Red Bull defended perfectly at the Japanese Grand Prix after a tricky weekend in Melbourne, when Max Verstappen led team-mate Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz in a highly strategic race.
Charles Leclerc’s ambitious and well-executed strategy earned him fourth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, while Fernando Alonso showed his defensive skills to hold off George Russell and Oscar Piastri, who closed in on the penultimate lap.
Lewis Hamilton had a dismal day in ninth, with Yuki Tsunoda picking up a point at home while RB team-mate Daniel Ricciardo crashed out, along with Alex Albon, on the opening lap.
Sky Sports F1 takes a look at the main talking points of an intriguing Japanese Grand Prix.
Following Verstappen’s retirement and Ferrari’s one-two finish in Australia, the Dutchman reacted as he did at Suzuka six months ago.
At the time, Red Bull arrived in Japan after a tricky weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix, won through Sainz, and Verstappen dominated the occasion as he did on Sunday.
His qualifying lap wasn’t quite as special this time around, but he overcame unknowns related to tyre wear and strategic variables to take his fourth win of the season.
“In the first stint, it took me a few laps to get back into the rhythm,” said Verstappen, who leads the Drivers’ Championship by thirteen distances over Perez.
After that, we made some small adjustments for the second stint and then the car came back to life. I was able to push when I needed to, take the tyres off the car when I needed it and that was a smart feeling again. “
As it turns out, Red Bull’s upgrades at Suzuka propelled them even higher up the field, with their new floor, brake intakes and side axle helping Verstappen finish 20 seconds ahead of Sainz at the chequered flag.
Both drivers had to adapt to the upgrades and Verstappen was not satisfied with his race speed and balance after practice.
There was a moment on the radio when Verstappen’s engineer said ‘I don’t need to tell you’ when the three-time world champion was in the lead. Verstappen explained what the discussion was.
“We didn’t have, well, any discussions, but he said, ‘Are you sure you need to do that?’I said, ‘yes, I’m pretty sure. ‘ It turned out I was wrong,” he said.
“But in a way, it also excites me, because I’m like, well, even though I’m not entirely satisfied with the balance now, I’m going to try to be as consistent as possible. “without yelling at him. But we have a wonderful relationship and yes, it works well that way.
Perez had to overtake a few cars to finish second, but kept his cool when Red Bull forced him past Norris and Leclerc in the final stint to complete the one-two.
He also made two gutsy moves against Mercedes duo Hamilton and Russell in 130R before the race and is a strong case for retaining his Red Bull seat for 2025.
The Mexican has 3 podiums in 4 races and can increase his chances of staying in the fastest car on the grid by ending a winless streak that dates back to April last year.
Perez’s functionality was not lost on Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who told Sky Sports F1: “It’s wonderful to bounce back with a one-two finish in Japan, Honda’s homeland. Wonderful functionality, Max’s perfect driving also as a Czech. with forged functionality.
Ferrari has been ridiculed for its strategic and operational mistakes season after season, but that has replaced team principal Frederic Vasseur.
After the red flag following Albon and Ricciardo’s crash, Ferrari opted to put Leclerc on an ambitious one-stop strategy and the Monegasque driver executed a surprising stint on medium tyres, completing 25 laps and maintaining a steady pace.
Apart from a small mistake in Degner 2, which let Perez through, Leclerc drove a superb race from eighth on the grid and stayed in fourth ahead of Norris.
“Throughout the weekend, there are a lot of things that maybe we did better. It’s one thing how we prepare the tyres for a qualifying lap,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.
Yesterday I was happy with the lap, but I just didn’t have enough grip and that’s basically down to the last lap in the right window.
“This put us in a tricky scenario for the rest of the weekend because starting from eighth position you can’t do much more.
“We had tyre management, speed and strategy. It’s just not smart enough to start eighth. “
As for Sainz, he missed the second stint of his two-stop career and found himself in the lead. He came out of the pits in seventh place with 16 laps to go but overtook Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc on track to take the lead. podium for the third time this year.
Sainz’s latest addition will no doubt cement his position as the top free agent for the 2025 grid, but the Spaniard says any improvement in his performance is largely due to the development of Ferrari’s car.
“People think I’m in a bigger era of driving and all that, but the truth is that in Formula 1 a car is very important,” Sainz said.
“I’m in a smart moment this year. I drive at a higher level, but at the same time, having a car that allows you to overtake a little bit more, allows you to be a little bit closer in dirty conditions. “Ventilate and play around with the strategy a little more, it just allows you to shine a little brighter.
“And that’s why it’s vital in a driver’s career to also be in a [past] car, because last year in racing we seemed to overtake backwards, defend. “
“We were terrible with tyre control and it was tricky to do smart races. This year, as a result, 3 races, two podiums, a lot of overtaking, one win. It’s a completely different picture. It shows that in this game he is very important. ” too. “
Mercedes finished where they started, with Russell seventh and Hamilton ninth, in contrast to their grid positions.
Initially, Mercedes opted for a one-stop strategy as soon as the red flag was drawn, but their lack of speed in the first stint proved costly and either driver had to pit for the medium for a second time.
On paper, they are in worse positions than their fifth and eighth places at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, team principal Toto Wolff insisting Mercedes had positives to take away from the weekend.
“We ended where we started. It was very difficult. We had a super fast moment and we would have been on the podium if it wasn’t for an atrocious first stint,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
“We want to know what it was. Was it too hot?
“I think it was the right thing to do at the beginning because the lap times looked stable. Direct competitors didn’t deviate too much.
“I think it’s a lot better than it looks compared to the final result and also in qualifying we learned a lot. Things will be better from here. “
“We have to be fast at all the circuits. There are no excuses when it comes to temperatures or track layout. We’ve been given the task of fixing it. “
“For us, it’s live testing. We’ve changed a lot of things and that’s reflected in the result. The car is getting faster and faster. “
Tsunoda had a great weekend under pressure from an impatient crowd when he made it to Q3 and finished tenth, becoming the first Japanese driver since Kamui Kobayashi in 2012 to score points at Suzuka.
On the other side of the RB garage, Ricciardo’s poor start to the season took a negative turn when he collided with Albon on the opening lap and crashed at turn three.
With Perez and other contenders (including Tsunoda) at Red Bull’s headquarters in 2025, a return to the senior team seems unlikely for Ricciardo, who will instead face more hypotheses about the option of Liam Lawson replacing him at RB.
“Today is [an] unique moment. I don’t look at today thinking ‘oh man, this year’, like. . . ‘When it rains, it rains’, or whatever. I feel like it’s just one of the moments,” Ricciardo said.
“We know that out of 24 races I’m most likely going to be worried about an incident on the first lap, there’s only one chance that this kind of thing will happen. Clearly, it sucks when that happens. But I don’t look at it anymore. Today it is something of a singular incident.
“Of course, it would have been fantastic to have a race under our belt and try to show some of what I thought we were starting to show yesterday. “
Next up is the return of the Chinese Grand Prix from April 19-21, which is also the first weekend of the season. You can watch any and all live queries on Sky Sports F1 and stream any and all F1 races and more with a NOW Sports Month subscription: no contract, cancel anytime
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