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JAPANESE GP – Max Verstappen takes comfortable twelve-second win ahead of Sergio Perez

Testing & Race Reports

Max Verstappen took a comfortable victory as he beat his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by twelve seconds to win the Japanese Grand Prix. The Dutchman took advantage following an early red flag following the first corner after Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon crashed at high speed at Turn Two.

Verstappen had converted pole into the lead at both starts and that gave him total control of the race and building his lead over his teammate.  That set the three-time champion up to win a race which was dominated by differing tyre strategies through the top ten, his third win in three years at Suzuka.

Verstappen’s fourth successive pole at the start of the new season on Saturday, quizzical eyebrows were raised after qualifying when the Dutchman and teammate Perez had suggested that their RB20’s race pace might not be as supreme as normal around the figure-of-eight Suzuka layout.

The weekend a perfect response to his retirement in Melbourne as he looks to repeat the run of wins he had last season following his retirement down under. While it looks like a dominant win, from pole it was a demonstration of Verstappen’s ability to maximise results as following qualifying he had concerns that the teams race pace wasn’t “as comfortable” as the opening three races.

Carlos Sainz finished third, twenty-one seconds behind Verstappen as he finished on the podium for the fourth time this season, the Spaniard who doesn’t have a seat for 2025 is the only driver to finish on the podium in every race this season. The Spaniard overtook his one-stopping teammate Charles Leclerc by six seconds, Leclerc had used an unconventional one-stop strategy to come from eighth to fourth after he was surprisingly off the pace in qualifying.

The Monacan was able to maintain his advantage over Lando Norris when the pit stops shake out but he did lose out to Perez at that stage, as he swept around Leclerc aided by DRS into Turn One. But then with Red Bull off in the lead and with fifteen laps to go, Verstappen rebuilt his lead over Perez, as Leclerc did over the Norris.

However, they both came under pressure from Norris, but Sainz had the advantage and was able to pass both teammate Leclerc and Norris as he had the tyre advantage in the second stint. The Englishman had started third, but the McLaren driver didn’t have the pace to challenge the two Ferraris.

Leclerc ran a twenty-seven-lap stint on his medium tyres from the start of the race to bring himself into play after a frustrating qualifying where a tenth deficit to Sainz cost him four places on the grid. He displayed impressive tyre management to run so long on the mediums, being the only driver in the top ten to do a one-stop.

Verstappen said, “It was very nice. The critical bit was the start to stay ahead and after that, the car got better and better for me throughout the race, I don’t know if it had to do with the clouds coming in. Everything went well – pit stops, strategy. It couldn’t have been any better.”

Perez added, “I think we paid the price a little bit because we were a little bit off balance during that first stint, which meant we couldn’t keep it alive. We had to box and we were undercut by Lando and then I had to push too much on that medium stint.”

Sainz “I’m very happy because it was quite tough out there with the degradation but then the clouds came and the degradation went a lot lower and I thought one-stop was quicker and we were on the two [stopper].”

Verstappen increased his lead in the drivers championship by thirteen points over Perez to a seventy-seven, with the Mexican five ahead of Leclerc. While Red Bull are on a hundred and forty-one, twenty-one ahead of Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso was sixth, the Aston Martin fifteen seconds behind the McLaren, he was able to hold the faster Mercedes of George Russell and McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Russell and Piastri’s battle went down to the end, which gave Alonso a bit of breathing space as they were unable to find a way past the Spaniard.

Russell getting the passed done after several laps on the final lap gaining seventh from the McLaren, however, he is under investigation for a light contact under braking which forced the Australian off at the Casio Chicane. But Piastri had been on older hard tyres and Russell newer mediums, the McLaren arguing he was forced wide, the stewards didn’t agree.

Lewis Hamilton was unable to feature in that battle in the closing stages as he dropped just to far behind to ninth and ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who scored the final point at his home race.

The early red flag saw Hamilton make the decision to switch to a one-stop by switching to the hard tyre, once he released Russell he was unable to make the same progress after that free stop. That then forced him back onto a two-top unable to replicate Leclerc’s one-stopper.

Hamilton had another disappointing race despite the seven-time champion professing himself happier with his car this weekend than at any point before this season. He again questioned the teams strategy, as the seven time champion was unable to make up ground struggling with oversteer.

It briefly looked in the closing stages as though Hamilton could push on to the finish, reporting that his tyres were holding up well, only to follow team mate Russell onto mediums a couple of laps later, leaving the Mercedes cars in eighth and ninth.

Yuki Tsunoda finished tenth a lap down to score the final point at his home race after making two brilliant passes through the Esses complex, though he was first of the lapped cars. That saw him pass both Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll, key in was his overcut of several of his midfield rivals at the first stop.

Stroll spilt the two Haas the Canadian was four seconds behind Hulkenberg and comfortably ahead of Kevin Magnussen, the two Alpine’s with Esteban Ocon thirteen seconds ahead of Pierre Gasly, and Logan Sargeant completing the finishers.

Both Alpines again survived contact as they tried to avoid the opening lap collision between Ricciardo and Albon. A lock up at Degner Two, sent the Sargeant into the gravel trap costing a lot of time with a late stop, while he reversed out, continuing his way to seventeenth and last.

The other Sauber of Guanyu Zhou, who retired early on amid apparent technical trouble.

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