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Laurence Edmondson
Max Verstappen secured his first victory of the Formula 1 2025 season after racing pressure from McLarens two drivers to win the Japanese Grand Prix.
The result was contrary to the first two races in which McLaren had the strongest car and on Saturday was on Saturday the affected pole position Verstappen, which on Saturday saw him defeated Lando Norris to the fastest time by 0.012 seconds.
Verstappen’s victory in front of Norris means that there is now only one point from McLaren in the ranking of drivers after three races and 12 before the Oscar Piastrim, which ended the third in McLaren’s sister.
“We never give up, we’re still pushing together,” Verstappen said via Team Radio after crossing the border. “Incredible! What great weekend for us.”
The victory also meant the last Red Bull race with Honda Power in Japan, which was marked by a one -time white Livres team.
At the beginning, Verstappen kept a 53-round lead and built a gap between 1.5 and 2.5 seconds in the opening stint.
“It was hard, we were pushing very hard and it was a lot of fun,” Verstappen said afterwards. “I am incredibly happy. The car was in its best form today and starting at the pole really made it possible.
“That means a lot to me, it’s Great story you win here for Honda in Japan. ”
On the 18th round McLaren broadcast Norrisa to “drink” but canceled the call when it came to the end of the round, because it would probably be filtered into operation when returning to the circuit.
Two rounds later, Piastri took the third place and led Verstappen and Norris to follow the next round in the next round to avoid the undercut of Australian on the fresher tires.
The choice of choice for the same strategy that Verstappen would probably have left Norris locked in second place, but when he stepped out of his boxes, the quick work of McLaren’s crew meant that his front wheels were next to Verstappen’s back.
When the two cars stepped out of the pit, Norris tried to go alongside Verstappen, but eventually ran on the right side of the track and bounced on the grass.
The McLaren driver complained that his opponent was not left the room, but the administrators decided to take any further steps after the incident.
Norris then said, “We didn’t have enough, nothing special today to catch Max and not make any mistakes. He pressed me in Pitlane, but he’s the last person you expect to give you any space – race.
“It was a very good weekend, we are fighting for victory every week, but they deserved it.”
In the last 15 rounds of the race, Norris seemed to be unable to close on Verstappen and soon left his mirrors filled with Piastri McLaren.
With ten wheels to ask McLaren if Norris would save the tire, and add that he should “go” soon if he wanted to catch Verstappen. When he was told that Norris had already walked at his real pace, the Australian repeated that he had the feeling that he had the potential to “catch Max”.
With the five wheels he was supposed to go, Norris limited the gap to 1.1 seconds, but still had Piastri in a second. In the last three rounds of any hope of changing the position among the first three of the best, Verstappen finished the flawless performance to win 64.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth for Ferrari, 16.1 seconds off the stage, with Mercedes driver George Russell in the fifth and his teammate Andrea Kim Antonelli, who led the race between the stops in the pit in sixth place.
Lewis Hamilton created one position in his qualifying performance to end the seventh before the strong performance of Isack Hadjar for Junior Team Racing Bulls Red Bull. Alex Albon won points for the third consecutive Grand Prix this season in front of Haas Oliver Bearman in tenth place.
Yuki Tsunoda, who was the center of attention before the weekend after his promotion to Red Bull instead of Liam Lawson, finished 12th after qualifying 14 on Saturday.
