by Linus O’Howell
It was both a ‘simply lovely’ and straightforward afternoon for Max Verstappen as the 3-time World Champion bounced back in style to take victory at Suzuka! Sergio Perez completed a 1-2 for Red Bull whilst Carlos Sainz made it three podiums from three to continue his impressive start to the season.
The Most Notable Moments
Max Verstappen got off the line well and the same could be said for most of the 20 drivers. However, a collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon saw both men crash into the wall at Turn 3 which ultimately resulted in a red flag being brought out. If I was to place blame on anyone, it would be Ricciardo in this scenario. However, as it’s a first-lap incident, I’m willing to be a bit more lenient.
📸 Albon and Ricciardo’s crash brought out the red flag.
When the race got back underway the second time, Verstappen once again got off the line well and all the action tended to come from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were getting breezed past by their faster rivals. Behind this, there was plenty of good battles between Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant and more before most drivers made their first pitstops.
Zhou Guanyu was also forced to retire with gearbox issues, so his frustrating start to the year continues! Nearly everyone was on 2 stops besides Charles Leclerc, and arguably the biggest talking point of this race came when McLaren decided to pit Lando Norris at the same time as Leclerc, meaning Leclerc had effectively jumped Norris by doing one less stop.
📸 Zhou suffered a mechanical DNF.
Towards the end of the race, Carlos Sainz came flying back through on his offset strategy and it ultimately allowed Sainz to easily pass both Norris and teammate Leclerc to move back into the podium places.
📸 Sainz got his third podium in as many races this season.
We then got Russell quickly catching both Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri, and quite geniusly, Alonso kept Piastri in DRS range in order to help Piastri stay ahead of Russell. In the end, a mistake on the penultimate lap by Piastri allowed Russell through and into P7 anyway, but it was still brilliant by Alonso either way!
Drivers who Impressed
There was one driver that impressed me more than anyone else in this race and it was Max Verstappen. Max dominated today’s proceedings, which included two race starts which deserves a lot of praise (even if he does win almost all the time).
📸 Verstappen matched Michael Schumacher’s record of three successive wins at Suzuka.
I also thought Carlos Sainz had a great race for scoring yet another podium whilst Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, and Yuki Tsunoda all had really good races - even if things didn’t go to plan for all of them.
📸 Tsunoda picked up his and RB’s first point of the season.
Drivers who Struggled
I didn’t feel like anyone had a terrible day like some races, however, I still thought that Pierre Gasly and Logan Sargeant had disappointing days, especially Logan who made a silly mistake late on, whilst Esteban Ocon also confirmed Alpine’s struggles are still very much there!
Overall Race Results
1) Max Verstappen: Winner 2) Sergio Perez: +12.535 3) Carlos Sainz: +20.868 4) Charles Leclerc: +26.522 5) Lando Norris: +29.700
6) Fernando Alonso: +44.272 7) George Russell: +45.951 8) Oscar Piastri: +47.525 9) Lewis Hamilton: +48.626 10) Yuki Tsunoda: +1 Lap 11) Nico Hulkenberg: +1 Lap 12) Lance Stroll: +1 Lap
13) Kevin Magnussen: +1 Lap 14) Valtteri Bottas: +1 Lap 15) Esteban Ocon: +1 Lap 16) Pierre Gasly: +1 Lap 17) Logan Sargeant: +1 Lap
DNF: Zhou Guanyu (Gearbox issue), Daniel Ricciardo (Incident), Alex Albon (Incident)
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber.
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