Cnn
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Max Verstappen held the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to win the Japanese Grand Prix in a brilliant style on Sunday.
The freshness of the Dutchman under pressure to repel two faster cars associated with a sparkling player to qualify in pole position on Saturday did for “one of the best weekends he had in Formula 1,” said team director Red Bull, Christian Horner, in Sky Sports.
“The hard work was really done yesterday, but even today in the race, it was perfect,” added Horner. “McLaren was fast, but we were able to be a little faster to hold them back.”
Meanwhile, Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes recorded the fastest round of the race, becoming the youngest pilot of ever, aged 18 and 224 days. He also briefly directed the race, becoming the youngest driver of all time to reach this stage as well.
On Saturday, Verstappen had surprised the paddock and its Norris Pip team of only 0.012 seconds during its last round during a chaotic qualification session which was interrupted for six minutes when the fifth grass fire on the weekend track broke out.
The shock absorber conditions reduced any threat of new fires during the race itself, and Verstappen quickly accumulated an advantage of two seconds in Norris.
And, for the most part, the two McLaren cars could not erode this gap, although they had a used ribbon when Norris and Verstappen opposed both. Norris was almost out of level with Verstappen in the path of the stands, but ended up crossing the grass while the Dutch refused to give it any space.
The British pilot initially declared that his rival had pushed him from the track, but later said that it was simply “running”.
“He was still in advance,” said Norris later. “It pressed in one and Max is the last guy I expect to give myself any space, in a good and racing way, so nothing more than that.”
In the end, he finished in second place while his teammate Piastri completed the podium in third. By winning, Verstappen brought back to a single point in the advance of the Norris pilot championship.
“I’m incredibly happy,” said Verstappen after the race. “It started quite hard this weekend, but we did not give up, we continued to improve the car and today it was in its best shape. Of course, from the pole, really made it possible to win this race.”
Carlos Sainz, who finished the race in 14th place, underwent a “stomach problem”, arrived late for the national anthem before the race and was then sentenced to a fine of € 20,000 ($ 22,000) by FIA, the director of motor sports.
Half of this fine is suspended for a year, the FIA said in a statement. The organization also noted that the problem of the stomach of Sainz had been verified by a doctor, reducing the fine of € 60,000 ($ 66,000) as indicated in the rules of rules.