The Japanese Grand Prix Review
Max Verstappen takes yet another dominating victory to secure Constructor’s championship title for Red Bull.
Image via @Max33Verstappen on Twitter
It was back to winning ways for the Dutchman at the Japanese Grand Prix after managing to pull ahead of the McLaren pair in the first lap. Verstappen comfortably navigated both a Safety Car and a Virtual Car to maintain the lead and cross the line in 1st for the 13th time in 2023.
The McLarens of Piastri and Norris were quick to attack Verstappen off the line but were unable to match his pace and had to settle for battling each other. Norris came out on top to finish in 2nd after Piastri benefitted from pitting under the Virtual Safety Car but ultimately, Norris had the better pace leading to the team swapping their positions.
Piastri held on to 3rd place to make it the rookie’s first podium finish in Formula 1 just days after signing a contract extension with McLaren. The strong performance from the McLaren’s also made for the team’s first double podium of the season.
Image via @McLarenF1 on Twitter
Charles Leclerc came home in 4th as the lead Ferrari after a late move on George Russell. Russell was then told to let his teammate Lewis Hamilton past, with the Mercedes boys finishing in 5th and 7th after some wheel-to-wheel fighting between the pair earlier on in the race.
Carlos Sainz in the second of the Ferraris was also able to benefit off of Russell's older tyres to take 6th. Russell was the only one of the front runners to go with a 1-stop strategy.
Fernando Alonso finished in 7th after complaining about the strategy the Aston Martin team had adopted for the race. The Alpine's of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten to bring home double point finishes for the team.
It was the rookie of Liam Lawson who just missed out on a top 10 finish, outscoring his teammate Yuki Tsunoda by just one position. Zhou Guanyu was able to recover from first lap drama to finish in 13th as the lone Alfa Romeo after his teammate Valterri Bottas DNF'd after being pushed into the gravel by Logan Sargeant in the Williams.
The last of the finishers were the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen in 14th and 15th after yet another race of tyre degradation problems.
It was a tough weekend for Williams with a double DNF. Sargeant was forced to retire his car after a clash with Bottas and Albon also suffered damage from a clash with Bottas and had to retire. Lance Stroll was also forced to retire his car after rear wing failure.
Sergio Perez had an early clash with Lewis Hamilton and was forced to pit on lap 3 for a new front wing. He was then handed a five-second penlty after a Safety Car infringement. Perez then had another incident this time with Magnussen and had to pull into the pits yet again with front wing damage. He picked up another 5-second penalty for the collision and was told by his team to retire the car.
Image via @F1 on Twitter
Red Bull then sent Perez back out onto the track to complete a few laps to cancel out the penalties he’d picked up so not having to carry them into the Qatar Grand Prix. The retirement for Perez means that Verstappen is in the position to pick up his 3rd world championship at the next round in Qatar.
The championship continues in just under two weeks in Qatar where we could see Max Verstappen become world champion for the third time!
