in practice, although it wasn't a clear comparison given the problems on the other side of the garage.
However, qualifying didn't go well, with front wing damage that wasn't caused by any obvious misadventure on Lawson's part, leading to it being swapped between Q2 runs but without the chance to adjust the flap angle.
He wasn't able to advance to Q3, lapping four tenths off Lindblad. Although there were mitigating circumstances, that was a disappointment.
Having run 12th in the first stint, the timing of the safety car allowed him to jump Ocon, Isack Hadjar and his team-mate, but he drove a strong second stint to keep the quicker Haas behind.
That deserves particular credit given how difficult Hadjar and Lindblad found it in battle at times, given the ERS characteristics of the power unit.
Verdict: Qualifying troubles made life difficult.
Started: 16th Finished: 15th
While Carlos Sainz couldn't repeat his points heroics of China, that was never that likely in a Williams, even though the car proved a little more competitive in the midfield at Suzuka.
He made it into Q2, despite being furious with Hadjar being in his way during Q1, then toiled hard in the midfield to stay in the mix.
He had the edge over Alex Albon even before his team-mate's race descended into experimentation, and once again managed to hold off Franco Colapinto, having been gifted the advantage over the Alpine driver by the safety car timing.
Verdict: A handy, but unheralded, weekend.
Started: 5th Finished: 5th
Norris tops the third tier of drivers who were not at their best, all being slower than their team-mates in qualifying but delivering varying levels of race drives.
Problems for Norris in both FP2 and FP3 restricted practice running and meant he headed into the race without any long-run experience. That disrupted running played a part in not getting onto Piastri's level, although in the circumstances, it was a reasonable recovery, even though he perhaps could have been expected to get closer than the 0.277s deficit to his team-mate in qualifying.
His race performance was a good one, especially considering he was among those who pitted before the safety car, and represented a solid recovery given he was able to pass and pull away from Hamilton.
Verdict: Off Piastri, but with significant mitigation.
Started: 6th Finished: 6th
This was a disappointing weekend for Hamilton, who ended up at the back of the six-car front group.
While he was in contention for a podium finish on track position at one stage in the race after passing Russell at the restart, that was assisted by the timing of the safety car.
He ended up falling behind Norris and Leclerc, which was a fair reflection of his pace - which was decent enough but not as strong as Leclerc's.
It was that kind of weekend for Hamilton, one that started with him lacking confidence in the car during Friday practice at a track that didn't play to the strengths of the Ferrari.
Verdict: Solid but unspectacular.
Started: 21st Finished: 18th
Alonso arrived late in Japan after the birth of his first child and sat out FP1 to allow Jak Crawford to complete one of the mandatory rookie practice outings for the season.
Alonso found the car felt "completely normal" during FP2 before the return of the dreaded vibrations on Saturday that led to a struggle in qualifying.
He outpaced team-mate Stroll by three tenths, but the Aston Martin was not quick enough to do any better than 21st, behind even the Cadillacs. After initially running ahead of Stroll, he fell behind in a move facilitated by a lack of battery, then stayed there until his team-mate's retirement.
While he suggested that there was some divergence on deployment strategy because "if both cars run together that was maybe some good information in terms of different maps in the engine and energy", ideally, he would have been ahead of his team-mate.
Verdict: On a hiding to nothing.
Started: 17th Finished: 20th
Albon, whose weekend started badly with an FP1 collision with Perez as the Cadillac driver didn't spot him passing at the chicane, was clearly frustrated by what appeared to be either the team not fully understanding the quirks of these new power units or a struggle to refine his driving style.
"We were quick in all the corners, and we're lacking elsewhere," he said after being eliminated in Q1, having lapped 0.177s slower than Sainz.
He had a solid race and was close to Sainz, albeit with Colapinto between them, when the team decided to run a series of aero experiments late on, hence his unorthodox six-stop strategy and last-place finish.
Verdict: Frustrated, but a step behind Sainz.
Started: 9th Finished: 13th
Bortoleto's weekend was going well until the moment the red lights went out and he dropped from ninth to 13th.
Given the well-known problems with getting the Audi off the line and the fact Nico Hulkenberg had a very similar start, this can't fairly be blamed on Bortoleto.
However, he then slipped back to 15th as Audi couldn't match the deployment of rivals and lacked grip.
The safety car timing allowed him to restart 10th as he hadn't pitted, but falling behind Ocon at the restart was the start of a slide back to a frustrated 13th in a race where points were possible thanks to the safety car.
Verdict: Audi's problems made life difficult in the race.
Started: 20th Finished: 19th
After a Friday he described as his smoothest day for Cadillac yet, Bottas had what he described as a straightforward qualifying despite pushing a little hard on his last lap.
However, he always looked to be giving away a fraction to Perez, ending up 0.134s behind his team-mate - but ahead of the two Aston Martins.
He started on hards and slowly lost track with the back of the pack in the race before pitting before the safety car.
He was still at the back for the restart and seemed a chunk off team-mate Perez, meaning he finished there ahead only of the six-stopping Albon.
Verdict: Well off Perez's level in qualifying and the race.
Started: 18th Finished: DNF
Things never really came together for Bearman, who had a tricky FP1 while trying to optimise upgrades, then ended up being eliminated in Q1.
That was partly down to what he described as a "switch error" on the first run that compromised power, and then his own failure to get the best out of the car on the final run.
Despite that, he was slowly edging his way towards points contention during the first stint, passing Perez, Albon, and Sainz before going off at 308km/h and suffering a 50g impact after being caught out by the closing speed and Colapinto's car positioning.
The regulations should be blamed, but it was also a risk he perhaps should have factored in.
Verdict: A weekend to forget.