The Qatar Grand Prix may not have been as exciting as the proceeding race in Brazil where Lewis Hamilton carved his way through the field to take a stunning win, but it did keep the title fight on track for a final race decider.
Hamilton's lights to flag triumph at the Losail Circuit in front of Max Verstappen was much more straightforward as he trimmed the Dutchman's advantage down to just eight points, with much of the race's drama happening behind the main title contenders.
Fernando Alonso's charge to third was among the highlights of a race headlined by sudden punctures to four drivers. Here Sportsmail looks back at six things we learned from the event.
Lewis Hamilton (centre) celebrates his Qatar Grand Prix victory with his team in the pit-lane
One of the big questions heading into the Qatar Grand Prix was: "would you rather have had Max Verstappen's 14-point advantage or Lewis Hamilton's car heading into the final three races?"
There was room for debate before Friday, but not now. Red Bull and Verstappen had no answer to the awesome speed of Mercedes as Hamilton never looked in danger of losing the race - especially after taking pole position by nearly half-a-second.
While there are fears that the new engine fitted onto Hamilton's car before the proceeding Sao Paulo Grand Prix will dramatically lose performance over time and mileage, it's still hard to see Mercedes lose that much speed compared to their rivals.
The Brit took a dominating victory at the Losail Circuit having qualified on pole position
This is especially true as the championship heads into the final two rounds at Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which are set to favour Hamilton's machinery over Verstappen's Red Bull due to their high-speed layouts.
If Hamilton wins both - and after back-to-back wins there appears little can stop him right now - he will win a record eighth world championship.
Red Bull's only hope to slow their rivals down appears to centre on the scuff marks in the Mercedes rear wing, which could be evidence of breaching technical regulations around moving aerodynamic parts.
The Milton Keynes outfit though are running out of time to get a protest in as they gather evidence, although Mercedes claim they are running in compliance with the rules and their wing passes all regulation checks. Either way we may not have seen the last of the stewards room for these rival teams.
Hamilton (second right) finished ahead of Max Verstappen (left) and Fernando Alonso (right)
Much was made of Hamilton's storming charge from the back of the grid in the Brazil sprint race to grand prix winner at Interlagos last weekend.
It was one of the Brit's greatest drives, but more importantly it was the type of aggressive, clinical and skilful performance that you typically only see from drivers capable of winning a world championship.
Verstappen shared the same traits in his extraordinary storm up the field to second in the opening laps in Qatar.
The Dutchman found himself starting down in seventh but crucially behind his title rival's team-mate Valtteri Bottas following five- and three-grid place penalties respectively for ignoring yellow flags in qualifying.
Mercedes would have been desperate for the Finn to hold off Verstappen and allow Hamilton to try and trim the points gap down even closer than the eight-point margin he now trails Verstappen by.
Instead Verstappen passed Bottas at the start and by the end of the second corner was up to fourth and challenging Fernando Alonso.
By the time he had reached lap five, he was already up to his maximum potential of second behind the checked out Hamilton, with the duo then driving off into the distance.
Bottas, meanwhile, after the fifth lap was stuck down in 11th and out of the points. As good as the Finn is, when the chips are down the greats come to the fore.
Verstappen (left) charged up through the field from seventh very early on to take second place
There was more chance of Alonso losing a lot more than he stood to gain after coming back into Formula One this season after two years away.
The two-time world champion had done it all in the sport, and admittedly a series of poor cars throughout the second half of his career prevented him from winning much more.
His low-key departure from a poor McLaren in 2018 was not fitting for a driver of his stature and it would have motivated his desire to return with Alpine this season.
But he was risking denting his reputation further by coming back at such an old age. Michael Schumacher's F1 record will always be stained by his poor three years at Mercedes after he hit his 40s.
Alonso had a welcome return to the podium with Alpine for his best F1 finish since 2014
Kimi Raikkonen has driven well for Alfa Romeo at 42 years old but he will retire at the end of the season as a mere also-ran, and a long, long time after he was once
