Max Verstappen secured his first victory of the 2025 Formula 1 season after soaking up race-long pressure from McLarens two drivers to win the Japanese Grand Prix.
The result was at odds with the form of the opening two races, in which McLaren had the strongest car, and was teed up by Verstappen’s remarkable pole position qualifying lap on Saturday, which saw him beat Lando Norris to the fastest time by 0.012 seconds.
Verstappen’s victory ahead of Norris means he is now just one point off the McLaren driver in the drivers’ standings after three races and 12 ahead of Oscar Piastri, who finished third in the sister McLaren.
“We never give up, we keep pushing together,” Verstappen said over team radio after he crossed the line. “Unbelievable! What a great weekend for us.”
The victory also marked Red Bull’s last race with Honda power in Japan, which was marked by the team with a one-off white livery.
Verstappen maintained the lead of the 53-lap race at the start and built a gap of between 1.5 and 2.5 seconds in the opening stint.
“It was tough, we were pushing very hard and it was a lot of fun out there,” Verstappen said afterwards. “I am incredibly happy. The car was in its best form today and starting on pole really made it possible.
“It means a lot to me, it is a great story to win here for Honda in Japan.”
On Lap 18, McLaren radioed Norris to “pit to overtake” but cancelled the call as he came towards the end of the lap as he would have likely filtered into traffic on his return to the circuit.
Two laps later, Piastri pitted from third place, leading Verstappen and Norris to follow suit on the following lap to avoid being undercut by the Australian on fresher tyres.
The decision to opt for an identical strategy to Verstappen seemed likely to leave Norris locked in second place, but as he exited his pit box the quick work of the McLaren crew meant his front wheels were alongside Verstappen’s rears as they prepared to rejoin the track.
When the two cars exited the pits, Norris attempted to get alongside Verstappen but ended up running out of track on the right-hand side and bounced across the grass.
The McLaren driver complained he had not been left room by his rival, but the stewards decided to take no further action after noting the incident.
Norris said afterwards: “We didn’t have enough today, nothing special to catch Max and he made no mistakes. He squeezed me in the pitlane but he’s the last guy you expect to give you any space — it’s racing.
“It’s been a very good weekend, we are fighting for the win every week but they deserved it.”
In the final 15 laps of the race, Norris seemed incapable of closing in on Verstappen and soon had his mirrors filled by Piastri’s McLaren.
With ten laps to go Piastri asked McLaren if Norris was saving his tyres, adding that he should “go soon” if he wanted to catch Verstappen. When he was told that Norris was already going at his true pace, the Australian reiterated that he felt he had the potential “to catch Max”.
With five laps to go, Norris whittled the gap down to 1.1 seconds but still had Piastri within a second of him. In the final three laps any hope of a change of position among the top three petered out, with Verstappen completing a faultless performance to take his 64th victory in F1.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth for Ferrari, 16.1 seconds off a place on the podium, with Mercedes driver George Russell in fifth and his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who led the race among the pit stops, in sixth.
Lewis Hamilton made up one position on his qualifying performance to finish seventh ahead of a strong performance by Isack Hadjar for Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls. Alex Albon scored points for the third consecutive grand prix this season ahead of Oliver Bearman’s Haas in tenth place.
Yuki Tsunoda, who was the centre of attention ahead of the weekend after his promotion to Red Bull instead of Liam Lawson, finished 12th after qualifying 14th on Saturday.
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