Nestlé has launched a new flavour of Yorkie bar and chocolate fans are already flocking to supermarkets to get their hands on it and see how it compares to the original

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Chocolate fans are flocking to supermarkets to snap up a brand new bar from Nestlé which has just arrived in stores. The company has launched a new Yorkie bar flavour – and fans are keen to discover how it stacks up against the original version.

A post on NewFoodUK’s Instagram page reads: “New Salted Caramel Pretzel Yorkie Bar from Morrisons Daily!” Responding to the launch, one user said: “What’s not to love here – the original chunky chocolate with a salty makeover.” Another referenced the brand’s controversial past campaign, adding: “But it’s not for girls.”

Between 2002 and 2011, Yorkie bars were promoted under the slogan “It’s Not For Girls” – a strategy intended to position the chocolate as a “manly” treat.

Andrew Harrison, the marketing director at Nestlé, said in 2002: “This is a big step for Yorkie as the trucker has been an institution, but we felt that we needed to take a stand for the British bloke and reclaim some things in his life, starting with his chocolate.

“Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males.

“It used to be that men had some areas of their life that were just for them and that was OK. No one cared and most people recognised that men needed places to be, in a simple sense, men.

“Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men’s happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men.”

Despite the campaign having long since ended, many chocolate enthusiasts continue to question the reasoning behind it.

One baffled user posed the question on Reddit: “Why was the Yorkie not for girls? I’ve just seen the advert – what did they mean?”

Others were quick to explain it as a product of its time. One user commented: “Because back then chocolate was advertised as a very female product, see the Flake advert.

“This was to show that men could eat chocolate too. It was also the marketing style at the time was jokey. As an aside the army would get them in ration packs marked as ‘not for civies’.”

Another user added: “Throughout the 70s and 80s Yorkies were advertised by a trucker as a man’s bar (you know, in the days when women couldn’t drive trucks).

“When that was no longer deemed acceptable they started advertising as not for women. Don’t worry, sexual equality prevailed, flakes were advertised as exclusively for women, by scantily clad women.”

A third user said: “Very of the time marketing. That sort of ‘humour’ was very popular around then (see also: the popularity of lad mags). It was based on the idea that a Yorkie is so chunky that ‘girls’ wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

There is also a bit of symmetry about Tuesday’s first-ever meeting between these two sides.

Ivory Coast, at 35th, are five places above Scotland in the world rankings and are returning to the World Cup finals for the first time in 12 years.

With a 52,600 capacity, Hill Dickinson Stadium is just above Hampden’s 51,866.

Considering the distances involved for both sets of fans, will the attendance get close to that, or even the average of about 24,000 Ivory Coast usually attract to their games at the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium?

Scotland are no strangers to playing in neutral venues, recently facing Gibraltar in Portugal, Ukraine in Poland and, in September, beating Belarus 2-0 in Hungary in a World Cup qualifier also switched because of Russia’s invasion.

However, the most famous might be the 1977 win over Wales.

Because of capacity restrictions and safety concerns at other grounds, the match was moved to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium – Wales’ first home match held outside the country since 1890.

An infamous handball by Joe Jordan won Scotland a controversial penalty, with Don Masson slotting home the opener before Kenny Dalglish’s late strike settled the tie to send Scotland to the finals in Argentina instead of their heartbroken hosts.

The world-famous boat race returns on April 4, 2026

The world famous boat race which sees two historic universities competing on the River Thames is rapidly approaching. Since 1829, Cambridge and Oxford University have been battling each other in the boat race.

Its inaugural event was held in 1829, when Charles Wordsworth from Christ Church College in Oxford and Charles Merivale from St John’s, Cambridge, met during the holidays in Cambridge.

Wordsworth went rowing on the River Cam and the pair decided to have a race. The first race was therefore held and for the next 25 years, a race was held infrequently.

However, from 1856 it became an annual event. This year’s event takes place in London on Saturday, April 4.

The women’s race will first take place at 2.21pm, followed by the men’s race at 3.21pm. Those taking part race along 4.25 miles of the River Thames, from Putney to Mortlake. Over 200,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event.

For people heading to London to see the action, there are several places they can watch it. There are two fan zones, including one in Hammersmith and another in Fulham. Each fan zone offers food, drink and giant screens.

If people want to watch it but don’t want to travel, they can watch it from the comfort of their home. This year, the boat race is being broadcast by a different channel.

For many years the BBC has broadcast the race. However, this year it will be broadcast on Channel 4. Last year, Channel 4 won the TV rights to show the boat race for the next five years.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Coach Tommy Lloyd climbed the ladder, cut the last strand of the net and waved to the Arizona fans while they chanted, “Tommy! Tommy!”

Lloyd and the Wildcats are back in the Final Four for the first time since Lute Olson’s heyday 25 years ago as Arizona once again looks like a threat to win it all.

Freshman Koa Peat scored 20 points with his strength inside and Arizona’s defense bottled up Purdue in the second half to give the top-seeded Wildcats a 79-64 victory in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region final on Saturday night.

“Just being a kid from Arizona, to take this team to a Final Four, man, it’s a blessing,” said Peat, who was named the region’s Most Outstanding Player. “I’m proud of these guys. We worked for this. We’re not done yet.”

After years of disappointment in March, Lloyd has gotten Arizona (36-2) back to being a championship contender thanks to a talented freshman class led by Peat to go along with veterans like Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley.

The Wildcats showed they can win in almost any style. They used a nearly flawless performance on offense to beat Arkansas in the Sweet 16 and then shut down one of the nation’s most efficient offenses against second-seeded Purdue (30-9) in front of a large crowd of Arizona fans.

“Making it to the Final Four is big,” Bradley said. “We appreciate Tucson, the supporters, and everybody behind the scenes. We just are happy that we get to reward them with this.”

Arizona frustrated the NCAA record-holder in assists, Braden Smith, and prevented his fellow four-year seniors Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer from getting into a rhythm. Purdue was held to its second-lowest point total of the season and shot just 38% from the field.

Arizona used an 16-3 run early in the second half to erase a seven-point halftime deficit and take a six-point lead on a 3-pointer from Anthony Dell’Orso. The Wildcats stayed in control from there. Brayden Burries hit a 3-pointer, and after a turnover by Smith, Ivan Kharchenkov made a layup for an 11-point lead.

Peat put the exclamation point on the win with dunk that made it 68-55 with less than six minutes remaining, sending the Wildcats to Indianapolis next week on a 13-game winning streak.

Peat became just the sixth freshman to score at least 20 points to help his team win in both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.

“They call him Mr. Arizona,” Lloyd said. “Koa is special, and I know you guys hear it, but you got to hear it again. Four state championships at the same high school. Didn’t go to a prep school. Four gold medals with USA Basketball. No one in FIBA history has ever done that. And helped lead Arizona to a Final Four.”

The trip to the Final Four is a long-awaited one for the Wildcats, who last made it to that stage in 2001 when they lost the title game to Duke under Olson. They had lost five straight times in the Elite Eight since — tied for the second-longest skid ever in that round — under the three coaches who followed Olson after he retired in 2007.

Lloyd replaced Sean Miller in 2021, and this year’s Wildcats have set the school’s single-season record for wins en route to the Final Four.

“Without Lute — without Sean doing what he did for those 12 years he was here, I wouldn’t be able to do what we did today. I fully understand that,” Lloyd said. “Those guys, this is for them too. You know, I have no problem sharing the success of this team with the coaches that came before me.”

Kharchenkov scored 18 points for Arizona, while Bradley and Burries each scored 14.

Purdue withstood an early push from Arizona and quieted the large contingent of Wildcats fans with a strong finish to the first half. Smith returned from a rare five-minute stint on the bench to hit his third 3-pointer of the half. He set up C.J. Cox for a 3 and then drew an offensive foul before firing up the Boilermakers fans. Purdue led 38-31 to match Arizona’s largest halftime deficit of the season.

But the Boilermakers wilted in the second half as the senior trio that began their careers losing in the opening round as a No. 1 seed to Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023 and lost the title game the following year to UConn couldn’t get back to the Final Four.

Smith scored 13 points, Kaufman-Renn had 10 and Loyer just eight. The three combined to shoot 12 for 38 from the field.

“They’re obviously very talented,” Smith said. “They’re the No. 3 defensive team in the country. They rebound at a high, high level. I think that’s kind of where they got us. We would make a couple of plays, get a couple of blocks and then got it right back and were able to score. Obviously we didn’t make as much shots as we did in the first half in the second half. Then obviously those add up.”

Up next

Arizona will take on the winner of Sunday’s game between Michigan and Tennessee in the national semifinals Saturday.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The Pitt has finally made its way to the UK and fans are ready to binge.

Fans of medical dramas are already bingeing their way through a hit series that has finally landed in the UK on the new streaming platform, HBO Max and it has already been renewed for a third season.

The Pitt, starring ER legend Noah Wyle, first aired in the US in January 2025 and it received several prestigious awards, including five Primetime Emmys.

The series has received critical acclaim for its accuracy and has been supported by those working in the medical field.

In January 2026, ahead of the second-season premiere, The Pitt was renewed for a third season, with Wyle telling The Hollywood Reporter: “One of the gratifying things about season two is that we realized that we don’t need a big deus ex machina plot device to keep this engaging, that there is something really fascinating about watching everyday people try to get through the course of their day, beset by all the trials and tribulations that come over the course of their day.

“If that is satisfying television, then this show could run forever.” Here is all you need to know about the show’s premise.

Where is The Pitt set?

The Pitt is set at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. In the first season, attending physician Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Wyle) starts a shift at the emergency room, nicknamed “the Pitt”.

Wyle and television producers R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells had worked together on the set of the medical drama ER, which became hugely successful and influenced subsequent medical drama series.

In 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Wyle began receiving an influx of Instagram messages and fan mail from first responders working in the healthcare system, thanking him for inspiring them to pursue emergency medicine.

Wyle shared the messages with Wells, thinking he could make a series dealing with contemporary challenges faced by healthcare workers.

Gemmill thought of a ‘real time’ series, following a twelve-hour shift at the hospital, which is how the idea for The Pitt came to light.

What is The Pitt about?

Each season of The Pitt follows emergency department staff as they navigate the hardships of a single 15-hour work shift. While doing so, they also have to contend with staff shortages and underfunding.

Each episode is named after a particular hour of the day, as it covers approximately one hour of the work shift.

The series has an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 97 per cent, with fans praising the real-time aspect, as one said: “Great first season. I love the different approach by having each episode as an hour in the same day. The cast seamlessly fit the show.”

Another fan shared: “Top notch acting, directing, and casting. Every episode maintains a fever pitch of life or death intensity from start to finish. Personal stories get seamlessly worked in here and there between emergencies. Several ethical dilemmas also add a level of intrigue.”

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A third fan enthused: “One of the most thrilling tv shows that has come out in the past 10 years. For a medical show, it’s a great take. The way the show is structured with modern topics and events that have happened during our times and are worth talking about is the reason why it’s such a modern 21st century show.

“Every character you kind of feel for. They did a great job on casting. I wonder if real ER personnel would say it’s similar. Its nuisances are very much the medical version of The Bear. High stress. Complicated relationships.

“Somewhat real life take of the reality of that field (at least from what I know from it). I’ve already watched it two times in two years and probably will watch it again!”

The Pitt is available on HBO Max

Hundreds of mourners turned out in the pouring rain in Beirut for the funerals of three journalists killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. 

Some held aloft posters of the two well-known Lebanese war correspondents, holding cameras and wearing their press body armour.

A number of women were sobbing. “They’re killing the messengers of this war,” one said.

Elsy Moufarrej of the Union of Journalists in Lebanon has already described the killings of the journalists as a war crime.

Iran war latest: Tehran threatens to set US ground troops on fire

“We’ve seen this in Gaza where they tried to undermine Palestinian journalists by linking them to Hamas.

“Now they’re trying to do the same to Lebanese journalists by linking them to Hezbollah. Let’s be in no doubt. This is a war crime.”

The journalists – Ali Shoaib who worked for the Hezbollah-owned TV channel Al-Manar; Fatima Fatouni, who worked for Al Mayadeen; and her brother Muhammad Fatouni, who was a freelance cameraman – were covering the ongoing invasion of Israeli troops inside south Lebanon.

They were travelling together in a vehicle near Jezzine on the highway between Nabatieh and Sidon when an Israeli bomb hit them.

Witnesses said as colleagues ran to help, a second strike hit. The Lebanese health ministry said an ambulance filled with first responders sent to help was also hit.

An Israeli military spokesman admitted they’d targeted the journalists but attempted to justify the killings by claiming one of the senior correspondents – Ali Shoaib – was a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force and was passing on information about Israeli troops’ movements inside Lebanon.

He provided no evidence for this claim.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists said journalists doing their jobs are protected under the rules of war, as laid out under the Geneva Convention.

CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said: “We have seen a disturbing pattern in this war and in the decades prior of Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence.

“Journalists are not legitimate targets, regardless of the outlet they work for.”

The journalist killings came as Israeli troops intensified their attacks on Lebanon.

Many of these attacks appear to be directed against health facilities and healthcare workers.

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A health care centre in the eastern border town of Deir Kifa was struck early on Sunday.

No one was injured, but the centre has been put out of action.

This was followed by another Israeli attack on an ambulance which had just picked up a casualty.

One paramedic and the patient who’d just been rescued were killed. More than fifty medics have been killed in less than a month.

The Israeli military once again insisted on Sunday that Hezbollah is “using ambulances extensively for military purposes” and continued, “if this practice doesn’t stop Israel will act in accordance with international law against military activity”.

But the Lebanese health ministry has angrily denounced these claims saying there’s no evidence any ambulances are being used for any activity apart from rescuing humanitarian work.

The health ministry is compiling a list of Israeli attacks against health facilities and first responders to present to the UN.

It maintains the Israeli attacks follow a pattern of repetitively targeting medics and hospitals.

“These are war crimes,” the health minister Dr Rakan Nassereddine told Sky News.

Lebanon is embroiled in a huge humanitarian crisis caused by the war, with more than a million displaced.

There are daily casualties, with more than fifty killed in the last 24 hours, although the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The Hezbollah militant group continues to fire volleys of rockets into northern Israel.

There has been hand-to-hand fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in some of the southern border villages and communities, but it’s difficult to ascertain how much control the Israeli military has of these areas or how much ground they have taken.

There have been sightings of Israeli troops in a number of communities several kilometres inside Lebanese territory and the Israeli Army Chief has been filmed by the military addressing troops on the Lebanese side without any details about exactly where this position was.

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Israeli ministers have made it clear their plan is to seize a vast expanse of Lebanon’s south in order to create what it calls a ‘security buffer zone’.

The government has signalled it intends to occupy this territory right up to the Litani River and potentially beyond (an area which takes up about 10% of Lebanese land) until the Israeli military deems it to be safe from the threat of Hezbollah.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Apollo moonshots are a tough act to follow, even after all this time.

As four astronauts get set to blast off on humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than half a century, comparisons between Apollo and NASA’s new Artemis program are inevitable.

The world’s first lunar visitors orbited the moon on Apollo 8. The Artemis II crew will play it safe and zip around the moon in an out-and-back slingshot.

Another key difference: Artemis reflects more of society, with a woman, person of color and Canadian rocketing away.

While Artemis builds on Apollo and pays homage to it, “there is no way we could be that same mission or ever hope to even be,” said NASA astronaut Christina Koch, part of the Artemis II crew.

Here’s the lowdown on Apollo vs. Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, as NASA targets the first six days of April for liftoff.

Run-up to the moon

It took NASA just eight years to go from putting its first astronaut in space to putting Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in 1969, beating President John Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline.

“The Apollo program still just absolutely blows me away,” said Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency,

Artemis has progressed much more slowly, after decades of indecision and flip-flopping between the moon and Mars as the next grand destination. NASA’s new moon rocket, the Space Launch System, or SLS, has soared only once in a test flight without anyone on board more than three years ago.

This plodding approach is why NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman overhauled the Artemis program in February. Keen to emulate Apollo, he added a mission between the upcoming Artemis II mission and the moon landing that’s now shifted to Artemis IV in 2028.

During next year’s revamped Artemis III, astronauts will stick closer to home the same way Apollo 9 did in 1969. Instead of attempting a moon landing as originally envisioned, they will practice docking their Orion capsule in orbit around Earth with one or both lunar landers under development by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The rival companies are accelerating work on their landers in a bid to be first.

Political rivalries

The Soviets were America’s fierce rivals during Apollo, but their moon rockets kept exploding at liftoff and they eventually gave up. Now the Chinese are the competition.

China already has landed robotic spacecraft on the moon’s far side — the only nation to achieve that — and is scrambling to land astronauts near the lunar south pole by 2030.

NASA is aiming for the same polar region, where shadowed craters are thought to hold vast amounts of ice that could provide drinking water and rocket fuel. Like his predecessor Bill Nelson, Isaacman is determined to beat China to the finish line and win this second space race.

Moon rocket

Apollo’s Saturn V rockets stood 363 feet (110 meters), with five first-stage engines. The Artemis SLS rocket comes in at 322 feet (98 meters) but packs more liftoff thrust with its four main engines and two strap-on boosters.

All but one Saturn V rocket soared from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A, now leased by SpaceX. NASA will use neighboring pad 39-B for all SLS flights. While the Saturn V launched twice before carrying astronauts, the SLS has flown only once. Hydrogen fuel leaks delayed the SLS debut in 2022 and struck again during a countdown test in February, stalling Artemis II. Then helium trouble reappeared, causing further delay. NASA is now targeting an April liftoff.

Launch Control remains at the same place. There was one woman in the packed firing room for the liftoff of Apollo 11. Now a woman leads it: Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.

First lunar crews

Apollo 8 still ranks as the gutsiest space mission of all time. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first humans to launch to the moon in 1968. Borman, the commander, insisted on as few lunar orbits as possible given the risks. He and his bosses settled on 10 orbits as a warmup for 1969’s moonwalk by Armstrong and Aldrin.

NASA decided long ago against orbiting the moon on Artemis’ crew debut, judging it too dangerous. The main goal is to test the Orion capsule’s life-support equipment, flying for the first time.

One big similarity between Apollo 8 and Artemis II is the troubled times surrounding them. “If we can contribute a little bit to hope for humanity,” said Artemis II pilot Victor Glover of NASA, “that is a huge thing.”

Shades of Apollo 13

The Artemis astronauts will orbit Earth for a day to make certain everything is working properly before igniting the main engine and heading for the moon. It will take three to four days for the capsule to reach the moon and continue some 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) beyond, exceeding the distance record set by 1970’s ill-fated Apollo 13.

Like Apollo 13, Artemis II will take advantage of the moon and Earth’s gravity, making a figure eight after whipping around the moon to head home in what’s known as a free-return trajectory requiring little if any fuel. It got Apollo 13’s three astronauts safely back although they had to abandon their moon landing.

Artemis astronauts will parachute into the Pacific after their mission like the Apollo crews did.

Suiting Up

For Apollo, the white, bulky spacesuits did double duty. What the astronauts wore for launch and return was the same for moonwalks since there wasn’t enough storage space for different outfits.

The Orion capsules for Artemis are bigger, designed to hold four astronauts instead of three plus two sets of spacesuits. NASA created brand new spacesuits for use inside the capsule, while turning to private companies for the moonwalking attire.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will wear the orange custom-fitted suits for launch and reentry. They’ll also use them in case of a depressurization or some other emergency. They can survive up to six days in the suits, inserting a straw into the helmet to sip water or protein shakes and relying on undergarment bags and bladders as a built-in toilet.

Houston-based Axiom Space is designing the white moonwalking suits that will accompany future Artemis crews.

Long-term goals

Apollo was all about beating the Russians to the moon and planting the U.S. flag. Astronauts landed six times from 1969 through 1972, with the longest surface stay lasting 75 hours. Five of the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the moon are still alive.

For the first Artemis moon landing, a pair of astronauts could spend nearly a week there. It’s a complicated plan compared with Apollo.

Artemis moonwalkers will launch to the moon aboard Orion and, once in lunar orbit, transfer to SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon, whichever is ready first. They’ll descend to the surface, and, after a few days, blast back into orbit to rendezvous with their Orion capsule. Orion will be the astronauts’ ride home.

NASA is striving for sustained lunar living, with Mars to follow, although “day one of the moon base is not going to look like this glass-enclosed, domed city,” Isaacman said. Last week, he unveiled a blueprint for the moon base showing habitats, rovers, drones, power stations and more. NASA plans to invest $20 billion over the next seven years.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Zinedine Zidane’s future looks to have been decided amid ongoing links to the Manchester United job

France manager Didier Deschamps has refused to address speculation linking Zinedine Zidane with the France national team job.

Deschamps, who has led the side since 2012, is expected to leave his position after the 2026 World Cup. Zidane has been heavily linked with the role for a number of years and, according to French media reports, has now reportedly agreed verbally to succeed Deschamps this summer.

Adding to the speculation, French Football Federation (FFF) president Philippe Diallo hinted that an announcement could arrive soon after revealing he is aware of the identity of the next France coach. When asked directly if it was Zidane, Diallo replied with a smile: “I invite you to join us after the World Cup.”

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When Diallo’s remarks were raised with Deschamps at a press conference before France’s friendly match against Colombia on Sunday, the 57-year-old said he did not want to “waste energy” on the topic.

“I usually don’t comment on the president’s statements. I focus on what’s important to me, which is today, tomorrow and what lies ahead,” Deschamps, who guided France to World Cup triumph in 2018, explained. “I’m not going to waste energy on that. What happens next doesn’t concern me.”

Zidane has been out of work since his second departure from Real Madrid in 2021. Since then, he has been repeatedly linked with the Manchester United job. However, it is believed he is hesitant about working in the UK because of his limited English.

Although he has been away from management for several years, Zidane, who won three Champions League titles and two La Liga crowns as Real Madrid boss, has never ruled out a return and recently suggested he would be back in the dugout soon. “It will happen soon. Very soon,” he said in November last year.

He has also openly expressed a desire to manage France one day, and that ambition is thought to be shared by the federation, which is reportedly viewing Zidane as the natural successor to Deschamps. Diallo also noted that “fewer than five” candidates applied for the role after it became known Deschamps would be stepping down.

“It takes a profile that ticks many boxes and which can also be the subject of support from the French people, since this French football team is the team of the French people,” he said.

One of Zidane’s former international team-mates, Nicolas Anelka, has previously said he expects the 1998 Ballon d’Or winner to be appointed, describing it as a strong choice.

“I don’t know if it’s official, but I think it will be Zidane,” Anelka said. “Everyone says it will be him, and he’s the best choice; he proved it at Real Madrid. He was a good coach. He will be a good leader for the French players.”

The situation may be disappointing for Manchester United supporters, many of whom would like to see Zidane take charge at Old Trafford this summer. However, with interim coach Michael Carrick delivering strong results, the urgency around appointing Zidane may have decreased.

Carrick is now considered the leading candidate for the permanent role after winning seven of his first 10 matches in charge and securing United’s place in the top four. Even so, a final decision is not expected until the end of the season.

Kimi Antonelli – 8.5 – Antonelli had a certain buzz about him after his breakthrough win in China and was immediately on the pace in Japan. Had the better of Mercedes team-mate George Russell in qualifying but another poor start saw him plummet down the order to sixth. While the car had pace, I don’t think the win was there without the luck of the safety car.

Oscar Piastri – 9 – When he does start a race, he scores big! Immediately on the pace and had an advantage baked in from Friday over McLaren team-mate Lando Norris with the world champion’s reliability issues. Nevertheless, a superb start to get both Mercedes by Turn One and then control the pace for the first stint. A real shame about the timing of the safety car but without it, Piastri could have stolen a win on Sunday.

Charles Leclerc – 8 – On top of his Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton from the get-go even with a car that was to neither drivers’ liking. Flew in qualifying and despite downplaying his final lap, he could have pipped Piastri for P2. Another blinder of a start on lap one and great wheel to wheel battling throughout, with some quite close call action with Hamilton. Fended off Russell right to the flag.

George Russell – 7 – Quick, as you’d expect, but ever since that small change to suspension in qualifying, Russell struggled for pace. Another poor start, not as bad as Antonelli’s but enough to cause him trouble. Dealt a bad card with the safety car but couldn’t exactly carve his way through the field and couldn’t find a way past Leclerc for the final podium place.

Lando Norris – 8 – Considering he could barely get a lap in some of the sessions, plagued with reliability issues and down to potentially his last battery, I’d say this was a sold recovery for Norris. There was clearly more pace to be had but given he hadn’t done any running on high fuel before the race, Japan was a job well done.

Lewis Hamilton – 6 – Never looked at home on board his Ferrari, slipping and sliding his way through practice and never looked to have Leclerc covered this weekend. Managed to get stuck in with a few battles and clearly wasn’t going to just get out of the way of his team-mate, which delivered us some more fun wheel-to-wheel action.

Pierre Gasly – 9 – My personal star of the weekend, alongside Piastri. The Alpine is clearly still tricky but Gasly is able to use all his experience to not only be best of the rest in qualifying but hold his own in the race too, despite Max Verstappen looming down his neck for the majority of the grand prix.

Max Verstappen – 6 – Another weekend where the car was not there for him. A fairly sizeable upgrade to the Red Bull seemed to make no difference, followed by further comments questioning his future.