Max Verstappen Delivers a Max Level Win in Japan
Max Verstappen gave a Max Level win in Japan, starting at pole and finishing P1. It made him win in Suzuka four times in a row, claim his 64th career win, and also close in on the Drivers Championship, now just one point behind Lando Norris. Throughout the whole weekend, Red Bull was not the best car, but they had the best driver to get their first race win of the year. Here is Max Verstappen’s recap in Suzuka.
Practice Session
In the free practice sessions on Friday, Max said, “We tried many types of setups, but none of them gave great lap times. Suzuka is a track that needs a lot of confidence, but for now I don’t have enough confidence.” It has been a problem that Red Bull’s car has had a very limited setup window since last season, and the situation was bad for Red Bull on a broken Friday because FP2 had four red flags. In FP3 on Saturday, all teams were doing long race simulations; the two McLaren drivers were running in the top two positions, with Max 0.532 seconds slower than Norris, and also behind George Russell in Mercedes and Charles Leclerc in Ferrari. At that time, it was fair to say that not many people thought Red Bull had a chance to take the win in Suzuka.
Qualifying
Starting in Q1, Max’s first lap was at P7 while Norris was sitting in P1. On his second lap, Max managed to improve his time and easily escaped Q1, finishing at P6. Moving into Q2, Max was the first one to do a flying lap, recording two purple sectors and a 1:27.502 at P1, but quickly Lando Norris crossed the line with a 1:27.146, taking the lead from Max. After a quick grass-fire red flag, both Norris and Max did not come out for another lap in Q2; these two rivals finished Q2 in P1 and P3, respectively, moving toward the final battle in Q3. In Q3, Oscar Piastri shined at first with a quick 1:27.052 that broke the fastest lap record in Suzuka, though this record only remained for several minutes. Norris then crossed the line with an even quicker 1:26.995—the first-ever lap in Suzuka in the 1:26 range! Finally, Max Verstappen, the last car running on the track, took the pole with an ultrasonic 1:26.983, breaking the lap time record for the third time that day and securing his pole position. This made him take four consecutive poles in Japan, and his first pole since Austria in 2024. Just like Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said, “This is one of the best single laps of Verstappen’s career.”
The Race
There were raindrops at Suzuka in the morning, and as the race approached, the sun refused to come out. However, the rain stopped, leaving the track slightly wet but good enough for slick tires, which made things a bit easier for Max since the non-race line would be wet and not easy to overtake. After the formation lap, Max also declared he would defend his pole by pointing his car toward the middle and pressing Norris’s space. Then the five red lights went off! Max and Norris both got a good start, and Max still led into turn one. After a few laps, Norris dropped out of the DRS zone. Although Max had some gear shift issues, the McLarens still couldn’t catch his DRS, but McLaren was in a two vs. one situation to fight. As Piastri boxed in first at lap 21 to add pressure, Red Bull quickly responded by pitting Max the following lap. Surprisingly, McLaren pitted Norris too instead of trying different strategies to fight the leader. Red Bull’s tire change was a bit slower than the Papaya’s; Max and Lando went side by side in the pit lane. Max was slightly ahead, even pushing Lando onto the grass, but race control decided no further investigation was necessary. Lando needed to overtake Max on track. For the remaining thirty laps, Lando closed in on Max several times but never got into DRS; on the other hand, Piastri in P3 suggested a position change on team radio as he was already in Norris’s DRS, but there was no action at all from McLaren, and Max Verstappen crossed the finish line first to take the win, keeping both McLaren behind for the entire race!
This weekend, Max Verstappen, the four-time world champion, showed us why he deserves his crown. He recovered from struggles and a broken practice session easily escaped Q1 and Q2, then delivered an astonishing lap in Q3 to take the pole with an amazing single-lap performance. Last but not least, his smooth and consistent long race pace and tire management, along with his refusal to back off in side-by-side battles, prove why he is both a four-time and the current world champion!
