Verstappen return to domination, delivers Constructors’ title for Red Bull with easy victory at Suzuka; Norris notches second consecutive P2, Piastri earns first podium for ascendent McLaren

Max Verstappen’s non-winning ways lasted for precisely one race, as the Dutch master and this year’s runaway points leader returned to his dominating form to take an easy win at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday. After seeing his ten race winning streak end at the cramped confines of the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore two weeks ago, Verstappen and his RB15 found the high speed, twisty and sweeping Suzuka circuit much more to their liking and he waxed his closest pursuer, McLaren’s Lando Norris, by a over 19-seconds. Verstappen also set the fastest lap on the day to take the maximum points available and all of that also added up to securing the 2023 Constructors’ Championship for Red Bull after only sixteen races run. It was Red Bull’s sixth overall Constructors’ title and second consecutive since the most recent formula change to the ground effects car. While there are six more races scheduled in the season, Verstappen can clinch his own Drivers’ title at Qatar in a fortnight by merely finishing P6 in the Saturday Sprint, never mind another good result in the Grand Prix itself. Such has been his superlative form this year that it would be a foolish man to bet against Max the Magnificent earning three F1 crowns in a row at Lusail International Circuit when the engines fire up in anger for the Sprint. Emphasizing the runaway nature of his 2023 campaign, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez and his closest championship challenger mathematically had a disastrous zero-points day where multiple collisions damaged his car to the point where the Mexican had to retire twice, the second time on Lap 42 after going out multiple laps down simply to clear a penalty for his poor driving and contact with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen way back on Lap 12 from being enforced against him at the next race.

With no chance of catching Verstappen, McLaren nevertheless had an excellent day. Norris was able to pip teammate Oliver Piastri for P2 on the opening lap and then survived a a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 14 of this 53-lap contest where Piastri pitted right before the yellow came out and saved some time on his first trie change as a result. But the quick stop under yellow wasn’t quite maximized for the young Aussie because he was already mid-service when the VSC was deployed and field slowed. Piastri did leapfrog Norris because of that stop but, with Norris pitting on Lap 18 for the same Medium-to-Hard Pirelli switch as his teammate, the young Briton was able to hunt down his stablemate with superior tire performance and overtake him on Lap 27. The McLaren duo then held stations untli their second pit stops on Lap 36 for Piastri and Lap 37 for Norris, donning matching second sets of Hard tires and then running down the Mercedes of George Russell, who ran the only one-stop strategy of the race, and retake their respective podium positions. For Norris, it was his second consecutive P2 after backstopping Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Singapore and for Piastri it was the rookie’s first career F1 podium when he finished P3. That big points haul also pulled McLaren within 49-points of Aston Martin for fourth in the Constructors standings, with McLaren having the definite momentum advantage over Aston due to their superior midseason technical development.

Duels at the front, carnage narrowly avoided behind ⚔️😮💥

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Ferrari scored solid points on a day when a podium was simply beyond their reach, with Charles Leclerc getting by both Mercedes late in the race to secure P4 but Singapore winner Sainz running out of laps to overtake the Silver Arrow of Lewis Hamilton. The Spaniard had to settle for P6, Hamilton holding him off on older tires to take P5, two spots better than his starting spot. Russell was game in trying and sticking with the one-stopper but saw himself losing out to his teammate Hamilton, Leclerc and Sainz and ended up P7. Rounding out the top ten, the lone surviving Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso recovered from a premature first pit stop to come home P8 after starting from tenth on the grid. But clearly Aston has lost ground in performance to McLaren and teammate Lance Stroll DNFed with a rear wing structural failure. Alpine cleaned up the last of the points after a poor qualifying day for the team on Saturday and aided by a hefty five cars retiring from the race, with Esteban Ocon good enough for P9 and Pierre Gasly in P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Japanese GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks time when the second ever Qatar Grand Prix returns to the F1 calendar after a year’s absence. Hope to see you then when — and likely not if — Verstappen wraps up the title!