It was hardly a classic, but Formula 1's 2025 Japanese Grand Prix still produced plenty of winners and losers.
Below you'll find our team's picks.
Loser: McLaren
Any time you fail to win with what is objectively the fastest car in F1 at the time it has to go down as a loss.
This was a very narrow defeat - the fine margins created by Max Verstappen's stunning final Q3 lap versus Lando Norris' apparent conservatism into the final chicane tipped the scales on this occasion.
Incredible to think that just 0.012 seconds effectively decided the outcome of the Japanese GP, but so it proved.
You might also wonder why McLaren, with two cars in the lead fight versus Red Bull's one, didn't find a way to bludgeon its way to victory strategically - but the way the track conditions completely neutered alternative tyre strategies, and the usual power of the undercut at Suzuka, means it's difficult to find fault with how McLaren executed the race.
McLaren made Verstappen's life as uncomfortable as it could, but simply paid the price for not converting that inherent car pace advantage into pole position on Saturday. An incredibly small but ultimately significant underperformance on this occasion. - Ben Anderson
Winner: Max Verstappen
Verstappen's brilliant season of damage limitation in a slower Red Bull continued to reach its peak in Suzuka with an unlikely pole position and a well-managed race.
He was pretty much error-free and had Norris covered off during their pit exit run-in, avoiding panicking and crossing the exit line, which would have cost him victory.
Victory number 64 and even if McLaren continues to have a quicker car, you'd expect Verstappen's win tally to keep rising this year. - Josh Suttill
Loser: Yuki Tsunoda
So Red Bull's wait for its second car to score a point in 2025 goes on.
Yuki Tsunoda was never going to hit the heights that team-mate Verstappen ultimately achieved on his first weekend in the Red Bull senior team, but there was real speed (and comfortability) there at times at Suzuka.
That makes a muted run to 12th, rooted in Saturday's qualifying underperformance, a really flat note to start on - not least because it came in front of his home crowd. - Jack Cozens
Losers: Mercedes and Ferrari
More was on offer this weekend for Mercedes, but it went begging with George Russell's tyre-prep-influenced qualifying underperformance and there were no opportunities for recovery - with Russell's undercut attempt in the race only serving to effectively freeze the order out front.
So Ferrari, in that context, can genuinely take heart in Charles Leclerc beating Russell to fourth. But it cannot take heart from the fact this was another weekend where the SF-25, which Ferrari still seemingly cannot run how it wants, didn't look particularly potent. - Val Khorounzhiy
Winner: Kimi Antonelli
Antonelli started the weekend all at sea, but ended it with the latest reminder of why Mercedes had gambled on him and why it has no reason to feel any buyer's remorse as it stands.
Setting the new record as F1's youngest-ever race leader was nice if entirely created by going long in the first stint, and equally it's easy to look impressive late in the race on an offset strategy with a tyre advantage - although, admittedly, Hamilton didn't in the Ferrari, falling away massively from his Mercedes replacement.
It was just overall very nicely managed. This won't be the hardest race of Antonelli's season, but he was appropriately fast and you can't take that for granted. - VK
Loser: Esteban Ocon
Red Bull aside, there was no team with as big a disparity between drivers as Haas come the end of Sunday's race.
So did Ollie Bearman massively outperform the VF-25, or did Esteban Ocon come nowhere near close to extracting the maximum from it?
Maybe the answer's somewhere in the middle of those extremes. But the fact Ocon finished pretty well at the back and was so convincingly outclassed by his rookie team-mate at a track where experience really should count for something amounts to at least mild cause for concern. - JC
Winner: Ollie Bearman
Earlier in the weekend, I remember finding it slightly peculiar just how serious a tone Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu still used in referencing Bearman's travails in the Melbourne opener. A dreadful weekend, for sure, but one you can't really be too shocked to see from a rookie.
But it makes sense when you remember Komatsu clearly views Bearman as no ordinary rookie, and for a second weekend straight - following up from his China redemption - Bearman has reminded everyone why that might be.
Was the Haas really a top-10 car this weekend with its fast-tracked upgrades? We can't know for sure, but you'd lean no. But the opportunity presented itself for a point, and Bearman grabbed it with both hands - something he just keeps and keeps doing as an F1 driver. - VK
Loser: Lance Stroll
I've been quick to point out the stellar start Lance Stroll has made to the 2025 F1 season but unfortunately, that improvement wasn't present at Suzuka.
A qualifying error meant he had to start in last and bar an early move on Gabriel Bortoleto's Sauber, he failed to make any progress.
Instead, he was the only driver to stop twice (the consequence of an ill-fated decision to start on softs) and ended up the only driver one lap down. - JS
Winner: Isack Hadjar
Has Red Bull made the wrong driver choice again?
That's obviously a provocative question; there were limiting factors around Yuki Tsunoda's muted Red Bull senior team debut, not least the static nature of the race that put meant qualifying position was, by and large, king.
But while Tsunoda didn't hook it together on Saturday, Isack Hadjar did. Big time.
And the race was well executed, too, as he brought home the best result possible for a Racing Bulls team that's squandered points left, right and centre at the start of 2025.
This won't be the toughest test Hadjar faces to score points in a grand prix, but it's an important, complete weekend early in his F1 career that's proved he can deliver on the flashes of speed he's shown at all three weekends so far. - JC
Loser: Liam Lawson
The outcome of the Japanese GP will have ultimately given Red Bull chiefs little in the way of second thoughts over the controversial decision they'd made ahead of the weekend.
Lawson shouldn't be judged too harshly - the VCARB 02 is a new car to him, and he didn't embarrass himself this weekend - but he was overshadowed pretty roundly by Hadjar both in qualifying trim and in race pace, and clearly has some catching up to do. - VK
Loser: Carlos Sainz
Sainz made some nice moves - and also took some, err, creative lines through the final chicane - and he was ultimately always going to be up against it after Saturday's grid penalty, which wasn't his fault.
It was par for the course, but the issue is the bigger picture. 'Par for the course' doesn't really cut it for Sainz right now, given that Albon has again had his number all weekend, and that Sainz's Williams tenure so far remains devoid of true highlights. - VK
