F1 Takeaways: Verstappen stymies Norris, Piastri with maximum effort at Japanese GP

The slimmest of margins secured pole position for Max Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix, but that .012-second advantage was all the Red Bull driver needed for Sunday’s race.

Verstappen converted from pole position for the fourth consecutive time at the famed Suzuka circuit, edging McLaren’s Lando Norris and birthday boy Oscar Piastri, who finished second and third, respectively.

The four-time reigning world champion delivered a fantastic final flying lap in Q3 Saturday to pip this year’s points leader Norris for pole position.

The rivals on the track (and padel partners off) lined up on the front row next to each other with Verstappen on the outside pointing inward and Norris on the inside pointing outward, setting the tone for what could have been a collision course.

But that spicy start never came to be as Verstappen launched out of the chute and built enough of an advantage in the clean air to thwart any potential DRS threat from Norris through the opening stint of the 53-lap race.

Low temperatures and low tire degradation meant McLaren couldn’t take advantage of tire management, plus no rain, no red flags and no retirements meant they couldn’t count on luck either.

Nor could they fool Red Bull. McLaren told Norris to box on Lap 18, but it was a dummy call to see if Red Bull would counter and pit. Red Bull didn’t take the bait and kept Verstappen on track.

Norris’s best opportunity to close the gap (and also his best opportunity to throw it all away) came when both drivers finally pitted on Lap 22. Verstappen remained idle for 3.3 seconds, a full second slower than Norris, who exited right into the path of the Red Bull. Running out of real estate and unwilling to concede at the pit exit, Norris drove right into the grass.

“Quite an expensive lawn mower,” Verstappen quipped afterward in the cooldown room (aka The Max Verstappen podcast).

Fortunately for Norris, the stewards didn’t think his team released him in an unsafe manner, though his belief that Verstappen had driven him off the track was also dismissed.

Verstappen re-inherited the lead when rookie Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli pitted on Lap 32 and continued to turn in a practically perfect performance with maximum effort the rest of the way to score his 64th career victory. Norris crossed the line 1.423 seconds later with Piastri an additional .706 seconds back.

Was there anything McLaren could have done? Piastri, who turned 24 Sunday, felt he had the pace to catch Verstappen, but McLaren was unwilling to grant him his birthday wish and swap drivers. If Piastri failed and finished second with Norris third, Verstappen would have taken the lead in the drivers’ championship.

A tale of two Red Bulls

Reports of Red Bull’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Although Verstappen had just two wins in his previous 16 GPs, a beast of a car he once called a monster can be tamed and he’s now just one point back of Norris in the drivers’ championship. Verstappen’s “drive for five” is very much alive.

The constructors’ championship is a different story. Red Bull sits third in the standings, 50 points behind first-place McLaren.

The storyline that dominated headlines since we last left our heroes two weeks ago in China was Red Bull promoting Yuki Tsunoda and demoting Liam Lawson to the B-team Racing Bulls only two races into the season. 

Although Lawson had struggled, the switch seemed hasty, even by notoriously patience-thin Red Bull standards. 

Tsunoda became Verstappen’s sixth different teammate since his ascent to the A-team in 2016.

After 89 starts with AlphaTauri/RB/Racing Bulls, Tsunoda had been waiting in the wings for this moment to prove he deserved a top ride — and at his home race to boot.

Tsunoda, a free agent at the end of the season, is in a no-lose situation. If he succeeds, he looks brilliant (and increases his value for next year), but if he fails, it reinforces the belief that the car is the issue.

As qualifying was the defining moment for Verstappen, so too for Tsunoda as he failed to reach Q3 and started 14th on the grid. How fitting was it that Lawson, now in Tsunoda’s old seat, qualified one place ahead of him?

Tsunoda improved two positions in the race to finish 12th — almost four seconds behind Ollie Bearman for the final points-paying position in 10th — as the second Red Bull car still has yet to score this season.

While Red Bull has attempted to tailor the car to suit Verstappen’s driving style, it continues to be hard to handle for everyone else.

Rookie watch

Antonelli remains at the head of an exceptional rookie class, finishing sixth after holding down the lead for a few laps.

The 18-year-old also set the fastest lap — breaking Hamilton’s track record from 2019 no less — which would have earned him a bonus point in previous years but not anymore.

Meanwhile, how cool was it to see Isack Hadjar starting seventh on the grid and lining up beside his childhood idol Lewis Hamilton in eighth? Hadjar crashed out during the formation lap of the wet season-opening Australian GP and Lewis’s dad, Anthony Hamilton, consoled the rookie Racing Bulls driver during his walk back to the garage. 

Hadjar couldn’t fend off Hamilton for long, but he crossed the finish line eighth to earn his first points in F1.

Kudos Ferrari on a job … done

Ferrari was looking to erase an embarrassing Chinese GP where both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified for technical infringements.

The results at Suzuka weren’t stellar, but a double points finish — with Leclerc in fourth place and Hamilton in seventh — was probably the best the team could hope for and still better than walking away empty-handed again.

Hamilton, seeking his record-breaking eighth world championship, has tempered his expectations already. The 40-year-old sits eighth in the standings with 15 points, behind not only Leclerc (sixth, 20 points) but also former Mercedes teammate George Russell (fourth, 45 points) and his successor at the team, Antonelli (fifth, 30 points).

Kids and their video games these days

We’ve come a long way from Final Lap in the arcades. 

After Bearman reached Q3 to start 10th on the grid, the 19-year-old credited a driving line he used in iRacing.

“I was going as tight as I could to the wall,” the rookie Haas driver told the official F1 channel, according to racefans.net. “I don’t know why not everyone is doing that.”

Bearman added: “I was doing it since (free practice). I thought that’s the real iRacing line there.”

It wasn’t the only moment of the weekend when sim racing factored into the on-track action. Rookie Alpine driver Jack Doohan’s crash during practice happened because he took the corner at turn one without manually closing the DRS flap, a manoeuvre he reportedly pulled off during a sim session.

What worked in the sim didn’t in reality. Doohan lost control and slammed hard into the barriers, destroying the chassis. Thankfully, Doohan walked away from the wreckage, and Alpine repaired his car in time. 

Now, if only I could write off F1 25 as a business expense. 

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