Max Verstappen followed his sensational qualification performance with victory at the Japanese Grand Prix to fill the gap on the leader of the Lando Norris championship at one point.
The race started with Verstappen keeping its advance in Tour 1 before the McLaren Norris duo and Oscar Piastri. The first steps presented a clean departure with a minimum of changes among the frontrunners. Verstappen built a crucial gap of a second to break the DRS range, skillfully managing its average tires while the McLaren duo tried to fill the gap.
The central moment came during the first standing round of the stands when Verstappen and Norris entered the channel of the stands together. A slightly slow stop for Verstappen created a battle side by side by side at the end of the stands, forcing Norris on the grass when the Dutch held his line.
From there, Verstappen brilliantly controlled the pace. The first three finished at the start, with Charles Leclerc a fourth distant ahead of George Russell. Further on, Kimi Antonelli in sixth grade impressed in his Mercedes, setting the fastest round of the race, while the favorite at home Yuki Tsunoda fought a respectable P12 in his first race for Red Bull.
In a race where the 20 runners reached the checkered flag, the flawless journey of Verstappen under pressure showed why there was the reference in Formula 1, even if the strong rhythm of McLaren suggests that they remain the team to beat.
AthleticsThe experts of Luke Smith and Madeline Coleman break down the battle of the Suzuka circuit.
Verstappen, Norris and Piastri were in a world of their own while 1.6 seconds covered the trio with six laps to do. The driver closest to them was the Leclerc de Ferrari, 11 seconds back in Tour 47.
Dutchman has checked the race with ease. As he complained about his backhands very early, he fell into a rhythm in front of the McLaren duo.
This is only the latest stages that questions have started to ask, mainly on the question of whether McLaren would exchange the drivers to try to take Verstappen while Piastri has become a more credible threat behind Norris, realizing the tail of his teammate. But as the towers continued, the window seemed to pass. Norris seemed to accelerate his pace and the first three seemed to be driving flat.
Verstappen kept the McLarens outside the DRS range and has led a clean race. But it is not very threatened since McLaren – 36 points in advance in the classification of manufacturers – managed the final stages.
“Wow, Ha! Thank you guys,” said Verstappen on the radio. “Oh guy, what an incredible weekend. What turnaround after the difficult start. You see? We never give up, we continue to push together. Well done, everyone.”
Towards the end of the race, the first three led to a high level, during error without error. Like Verstappen’s racing engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, said it on the radio at the end of the race, this Dutch road was “perfection”.
Madeline Coleman
While the 2024 season took place, close battles began to occur between Verstappen and Norris. Their scrap in Austria ended in touch between the pair. Quick advance for a few months, Norris tried to spend Verstappen several times in Austin and received a penalty when he finally exceeded Dutch, after obtaining the position on the right track. A week after that, Verstappen was penalized for their battles during the Mexico GP.
Only eight points separated Norris and Verstappen entering the Japanese GP weekend, the McLaren driver in mind after winning the opening of the season and finished second in China. It is natural to assume that another “moment” will finally develop this season, given the thin margins. Only this time, the tight battle arrived at the exit of the stands.
Verstappen led the race, with Norris near him in second position, when they both opposed the end of the 21st round. He became a mad race at the end of the pit, and the Briton tried to make a spell alongside the Red Bull to fight to position himself, to find himself in the grass. Norris said on the radio that Verstappen had forced her to leave – Verstappen had radio: “He went to the grass.”
The commissioners noted the moment, but no additional investigation was carried out.
Madeline Coleman
Mercedes pilot, Kimi Antonelli, admitted on Saturday that he was “very lost” earlier in Suzuka’s weekend when he was fighting to find his rhythm around one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar.
But a series of breakthroughs with both the configuration of his Mercedes car and his own driving opened the way to him to continue his excellent start of life in F1 – and has established some new records in the process.
Antonelli’s long first stay on medium tires allowed him to go to the head of the race in the 22nd round after the cars in front of him all came. His passage from eight laps at the head of the field saw the youngest leader in the F1 race at 18 and 225 days, breaking the Verstappen record for the 2016 Spanish record of only three days.
Thanks to its advantage of tires for the second pass, Antonelli has also become the youngest driver in the history of F1 to define the fastest tour of a Grand Prix, this time by a more comfortable margin. The previous holder, once again Verstappen, was 19 years old and 44 days when he established the fastest tour of the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix.
It is rare that Verstappen loses a driver record “the youngest”, given its debut at the age of 17, the FIA introduced a new minimum age limit of 18 years. Antonelli has become the top scorer in the points of the second Youn-Youn-Youn and the third starter in Australia, but now said two records.
Antonelli’s fastest tires for the final passage were not enough to catch his teammate George Russell in fifth, but sixth place was another decent return, giving him points in each of his first three Grands Prix.
Luke Smith
From the moment Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in the second quarter on Saturday after having struggled to warm up his tires, leaving him 14th for the start of the race, his Red Bull debut would still be difficult.
He did well to save a cliché on the first round in the Eses before removing Liam Lawson – the driver of which he took the seat – in Spoon. But Tsunoda then passed the full first pass which launched behind Alpine by Pierre Gasly, only after having opposed a round earlier and by drawing the best party from the counter-deputo.
Tsunoda then spent the second passage to start the rear wing of Aston Martin by Fernando Alonso, who is again dating in dirty air. Suzuka is a track with as many average and high speed corners that it is difficult to really get closer to try a movement without a big advantage.
Tsunoda entered the weekend with fairly calm expectations, saying that an appearance and a return to the points would be a good start. Just until the second quarter on Saturday, he seemed to be well within his reach, and he was much closer to Verstappen all weekend than Lawson, who finished 17th in this race, never succeeded in the first two.
There may not have been any points to show for that, and there was not the kind of fight through the field either that the Red Bull could produce when it is at its best dominant. But there are final positive points for Tsunoda before going to Bahrain next week.
Luke Smith
(Top Photo: Philip Fong / AFP via Getty Images)
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