JAPANESE GP – Max Verstappen holds off McLarens to take first victory of the season by a second and a half
Max Verstappen has held off both McLarens to take victory and his first of the season to win the Japanese Grand Prix by almost a second and a half. The four-time champion made a great start pulling away in the early phases of the race and fended off Lando Norris when they both pitted on lap twenty-two, but the slow stop for the Red Bull saw them rejoin side by side with Norris pushed wide.
Verstappen’s fourth consecutive win at Suzuka and first of the season puts him one point behind Norris, the Dutchman will be hoping that following two difficult races it will kick start his season. The Red Bull driver however was never able to pull more than two seconds ahead of the McLaren as they fought for victory, while Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri was just seven-tenths behind.
Norris was annoyed by the move by Verstappen when they rejoined following their pit stop, claiming he was “forced off”, but the stewards quickly decided not to investigate the incident after noting it, suggesting the McLaren driver should have backed off as Verstappen had his car ahead.
At the start, Verstappen and Norris pointed their cars at each other but got equal launches and the top ten held their positions with no incidents of note throughout the field. From there, it was a game of tyre management. Norris initially held back before pushing hard before the only pit stop phase.
From there, Verstappen managed his tyres perfectly despite several efforts from Norris and Piastri as they pushed hard but never got within DRS range of the reigning world champion. He was able to maintain a lead during the remaining thirty laps on an average of two seconds, while the McLaren was unable to get close in the dirty air.
Following the opening three races the top three have won a race each this season, but Norris’s championship lead has been cut to just a point going back to Bahrain next weekend for the Grand Prix.
Going into the race, McLaren had feared that the Red Bull would be difficult to pass if Verstappen held the lead at the start, and so it proved. Verstappen led the two McLarens for the entire first stint, the three lapping closely together. There may be questions about why McLaren decided to pitted Piastri first when it might have made sense to attack Verstappen with Norris with an earlier pit stop.
Before Norris’s actual stop they had tried to forced Verstappen into a stop by ‘dummy’ stopping the Englishman, that did make sense as in theory, he was in undercut range of the Red Bull. But the reason McLaren decided to stop Piastri first was because he was at risk from being undercut by George Russell, who was quick on hard tyres.
Norris could not get within a second of Verstappen, and in fact it was Piastri who looked to have the best pace, sometimes closing to within half a second of his teammate. But as the final laps went on the Australian began to lose tyre life and had to settle for third on his twenty-fourth birthday.
Verstappen said: “It was tough, just pushing very hard on the last set. The two McLarens were pushing me very hard. I’m incredibly happy. It started off quite tough this weekend but we didn’t give up, we carried on improving the car and today it was in its best form. Starting on pole was very important.”
Norris added: “The pace was too similar to do anything more. Long race, a lot of pushing, flat out from start to finish, but nothing special we had to get Max on. He deserved it.”
Norris’s championship lead has been cut to just a point from Verstappen with Piastri twenty two points further behind with McLaren thirty-six points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth he was thirteen seconds behind Piastri as the two Mercedes put themselves between the two Ferrari’s, despite looking strong early on the Monacan was unable to maintain the early pressure throughout the race on the McLaren’s.
Russell finished just over a second behind the Monacan and he had a similar margin finishing ahead of his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli at one stage led the race briefly, becoming the youngest race leader by four days when Verstappen won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix and the youngest driver to set fastest lap again beating Verstappen from the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix.
While Lewis Hamilton finished comfortably ahead of the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar. Ferrari had put the seven-time champion on the alternate tyre strategy however he was unable to make up places only gaining the place from the French-Algerian early on in the race. The team and Hamilton continue their difficult start to the season, with him fifteen seconds behind teammate Leclerc.
Hamilton appeared to gamble on a safety car with a long stint, but the race was without incident and the grassfires which interrupted practice and qualifying as well as a rarity at Suzuka, had no incidents leading to a safety car.
Hadjar was three seconds ahead of Alex Albon and Ollie Bearman, both drivers continuing their strong start to the season. Albon was hanging on despite complaining about gearshift problems and the timing of his pit stop, but Fernando Alonso missed out on the top ten by just over a second.
Yuki Tsunoda finished his home race eleventh, two seconds outside the points and ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and another former Red Bull/Racing Bulls driver Carlos Sainz. Tsunoda was however voted driver of the day as he finished just over three and a half seconds ahead of Gasly, while the Spaniard split the Alpine’s as he finished seven seconds ahead of Jack Doohan.
Nico Hulkenberg brought his Sauber home sixteenth finishing six and a half seconds ahead of the demoted Liam Lawson. Esteban Ocon was eighteenth ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Lance Stroll completed the field.
Related
· Japanese GP – Qualifying Result
- JAPANESE GP – Max Verstappen edges out the McLarens by two thousandths to take pole
- JAPANESE GP – Oscar Piastri leads a McLaren one-two going half a tenth faster than Lando Norris in second practice
- JAPANESE GP – Lando Norris a tenth and a half faster than George Russell in first practice
- Welcome to the Japanese Grand Prix
- PRIXVIEW – Japanese Grand Prix