The Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won this Sunday the victory in the Japanese Grand Prix race, the fourth round of the Formula 1 World Championship, in which the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) took the podium in third position. and in which Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) has achieved a creditable sixth place.
After the breakdown in Melbourne that forced him to abandon the race in the first stage, the current two-time world champion returned to his strengths and dominated with authority in the race in Suzuka, taking the checkered flag 12 seconds ahead of his teammate. of the team, the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull).
Meanwhile, Sainz, who took victory in Australia, was the first of the rest and sealed his third podium in the three races in which he has participated so far – he missed the one in Saudi Arabia due to appendicitis. All ahead of his teammate, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), fourth.
The man who started from podium positions, the British Lando Norris (McLaren), had to settle for fifth place, and an exultant Fernando Alonso finished in sixth; The Asturian earned his place after surpassing the two Mercedes and the McLaren of Australian Oscar Piastri.
Once the traffic lights were turned off, the action moved to the back of the grid, where the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams) and the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (RB) collided and went against the wall. The red flag waved on the track and the race was stopped for almost half an hour.
In the second start, Verstappen retained his privileged position and began to escape, a distance that grew to more than two seconds with a line error by his pursuer, ‘Checo’ Pérez, when they had barely completed seven laps around the Japanese track.
Meanwhile, the two Ferraris began to threaten the McLarens, who were suffering with the medium tire; Sainz was putting pressure on Norris for third place, while Leclerc did the same with Piastri for sixth. It was on lap 12 when the man from Madrid managed to move up, after his great friend went into the garage to change the tires.
After a stop on lap 16, Sainz tried to reconnect with Norris and Pérez and regained his third place just three laps later by overtaking the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), the unintentional protagonist of another overtaking, this time with Fernando Alonso as the beneficiary. .
The Asturian gave an account of the seven-time world champion and near the halfway point of the test he also passed the British George Russell (Mercedes), with whom he starred in the action in Melbourne that cost him a 20-second penalty and who, like his teammate, , paid dearly for the bet on hard tires. The double world champion was already sixth.
With the arrival of the second stops, Sainz fell to provisional seventh place. He again surpassed Hamilton on the track, while Russell got out of the way with his ‘pit-stop’; With newer tires, he also overtook Norris with ten laps remaining and two laps later he jumped on Leclerc to return to the podium.
The Monegasque settled for fourth place, while Norris, Alonso, Russell, Piastri, Hamilton and the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (RB) completed the ‘Top 10’.