When Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc pulled incredibly quick laps out of the bag during Sunday morning's Typhoon Hagibis-delayed qualifying session at the Suzuka Circuit, Mercedes were stunned. Their chances of maintaining their extraordinary record of five consecutive turbo-hybrid victories in the Japanese Grand Prix seemed slim at best. At last, it appeared, the Silver Arrows had met their match.

Later, in the warm sunshine that was such a stark contrast to the torrential rain and 230kmh tornado winds that had swept up the eastern coast the previous day and wreaked havoc on Tokyo, Ferrari's day fell apart.