Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, holding off the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
It was the first win of the season for Red Bull’s Verstappen, the reigning Formula One champion.
Verstappen started from the pole position at the Suzuka Circuit after narrowly edging Norris, who leads the season’s driver standings, in qualifying on Saturday, and he spent the entire race Sunday holding off the McLarens. Verstappen finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Norris.
Norris and Verstappen seemingly were in a dead heat as they exited a pitstop, but Norris couldn’t get around Verstappen as they re-entered the track and wound up on the grass to the side of the track.
McLaren complained to race stewards, saying Verstappen didn’t leave him space, but they took no action.
“We didn’t have enough today, nothing special to catch Max and he made no mistakes,” Norris said. “He squeezed me in the pitlane but he’s the last guy you expect to give you any space — it’s racing.
“It’s been a very good weekend, we are fighting for the win every week but they deserved it.”
Finishing third, Piastri was 2.1 seconds back, with a large gap separating the top three from the pack.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, 16.1 seconds behind, followed by the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen was pleased with how he managed the pressure from the McLaren team.
“I was quite calm,” the Dutchman said. “I’ve been in this position before, but I just tried to focus on my own laps, trying to not make any mistakes.”
“But we managed everything really well, and just very happy with this result,” he added. “And then of course with that pit lane thing, yeah, it was tight.”
He said he was happy to have gotten the most out of his performance.
“Just pushing very hard especially on the last set [of tires],” he said. “The two McLarens were pushing me very hard and it was a lot of fun out there.
“Not easy of course to manage the tires, but I’m incredibly happy. It started off quite tough this weekend but we didn’t give up, we kept improving the car and today it was in its best form. Of course starting on pole really made it possible to win this race.”
After three races, Norris has 62 points to 61 for Verstappen.
In the team race, McLaren has 111 points to 75 for Mercedes and 61 for Red Bull.
–Field Level Media
