Max Verstappen led the Japanese Grand Prix from start to finish, defeating McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for his fourth win in a row at Suzuka, setting a new record.
Charles Leclerc had a nice and uneventful day, finishing fourth ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes.
Kimi Antonelli also made history by becoming the youngest driver to lead an F1 race, topping Verstappen’s record set in 2016 by only two days. The 18-year-old also became the youngest driver to record the fastest lap in a Grand Prix.
Opening salvo
In an uncharacteristically clean opening lap at Suzuka, the leading trio and the rest of the pack all got off to a good start despite the damp circumstances.
The top 12 stayed in their starting positions, although Yuki Tsunoda dislodged the man he replaced at Red Bull, moving up to P13 at Liam Lawson’s cost.
For the opening part of the race, the vast majority of the field chose fresh medium Pirelli tires. Lewis Hamilton opted for the white-walled hard compound from seventh.
Despite the challenging circumstances, with all cars on slick tires on a drying track, no one deviated off course until the conclusion of lap two, when Kimi Antonelli missed the final chicane. However, the young Italian stayed sixth.
Hamilton overtook Isack Hadjar for seventh place on lap six, changing the top ten for the first time. Verstappen was already two seconds ahead of Norris, while Piastri remained in the DRS window behind his McLaren teammate. Lance Stroll, who started on soft tyres, was the first driver to pit.
With the gap to Verstappen having hovered at the two-second mark for a while, Norris began to close on lap 18, shrinking the deficit to one-and-a-half seconds as engineer Will Joseph came on team radio to confirm ‘pit to undercut’ the Dutchman at the end of the lap. That attempted dummy did not trick Red Bull, with the front runners continuing unchanged until Piastri stopped at the end of lap 20, to cover off George Russell, who came in the lap prior.
Verstappen and Norris came to a stop together at the conclusion of the following lap. McLaren’s stop was a second faster, allowing them to emerge alongside one another.
There wasn’t enough room for both, so Norris wound up on the grass at the pit exit. The 25-year-old went straight on the radio to complain about being shoved off. Meanwhile, the four-time F1 drivers’ champion defended himself, claiming that the McLaren drove onto the grass on its own accord – a fact noticed but not explored further by the stewards.
At this point, Antonelli was leading his maiden Grand Prix ahead of Hamilton and Hadjar. Further back, Alex Albon was eager to criticize Williams for his “ridiculous” late stop, questioning why he was kept out longer than those behind him.
