Max Verstappen won its fourth Japanese Grand Prix in a row on Sunday and held the McLaren duo by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
It was the season’s first victory for Red Bull’s Verstappen, the reigning Formula One Master.
The Verstappen started from the polish position at the Suzuka circuit after narrowing Kantat Norris, which leads the season’s driver’s position, in qualifying on Saturday, and he spent the entire race on Sunday with McLarens. The Verstappen ended 1.4 seconds ahead of Norris.
Norris and Verstappen seemed to be in a dead heat when they left a pit stop, but Norris could not get around the Verstappen as they came again in the track and was discontinued on the grass to the side of the track.
McLaren complained to Race Stewards and said that the Verstappen did not leave him room, but they took no action.
“We didn’t have enough today, nothing special to catch Max and he made no mistakes,” Norris said. “He pushed me in the pit, but he’s the last guy you expect to give you any space – it’s racing.
“It’s been a very good weekend, we fight for the victory every week but they deserved it.”
Piastri finished in third place and was 2.1 seconds back, with a large gap that separated the top three from the package.
Ferraris Charles Leclerc every fourth, 16.1 seconds behind, followed by the Mercedes couple George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
The Verstappen was pleased with how he handled the pressure from the McLaren team.
“I was pretty calm,” said the Dutch. “I’ve been in this position before, but I was just trying to focus on my own turns and didn’t try to make any mistakes.”
“But we succeeded everything really well, and just very happy with this result,” he added. “And of course with that pit track, yes, it was tight.”
He said he was happy to have got the most out of his performance.
“Just to push very hard especially on the last set [of tires]”He said.” The two McLarens pressed me very hard and it was a lot of fun out there.
“Of course not easy to handle the tires, but I am extremely happy. It started quite tough this weekend but we did not give up, we continued to improve the car and today it was in its best form. Of course, Pole really started to make 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
