A flawless race in Japan has delivered Max Verstappen his first victory of the season. The four-time world champion from Red Bull, who also claimed the previous three editions in Suzuka, managed to keep rival Lando Norris at bay from start to finish. The only friction between the two occurred in the pit lane.
In the World Championship standings, Max Verstappen has closed the gap to leader Lando Norris to just one point. Behind Verstappen and Norris, Oscar Piastri secured third place. Verstappen’s new teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, failed to score points, finishing twelfth in front of his home crowd in an otherwise uneventful Japanese GP.
Here is a bird’s-eye view of the Japanese GP:
ROUND 1/53: After his sensational pole on Saturday, Max Verstappen gets off to a good start. The cars of Verstappen on the outside and Norris on the inside are slightly angled towards each other on the grid. The four-time world champion makes no mistake and opens up a gap of nearly a second in the first lap.
ROUND 7/53: Verstappen has now opened up a two-second gap to Norris behind him. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri is in P3, but naturally does not challenge his teammate at this stage of the race. There are few duels on the track overall.
ROUND 22/53: Max Verstappen and Lando Norris both dive into the pits. Norris’ pit stop is faster, but he falls just short of overtaking Verstappen. As they exit the pits, Norris ends up on the grass, with Verstappen slightly ahead of him. Both drivers express their dissatisfaction over the radio. Verstappen re-enters the track in P4, Norris in P6, behind Alexander Albon.
Race Updates
ROUND 27/53: The race management indicates that no penalties will be imposed for the pitlane incident between Verstappen and Norris. They are currently running in P3 and P4 with a gap of about 2.5 seconds, behind Kimi Antonelli (on mediums) and Lewis Hamilton (hard tires) who still need to make their first stop.
ROUND 36/53: Verstappen leads sovereignly, with a 1.5-second lead over Norris, and receives the message over the radio that he can push. There’s little else spectacular happening on the track. The top-10 so far: Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, Albon, and Bearman.
ROUND 42/53: Behind Lando Norris, his teammate Oscar Piastri is increasingly pressing. The Australian is now within DRS, in the slipstream. What will McLaren do? The gap between Verstappen and Norris remains stable, about one and a half seconds. Verstappen’s teammate Tsunoda, by the way, is running in P12.
ROUND 48/53: Norris seems to find a bit more speed and manages to close the gap with Verstappen, but Piastri also puts full pressure on Norris. Around P5, Russell sees his teammate Antonelli appearing in the mirrors.
ROUND 53/53: Max Verstappen never seriously gets into trouble and manages to keep Norris out of DRS range for the entire race. He convincingly secures his first victory of the season, in a car that is not the fastest. As a driver, however, he once again makes the difference. Not for the first time, not for the last.
Top-10: Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, Albon, Bearman.
The next race is next weekend, in Bahrain.
