At the end of 2018, the DTM lost one of its founding manufacturers in Mercedes-Benz, but found a replacement in Aston Martin to join Audi and BMW.

The desire to keep three brands on the grid didn’t maintain the previous level of competition though, as Mercedes’ departure played into the hands of Audi. In total, 12 of the 18 races this year were won by Audi and seven of the top 10 drivers in the standings were representing the manufacturer.

Combining the points of all the Aston Martin drivers didn’t even match that of Audi’s Jonathan Aberdein, the top rookie in the standings in 10th place. Even more concerning, combining the manufacturers’ points of BMW and Aston Martin equated to only 52.9% of what Audi was able to score.

For the final round at Hockenheim, the tie-up with Japan’s Super GT series was kicked off with an entry each from Honda, Lexus and Nissan. Despite being new to the circuit and tyre compounds, Honda’s Jenson Button was able to finish ninth. Had he been eligible for points, he would have scored two, only marginally less than the average points haul per race for Aston Martin (2.72). And had he contested the full season, it’s a case of what could have been.

With his sixth victory of 2019, Ott Tänak left Wales Rally GB more confident of becoming this season's World Rally champion.

On the 14 occasions that a driver has previously won that many rallies in a year, only twice have they not gone on to win the title (Didier Auriol in 1992 and Marcus Gronholm in 2006). And although achieved 14 times, it’s still a rare feat given the only other drivers to have been that successful during a season are Sébastiens Loeb and Ogier.

No other driver has tasted success in Wales as much as Ogier has, and with each of his Rally GB wins he has gone on to win the title. He finished third this year, his seventh year in a row on the podium. The gap between Tänak and himself in the standings is now 28 points - enough to overcome in the next rally but historically not a plausible scenario.

The rally marked the third time this season that the current top three in the standings shared the podium, and the career joint-best result for M-Sport’s Pontus Tidemand in seventh.

Winning the WRC-2 classification and taking the final overall point was 2002, ‘03, ‘04 & ‘05 Rally GB winner Petter Solberg.

This season, the World Endurance Championship has taken direct means to slow down the championship leading Toyota team (and some of its opposition), and the Fuji 6 Hours is the first true chance to see it in effect.

Taking the points differential between the two hybrid-powered Toyotas and the non-hybrid LMP1 entries, a system of slowing the cars by 0.012 seconds per kilometre per point has been devised, after the previous 0.008s penalty proved ineffective at the Silverstone season opener.

During qualifying at Fuji, Toyota was still fastest. The more heavily penalised #7 car was 0.360s clear of the sole Rebellion car, while the #8 car that finished second at Silverstone was another 0.790s ahead. Team LNT’s #5 Ginetta filled the second row, 1.807s off pole but not entirely surprising giving it is a undeveloped chassis in comparison to its rivals.

The second Team LNT car of Charlie Robertson, Mike Simpson and Guy Smith believed it could have challenged the slower Toyota as it was the only non-penalised entry. A quick engine swap prior to qualifying compromised its pace, as well as being unable to get all of its drivers to set a flying lap. To cap it all off, it was then excluded and will start the race a lap down.

With that car out of the equation, and Toyotas that were slower than their true pace regardless of their penalties, the initial assessment is that further penalties are needed if someone other than Toyota is going to win.