World champion Max Verstappen broke the dominance of McLaren and in the third race of the Formula 1 season made his first victory.
The Dutch triumphed in a (long) unspectacular Grand Prix in Suzuka Before Vice World Champion Lando Norris and its McLaren teammate Oscar Plastri. Norris claimed his World Cup lead with a point ahead of Verstappen. The next race will be on the program in Bahrain next week.
Verstappen had already laid the foundation stone for his 64th career victory on Saturday with an exceptional round in qualifying. It was much cooler during the race, but the announced rain fell so long before the start that the ideal line had dried up until then.
The start went without any problems, in the first ten positions there were no shifts of rank in the first round on the narrow course.
Afterwards, too, there was little up to the pit stops in the middle of the race. Norris’ gap on Verstappen settled in around two seconds, in round 22 the leadership duo came to the box at the same time. Norris tried to squeeze past, but came back just behind Verstappen and drove into the meadow at the pit exit.
The Englishman complained in vain at the radio that the four -time world champion would have pushed him into the grass. “He drove into the grass himself,” stated Verstappen.
Antonelli with historical records
Andrea Kimi Antonelli took over the lead in the Mercedes. At the age of 18 and 224 days, the Italian not only became the youngest pilot with a tour round, but also drove a fastest race round as the youngest in F1 history. The talent landed sixth behind his teammate George Russell. It was only for the fourth time in more than 1,000 Formula 1 races. So far, this was only the case on the city courses in Monaco (2x) and in Singapore.
Lewis Hamilton overtook Racing Bulls-Pilot Isack Hadjar with another tire strategy and won his best Ferrari result so far. His recently disqualified stable colleague Charles Leclerc was fourth in China and replaced Sebastian Vettel as the most successful point collector in Ferrari history. Yuki Tsunoda missed the dot length in his home race, his first for Red Bull’s single team. The New Zealand Liam Lawson, with whom he had exchanged the cockpits, was even further away from it for the second team Racing Bulls.
On his 24th birthday in the finish, Piatri expressed that he was faster than his teammate, but did not get past this. Verstappen brought 1.423 seconds ahead of Norris to the finish line with extremely few overtaking options. This gained 28 of the recent 31 Suzuka races from the first series of start. The special white painting seemed to bring Red Bull luck on Japanese soil on the last exit with Honda engines.