Red Bull 1-2, Max Verstappen Back in First Place, Sergio Perez Second, Carlos Sainz Third
From the Land of the Rising Sun, Red Bull Racing was in full bloom and took the top two podium spots. Max Verstappen claimed victory and fastest lap en route to his third Japanese Grand Prix win in a row. Verstappen returned to his winning ways and completed the race without any drama. He finished ahead of his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in second and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari in third.
The Dutch driver talked about how comfortable and smooth his ride in Suzuka went post-race.
It was very nice —Â the car just got better and better for me throughout the race. I had a bit to do with the clouds coming in but very nice, everything went well — pit stops went well, strategy went well. Couldn’t have been any better.
Perez put on a strong performance throughout the weekend and capped it off with a nice second place finish for his team. The Mexican driver made some impressive overtakes when regaining his second position after pit stops. Perez owned the 130R section as that was where he did most of his work.
Perez shared his thoughts after the race.
It was a good weekend for the team first of all. — We are in a good momentum, last year here was probably my worst weekend. I think if we are strong in places like this, we can be strong anywhere else. It’s been a good weekend.
Ferrari did well to fight their way up the grid. Sainz claimed the third podium position, up from his starting fourth position. Charles Leclerc broke out of eighth to finish fourth. The Spaniard was bursting with energy in his final stint. Finding himself with extra life in his tires, he overtook Lando Norris and his Ferrari teammate to finish the race.
Sainz had this to say at the end.
I had a good race to be honest, very happy. It was quite tough out there with the degradation, then suddenly the clouds came the degradation went a lot lower and then I thought one-stop was quicker and we were on the two. I had to overtake a lot of cars out there today — I was quick on that hard tire and liked how it gave me a good feeling to push.
In his home country, Yuki Tsunoda recaptured tenth after he fell down to thirteenth at the start. Despite this, the Japanese home hero successfully took advantage of his opportunities. With a series of overtakes and a pristine pit-stop that put him back on track while essentially overtaking two cars in the pits. This put him in a great position and ultimately earned himself a point. Tsunoda is the first native driver to score a point at the Japanese Grand Prix since 2012.
After having strong outing and the Mercedes car looking comfortable around the circuit during the practice sessions, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes sustained damage from a brush-up with Leclerc at the start. This caused him to suffer from excessive understeer during the race. Because of this, Hamilton felt it was best for his teammate, George Russell to go ahead of him. The British pair of Russell and Hamilton finished seventh and ninth respectively.
Disappointing outing from the McLaren duo. A promising start out of qualifying and recent success at Suzuka, the McLaren team looked to be in prime position for a podium spot with Norris starting the race in third. Unfortunately, the McLaren main man found himself in fifth when it was all said and done. His teammate, Oscar Piastri also fell down the order. The Australian finished eighth from his original sixth.
Daniel Ricciardo did not do himself any favors when he crashed at the start of the race and caused a red flag. Ricciardo was shifting his way through traffic when he was looking left and didn’t see Alex Albon over on the space to his right. The two made contact, causing them both spin off track and into the tire barrier.
Unfortunate Albon being the one involved as the Williams team must be in disbelief at their luck as of late. This further compounded the strain on their parts department. As if there wasn’t enough anxiety in the Williams garage, imagine the look on the Williams mechanics faces as they watched Logan Sargent fall off the track. Luckily for Sargent he was able to put his car back in the race. To his credit, he was doing well in the race up until that point. That is not the kind of film he wants to put out there when trying to keep his seat on the team.
Fernando Alonso is doing all he can to put his Aston Martin in the points every race weekend and did so again in Suzuka, finished sixth on the day. Regardless of Alonso’s great efforts to bring in points for the team, Lance Stroll continues to struggle. The Canadian finished outside the points in twelfth. One has to wonder what the full potential of this Aston Martin team could be if Stroll could just find that extra gear and bring in points consistently.
That wraps up another exciting race weekend at Suzuka. I hope you enjoyed the race as much as I did. There is still much to look forward to this season in Formula One. After a week break, the cars will return on track in China.
