F1 Japanese GP: Verstappen on verge of title after win as Red Bull secures crown

The Dutchman saw off an early assault from the two McLarens at the start of the race and lived up to Lando Norris' pre-race prediction that the Woking team would have little answer to the Dutchman if he led beyond Turn 2.

Verstappen crossed the line 19.3s clear of Norris, having been considerably out of reach across the 53-lap race at Suzuka beyond the opening laps.

The only moments of close action that the championship leader faced were in his defence of the lead into the first corner, as he pulled across to the inside of the corner to ward off any threat from fellow front-row starter Oscar Piastri.

Norris then placed his car on the outside, but could not get enough purchase into the second corner to come up for air with the lead, but displaced Piastri nonetheless in the process.

The Briton then attempted to challenge Verstappen on a subsequent restart after a lap 1 safety car was produced to clear debris resulting from a clash between Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon - here, the Finn was guided into the Williams driver's side by Esteban Ocon.

But Verstappen gunned the throttle on the exit of the Casio Triangle, and proceeded to begin his usual efforts to build a break over the rest of the field.

This put him beyond reach despite the early power of an undercut strategy, as Verstappen had enough in hand to preserve a net lead during each pitstop phase.

His efforts ensured that Red Bull outscored Mercedes to tie up the constructors' championship, the team's sixth during its 19 seasons in F1.

Norris led a McLaren 2-3 home as Piastri managed to collect a maiden podium; although he undercut Norris following the opening round of stops having pitted under a brief virtual safety car, the Australian's race pace was less impressive than his team-mates and Norris made his way through at the start of lap 27.

Charles Leclerc briefly hinted at being a threat to Piastri's podium when the 2021 F2 champion was stuck behind a one-stopping George Russell following the second round of stops, but struggled to pass the Mercedes himself once Piastri made his way through.

The Monegasque eventually finished 7.5s down on Piastri but had fourth apparently locked in as the cars behind made little inroads into his advantage despite differing attempts at strategy.

Lewis Hamilton made an undercut over Carlos Sainz work to secure fifth, having just about warded off the Spaniard despite Mercedes' botched attempt to imitate his Singapore GP-winning strategy by telling Hamilton to give the following Russell DRS.

Russell was moved aside by Sainz as his sole set of hard tyres had begun to ail and fell to 7.4s behind the Ferrari to secure seventh.

Following a strong getaway at the start of the race that yielded sixth place, Fernando Alonso could only claim eighth after an early switch from soft tyres to hards - and suggested his team had "thrown me to the lions" as he battled to retain position.

He managed to stay ahead of the two Alpines, as Ocon recovered from the first-lap drama to collect ninth ahead of Pierre Gasly.

Liam Lawson beat AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda as the home favourite was announced for 2024 on Saturday, as Zhou Guanyu beat the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

Magnussen had survived an assault from the beleaguered Sergio Perez at the Turn 11 hairpin as the Mexican made an ill-judged divebomb on the Dane amid a miserable race. Perez earned a five-second penalty and retired, but returned to the circuit well into the race to serve that penalty before retiring again.

Williams retired Albon and Logan Sargeant as a result of their cars' wounds, as the latter used his newly rebuilt car to punt Bottas into a spin at the hairpin, causing the Alfa Romeo driver to retire his own car two laps after the contact.

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

         

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		53	-			2	26		Red Bull	Red Bull
2	L. Norris McLaren	4		53	+19.387	19.387		2	18		McLaren	Mercedes
3	O. Piastri McLaren	81		53	+36.494	17.107		2	15		McLaren	Mercedes
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		53	+43.998	7.504		2	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		53	+49.376	5.378		2	10		Mercedes	Mercedes
6	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		53	+50.221	0.845		2	8		Ferrari	Ferrari
7	G. Russell Mercedes	63		53	+57.659	7.438		1	6		Mercedes	Mercedes
8	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		53	+1'14.725	17.066		2	4		Aston Martin	Mercedes
9	E. Ocon Alpine	31		53	+1'19.678	4.953		2	2		Alpine	Renault
10	P. Gasly Alpine	10		53	+1'23.155	3.477		2	1		Alpine	Renault
11	L. Lawson AlphaTauri	40		52	1 lap			2			AlphaTauri	Red Bull
12	Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri	22		52	1 lap			2			AlphaTauri	Red Bull
13	G. Zhou Alfa Romeo	24		52	1 lap			3			Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
14	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		52	1 lap			3			Haas	Ferrari
15	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		52	1 lap			2			Haas	Ferrari
dnf	A. Albon Williams	23		26	27 laps			3		Collision	Williams	Mercedes
dnf	L. Sargeant Williams	2		22	31 laps			4		Collision	Williams	Mercedes
dnf	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		20	33 laps			2		Accident	Aston Martin	Mercedes
dnf	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		15	38 laps			5		Collision	Red Bull	Red Bull
dnf	V. Bottas Alfa Romeo	77		7	46 laps			3		Collision	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
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