Max Verstappen achieved a commanding victory for Red Bull, securing a 1-2 finish at the Japanese Grand Prix, followed closely by his teammate Sergio Pérez. Carlos Sainz finished in third place. The race was temporarily halted due to an incident involving Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon.
At the beginning of the race, Verstappen executed a strong start, leading ahead of Pérez and McLaren’s Lando Norris. However, there was an incident further in the field. During the approach to Turn 3, Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull Racing, focused on Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll to his left, inadvertently drifted to the right as he prepared to turn.
“The critical bit was, of course, the start, to stay ahead,” Verstappen said. “And after that, actually, the car just got better and better for me throughout the race. I don’t know if it had to do, maybe, with the clouds coming in. But yeah, very nice. Everything just went really well. Pit stops went well. Strategy, I think, worked out well. Couldn’t have been any better.”
Verstappen did not notice Alex Albon approaching on his right, resulting in a collision between the two drivers. Both cars spun into the barriers; fortunately, the drivers emerged uninjured, but the tire barriers sustained significant damage, necessitating the deployment of red flags.
Following a nearly 30-minute interruption, the cars exited the pit lane for a standing start, with Verstappen and Pérez occupying the front row, followed closely by Norris, Sainz, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Once the lights turned off for the second time, the Red Bull duo once again positioned themselves at the forefront of the race.
“It took a few laps to settle in a bit with the car, but I think we made some good changes to the car before going into qualifying, which then helped, you know, today,” Verstappen said. “After the first stint, some tiny adjustments were made to the car and that helped me then to feel even more comfortable and whenever I needed to go faster, I could.”
As Suzuka experienced strong sunshine, tire degradation became a concern, causing the drivers on Medium tires at the front of the pack to encounter difficulties. On lap 12, Lando Norris was the first leader to make a pit stop, transitioning to Hard tires and falling to P10. He was followed in the next lap by his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, and subsequently by Fernando Alonso.
Norris quickly set the fastest lap of the race as his new Hard tires began to perform effectively. When Sergio Pérez made his pit stop, Norris was able to gain significant ground, advancing ahead of both Carlos Sainz and Pérez due to a strong undercut strategy.
Verstappen made his first pit stop on lap 17, transitioning to Medium tires, and rejoined the race in second position, trailing Charles Leclerc, who remained on the initial set of Mediums. The champion quickly closed the gap to the Ferrari driver, and at the beginning of lap 21, he successfully overtook Leclerc to reclaim the lead.
During the race, Pérez was pursuing Norris and, on lap 22, he caught up to the Briton through 130R before maneuvering to the inside at the chicane to secure third place behind Leclerc, who was increasingly struggling. Pérez continued to apply pressure, and on lap 26, Leclerc made an error at Turn 9, which allowed Pérez to overtake him. Subsequently, Leclerc and Norris opted to pit for their first stop, both switching to hard tyres for the remainder of the race.
“My second start was a little bit better, but just not enough to get Max. I think we paid the price a little bit because we were a little bit off balance on that first stint, which meant we couldn’t keep it alive,” Pérez said. “We had to box and we were undercut by Lando. And then I had to push too much on that Medium stint. But then on the Hard stint, I was a lot more comfortable. The pace came back. But yeah, I think I suffered a bit from that first stint, a bit unbalanced.”
Pérez completed his final pit stop at the conclusion of lap 33, transitioning to Hard tyres during a brief 2.1-second stop. He returned to the track in fifth position, trailing Norris by only half a second. Demonstrating remarkable pace, Pérez overtook the McLaren at the start of lap 35 as he approached Turn 1.
Verstappen effectively managed his pace and, at the conclusion of lap 53, secured his third victory of the season, achieving a hat-trick of wins at Suzuka. Checo followed closely, crossing the finish line twelve seconds later to attain his 38th podium finish and contribute to another impressive 1-2 result for the team.
Following the Bulls, Sainz maintained his position in third ahead of Leclerc, while Norris secured fifth place for McLaren, finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin. George Russell crossed the line in seventh; however, he is currently under investigation for allegedly forcing Oscar Piastri, who finished eighth in his McLaren, off the track during the race. Lewis Hamilton finished ninth in the second Mercedes, with Yuki Tsunoda, the home favorite from RB, claiming the final point.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix – Race
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 53 1:54’23.566
2 Sergio Pérez Red Bull Racing 53 1:54’36.101 12.535
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 53 1:54’44.432 20.866
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 53 1:54’50.088 26.522
5 Lando Norris McLaren 53 1:54’53.266 29.700
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 53 1:55’07.838 44.272
7 George Russell Mercedes 53 1:55’09.517 45.951
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 53 1:55’11.091 47.525
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 53 1:55’12.192 48.626
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB 52 1:54’25.168 1 lap /1.602
11 Nico Hülkenberg Haas 52 1:54’30.734 1 lap /7.168
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 52 1:54’34.799 1 lap /11.233
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 52 1:54’41.485 1 lap /17.919
14 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 52 1:54’42.459 1 lap /18.893
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine 52 1:55’04.718 1 lap /41.152
16 Pierre Gasly Alpine 52 1:55’18.632 1 lap /55.066
17 Logan Sargeant Williams 52 1:55’36.331 1 lap /1’12.765
Zhou Guanyu Sauber 12 49’29.022 Gearbox
Daniel Ricciardo RB 0 – Accident
Alexander Albon Williams 0 – Accident
Photo/MaxVerstappen/X
