After 19 years of thrilling and spectacular Grand Prix racing, Formula One contested their final race around the Sepang International Circuit last weekend.
Unfortunately for Mercedes, they were unable to deliver the hoped-for victory, but there was still plenty for us to report on under the Stat attack for round 15 of the 2017 season, including the pole position for Lewis Hamilton - the 70th of his career, his ninth of the year and his fifth at Sepang (thereby equalling Michael Schumacher's tally at this venue).
He has started to open up a gap on the all-time pole position leaderboard.
For the Silver Arrows as a team, it was their eleventh pole out of 15 in 2017.
Lewis's second place on Sunday was also his 114th podium in the highest echelon of the sport and his tenth of the season.
This puts him on level pegging with Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, who have also made ten podium appearances during the current campaign.
The Silver Arrows have now had 20 Top Three finishes in 2017 - more than any other Formula 1 team this year.
Now it's time to increase that tally in Japan and Lewis Hamilton is confident that this can be done, given the cooler conditions...
"I think the fans here (in Japan) are very unique," Lewis said. "I love coming out here. Just taking the train here today from Tokyo, which is one of my favourite cities, seeing Mount Fuji, it's a beautiful place, it's got a lot to offer. The fans come here and they're incredibly enthusiastic and excited. We've got a great crowd that come here, we've got one of the best circuits in the world, and a real love of cars, and a real interest in technology, and a real smart group of fans.”
‘So, yeah, I love coming here, I love getting to see them. I've got some of these guys who travel around the globe to support me, I'm sure the other drivers have that as well. They've got their nails painted with the British flag, some of the grandstands here - one grandstand just completely covered in my flags, from one of my fans, so the support is incredible."
Mercedes struggled for pace at the last race in Malaysia, but Lewis came away from the weekend with a second-place finish and a 34-point lead in the Championship. The pecking order seems to change at each circuit, but Lewis is hopeful the cooler conditions in Japan will better suit the W08.
"I think it's definitely dependent on the track," he explained. "We've seen so far this season there have been races where we've been quicker than others, and other races where we've not had the best car but we've won. But look at the season - we've had more pole positions than anyone, we're leading both Championships, we still are the best team, and we're working as hard as we can to continue to prove that and show that.”
"We still got second in the last race, which I think was a true showing of real strength, foundation-wise, of this team. So we're going to continue to push forward. I don't expect a completely different car here (at Suzuka), but I'm hoping for a different type of performance from the car. I'll find out when I get on track. But it is cooler conditions, generally the hotter places we struggle a little bit more, being that it's cooler hopefully bring it back more into our window."
