Japanese Grand Prix : Verstappen leaves the show behind, Red Bull world champion

Verstappen-Piastri : the match had all the ingredients for excitement before the start of this Japanese Grand Prix, and everyone had their eyes on the young Australian. The stakes were clear : leapfrog Verstappen at the start!

Missed it : both McLarens had a great start, but neither Norris, who moved up to second, nor Piastri managed to overtake. A collision involved Esteban Ocon and the Alfa Romeo cars of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, as well as Alexander Albon. The debris caused the intervention of the safety car.

Behind, Liam Lawson tried to keep up with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda on this first lap! If he wasn’t appointed as AlphaTauri driver for 2024, his stock keeps rising!

The Safety Car took four laps before returning to the pits and it was back to racing : Max Verstappen only had to escape and leave the spectacle behind. Much to the disappointment of all those who were counting on McLaren to give some momentum to the Grand Prix.

The misfortunes of Bottas continue, struck by a wayward Sargeant, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton engage in a superb battle…just in front of Liam Lawson, who has fully found his rhythm with his soft tires!

Far behind, far, far behind his leader, Sergio Pérez has started a comeback from last place, after having stopped on the first lap due to his contact with Lewis Hamilton. And as if that wasn’t enough, he has been penalized with a five-second penalty, surely for “overtaking” under the Safety Car.

Valtteri Bottas, on the other hand, chose to end his ordeal here, at the 9th lap. Even though Sargeant was penalized, there was nothing to console him, all because of an Alfa Romeo completely struggling in terms of pace.

Sergio Pérez said to himself, “Well, why not play bowling?” His victim was Kevin Magnussen at the hairpin, after a divebomb with a very low artistic score… As a punishment, one less wing and a future perspective at Red Bull that is getting darker and darker.

The virtual safety car has been deployed to clean the track : Oscar Piastri took advantage of this to switch to hard tires, in order to go the distance of the Grand Prix. Smart move! Fortunes are certainly diverse, as Red Bull No. 11 has been ordered by its pit to retire.

The pit stops got intense, Max Verstappen put on a fresh set of mediums, just like Lewis Hamilton, who was under pressure from his teammate. George Russell came close to surprising the seven-time world champion on the outside at Spoon. We narrowly avoided a collision…

At McLaren, approaching the halfway point in the race, Lando Norris asserted his position and overtook Piastri. All this while Sergio Pérez will be sent back on track, with the intention of conducting tests for 2024. A rare case, but not forbidden nonetheless.

A little fight in the background

At the halfway point, the Grand Prix completely lost its excitement : with an unstoppable Max Verstappen, the rest of the pack hardly moving. The race wouldn’t have had a different outcome even if both McLarens had passed at the start.

The only stakes concerned, once again, the second place, which was being fought over by McLaren and George Russell’s Mercedes, even though he couldn’t resist Lando Norris, having stopped for a second and final time. The podium was secured for the two McLarens, as Piastri also caught up to George Russell and overtook him on the outside at the first corner.

Sergio Perez completed a solitary installation lap, in what is a new Grand Prix to forget for him. His impressive start to the season is now a distant memory, with his victories in Djeddah and Baku.

Ten laps away from the finish line, the two Alpine cars were in 9th and 10th place, thanks to a good race pace, but once again struggling in practice sessions.

The drivers in the pack are doing their best for the show : as evidenced by Charles Leclerc’s superb overtaking of George Russell, in the style of Piastri. A magnificent battle! After that, a three-way battle emerged between the two Mercedes and Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard finished 5th after devouring a dying Russell with his old worn-out tires and was unable to shake off Lewis Hamilton.

In front, Max Verstappen once again had an easy race and emerged victorious without any significant challenge. The beautiful story was written by McLaren : Lando Norris clinched a superb 2nd place, and Oscar Piastri secured his first Formula 1 podium. Red Bull secured another constructors’ title, the 6th for the Austrian team.

Results of the Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2023