Well, that was a thriller, wasn't it? Lewis Hamilton has become a three-time F1 World Champion, and scooped back-to-back titles, after team-mate Nico Rosberg went wide and handed Lewis the all-important points advantage. This time, he didn't even need to muscle his way past either: unlike at the first corner, Nico did it all of his own accord. It means Hamilton joins a select roll call of three-time World Champions, comprising of Jack Brabham, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Sir Jackie Stewart. Who's above him? Just Vettel, Prost, Fangio and Schumacher.
Pity Lewis' rather racy start is co-dominating the headlines today, rather than the fact he's triumphed so relatively early in the season. Nico is understandably rather brassed off that Lewis didn't turn his steering wheel enough, forcing him to turn out of it and lose a fistful of places; to avoid potential fisticuffs, Mercedes-AMG boss Toto Wolff is already planning talks to ensure things don't spiral (although Lewis did already apologise on the radio). Coming so soon after he muscled Nico in Suzuka, it does potentially ensure on-going interest in the now-sealed 2015 championship should the pair go all Prost/Senna.
At least the race victory itself wasn't questionable, meaning this incident may hopefully be forgotten rather more quickly than Spa 2014 when it was Rosberg driving into Hamilton. It is a fascinating insight into racing driver psyche though: for all his chatter about not bothering whether he won the title in the US or Mexico, Hamilton was still clearly determined enough to lead at the first corner to risk committing the ultimate sin and clattering out his team-mate. It's the split-second decisions like that which really mark out the racers - question is, how fine is the line between racing and ruthlessness?
Volkswagen Motorsport driver Andreas Mikkelsen has grabbed his first WRC victory in Cataluña in the most dramatic fashion - when team-mate Sebastien Ogier crashed on the very final stage of the event. The normally metronomic Frenchman went into the final stage with an enormous lead, only to clatter a barrier, destroy a wheel and lose the win. An amazing turn of events; Mikkelsen would, I'm sure, liked to have won in different circumstances but, hey, a win's a win: he didn't stack it and so deserves the plaudits.
It's been a long time coming for the Norwegian who had a rather stellar career in the junior ranks with Skoda. Going up against Ogier must be frightening, so Loeb-like is he, but here's hoping the first one can be a springboard for more. That is, of course, if dieselgate-riddled Volkswagen is able to stay in WRC: at least the Polo WRC cars aren't powered by diesel...
The curious race calendar of Formula E means the 2015/16 season this week got underway, as so many other series in the world being to wrap up theirs. The Chinese event was dominated by Swiss ex-F1 driver Sebastien Buemi, who led from ex-F1 driver Lucas di Grassi and ex-F1 driver Nick Heidfeld (scoring the Mahindra team's first-ever podium). Reigning champion Nelson Piquet Jr was two laps down in 15th after a troubled race, behind ex-F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve.
There's new tech for 2015. Eight of the 10 teams are running their own drivetrains, rather than the stock setups from the debut season (and so becoming manufacturers), and battery power is up from 150kW to 170kW. The rather controversial Fanboost has been revised for 2015/16 as well - with more of it, rather than less.
Using hashtags, fans can vote for the most deserving three drivers through the Formula E website or app, plus Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They can also do it for a time during the race itself, which is why the Fanboost kick doesn't, er, kick in until drivers swap into their second cars (yes, they still do that). Rather crucially, it's no longer a one-shot boost, but an extra reserve of power the drivers can meter out as they see fit. Making it much more of a tactical trick than last season's rather one-dimensional solution.
True race fans are still unlikely to celebrate the idea, but for the new generation of enthusiast brought up on games consoles whom Formula E is trying to attract, it does still have merit as an interesting audience engagement tool. What do you think? Will you be downloading the app?