While it may have been short on thrills, the Japanese Grand Prix was at very least a demonstration of intent from the world champion Max Verstappen. Formula One might prefer the spectacle and drama but it is all a bagatelle to Verstappen in his pursuit of a fifth title.
His victory at Suzuka, ground out with a relentless series of controlled laps while hounded to the flag by the two McLarens, was a pointed reminder that the Dutchman will not go quietly into the night. At the close he had beaten Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri into second and third by just over a second. They had been on his tail throughout, ready to pounce at any moment of weakness on a track that punishes the smallest errors. There were none.
Verstappen took his fourth consecutive win at Suzuka as if on rails. It is a remarkable achievement given the circuit requires great confidence in the car and Verstappen managed it in a ride that could so easily have reared up and bitten him, such are the problems the Red Bull has been having with balance and its capricious nature of snapping through understeer and oversteer.
The Dutchman, however, had its knife edge balanced to perfection and, with his first win of the season, gave a stark reminder that it is far too soon to write him off. He is now within one point of Norris, who leads the championship, a feat that looked something of a pipe dream when racing began in Australia. Yet here he is, still punchy and very much still punching.
Verstappen really made the difference with the blow he landed on Saturday in what was an exceptional lap for pole position. His run then, to squeeze out Norris by one-hundredth of a second, was one for the ages and, come Sunday, with the cars pretty much evenly matched on race pace, track position was all. He had it and, having held the front through turn one after the lights went out, knew what it meant.
“The weekend started off quite tough but we didn’t give up. Starting on pole made it possible to win this race,” he said. “We still have work to do but it does show that if we really nail everything we can be up there.”
A procession ensued, yet it remained a tense contest simply because there was so little in it at the front. There was only one real flashpoint, a moment McLaren might rue given it was their only opportunity. With Red Bull having put their car in its optimal window it had proved to be a match for the McLarens and it fell to the Woking squad to try to make a difference with their strategy. Instead they pulled the one move from which nothing could be gained.
Pitting Norris at the same time as Verstappen left the two drivers emerging together, quite literally as Norris shot up the inside and the pair were side by side on pit exit. Verstappen with his nose in front held his line, as he was entitled to do, and Norris had to take to the grass as they rejoined the track. Norris believed he had been forced off by the Dutchman and Verstappen that the British driver had simply run out of road where two cars were exiting at once. Both were aggrieved but the FIA ruled no further action, which was the right call. Norris later conceded it had been hard but fair racing.
The implications of the timing were the greater issue. Now they both had the identical hard tyre at the same time. McLaren had opted to pit Piastri first, rather than try the undercut with Norris, to ensure the Australian did not lose places, a defensive decision aimed at maximising points. The team principal Andrea Stella later stated that, with overtaking so hard and the tyre degradation so low on the newly resurfaced track, having Norris go long for a fresh-tyre offset at the end would have made no difference and potentially cost him places.
The die was cast then. Certainly it was the critical moment because afterwards Verstappen, whom the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described as delivering an inch-perfect race, put in a series of circuits that were indeed on rails. When Norris pushed to close to within a second, Verstappen would react and so it went, with Piastri on his teammate’s wing, the three within two and half seconds of one another, line astern in a sustained fight to the flag.
Verstappen held his nerve to the elation of driver and team. Such have been their struggles with the car this season it was a performance far beyond expectations, but also one that will give them optimism and motivation. The RB21 can yet be put in a sweet spot where it is every bit as competitive as the McLarens, in Verstappen’s hands at least, while there were wider implications for the season ahead too.
In this fourth year of the current regulations the dirty air issue that makes overtaking so hard, and which the rules were designed to ease, has returned to no little effect on certain circuits, while the low degradation of Pirelli’s rubber compounds this year and one-stop racing combine to suggest that, going forward, qualifying is going to be increasingly crucial, perhaps even decisive. Verstappen had it nailed on Saturday and what followed flowed from that.
The home hero Yuki Tsunoda, in his debut for Red Bull having been drafted in to replace Liam Lawson only last week, made a decent fist of it from 14th on the grid to claim 12th place.
Charles Leclerc was in fourth for Ferrari, with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in seventh. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were in fifth and sixth for Mercedes. Isack Hadjar was in eighth for Racing Bulls, Alex Albon in ninth for Williams and Britain’s Oliver Bearman an excellent 10th for Haas. – Guardian
