Verstappen & Red Bull return to winning ways with easy win at Suzuka, Perez P2; Sainz prevails over teammate Leclerc, P3 to P4, in strong performances for Ferrari

Two weeks after a shocking mechanical DNF in Australia, Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team were back in top form for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. Verstappen led the race from pole twice, the second time after a Lap 2 Red Flag, and gapped his game teammate Sergio Perez each time, steadily putting enough in the bank to come across the finish line of this 53-lap contest over twelve and a half seconds ahead of P2 Perez. For the Red Bull team, it was back to their usual recent supremacy at this highly technical circuit that really seems to suit their cars, making it three out of the last four Japanese GP that they’ve finished 1-2 at the figure eight Suzuka Circuit. For good measure, Verstappen also ended up setting the race’s fastest lap for the bonus point and a maximum of 26 on the day. It was still an encouraging day for Perez, who had to make several solid overtakes against other contenders after his two pit stops in order to secure that valuable second place and hopefully bodes well for the Mexican veteran’s renewed sense of confidence in the RB20.

Chequered flag moment 🏁

Max also now joins Schumacher, Vettel and Hamilton in the '3000 laps led' club 👏#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/ayXNWU2EwZ

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 7, 2024

Once it became clear that Red Bull were simply the class of the field again, the more intriguing  part of the race came down to who would score the last podium position and how the rest of the top ten would shake out. Ferrari once again looked like the closest thing to competition that Red Bull may have this season and the Scuderia braintrust effectively split their strategies between their drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. With Sainz, the last race winner in Melbourne, qualifying P4 but Leclerc mired down in P8 after a subpar quali effort on Saturday, the team went with a conventional tire strategy for Sainz and a roll of the dice for Leclerc. Sainz ran the standard two-stopper, going Medium Pirellis to Medium to Hard to finish the race, while Leclerc ran a long first stint on Mediums all the way to Lap 27 and then took his only set of Hards to the end. This not only allowed Sainz to better his starting position by one and get the Spaniard on the podium with a P3 finish but vaulted Leclerc, who drove superbly to hold onto that initial set of Mediums, all the way up to an eventual P4 finish. While Leclerc couldn’t hold off his teammate for that last podium spot late in the race, the Monegasque still prevailed over both McLarens on the day, the team that is really Ferrari’s true rival in race pace. So, the brass at Maranello should be well pleased by a rather excellent two race stretch, with Sainz and Lecerlc one-two in Australia and now three-four in Japan.

LAP 46/53

Carlos gets it done!

It's a smooooooth pass around the outside of T1 to put the Spaniard up onto the podium! 🌶️#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/wr2JWWJiGU

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 7, 2024

For McLaren, it ended up being more of a salvage what you can kind of day rather than competing for the podium, as the team have more recently come to expect. The race pace of the cars was definitely not as strong as the Prancing Horses here and Norris was easy meat for Sainz when the Spaniard passed him for third place on Lap 46, with Norris having locked up the prior lap. Similarly, McLaren teammate Oliver Pisatri also suffered with long run handling when he ran wide on the final lap heading into Turn 16, which enabled Mercedes’ George Russell to steal P7 from the young Aussie. While not a disaster by any means, with Norris finishing P4 and Piastri P8, team McLaren will be looking to improve when they unload in China in two weeks, such are the higher expectations they now have with their MCL38’s usual solid performance and their two young pilots’ excellent pace.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso tried to keep Piastri in position to defend himself from Russell’s ambitions, the wily Spanish veteran keeping the McLaren within DRS range and using Piastri as a blocker. In the end, Russell ran out of laps to make any headway on Alonso and the two-time champ scored Aston’s only points on the day with a fine P6 finish. With Russell locked in at P7 and Silver Arrows teammate Lewis Hamilton only able to take P9 when the checkers flew, there had to be some debate about the Mercedes pit wall’s decision to attempt a one-stopper after both switched to Hards from the Mediums under the Red Flag conditions. In the end, it probably wasn’t decisive either way even though the team was forced to bail on that strategy, with Russell getting rid of his aged Hards on Lap 38 in favor of Mediums to end the race and Hamilton following suit two laps later. Mercedes simply lack the pace of Ferrari, McLaren and certainly Red Bull so, Russell making that late race pass on Piastri was actually bettering expectations. There remains a lot of work to do for the once mighty Silver Arrows if they are going to get back to challenging for podiums let alone wins.

RB Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda took the last point in P10 at his home race to the delight of his countrymen in the stands, a fine result for any Japanese driver and another indication that the talented Tsunoda is showing his improving skills on a weekly basis, even in a less than elite car. He was also aided in that eventual good result by a cracking pit stop by his mechanics on his final tire change, the RB beating out four other runners who had also stopped at the exact same time, netting him crucial track position that Tsunoda then converted into that valuable P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Japanese Grand Prix:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks’ time — the return of the Chinese Grand Prix form the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time since 2019. Will this circuit be any less conducive to the seemingly unstoppable force that is Red Bull-Verstappen? Hope to see you then to find out!

Red Bull lock out front row at Suzuka as Verstappen barely pips game Perez; McLaren’s Norris gets the better of Ferrari’s Sainz for P3

Two weeks removed from his shocking early race mechanical DNF in Melbourne, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen seemed determined to reimpose his usual air of inevitability during Saturday Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Making an unusually early appearance on the F1 calendar and amidst cool and cloudy conditions at the fabled Suzuka International Racing Course, the Red Bulls were clearly the class of the field throughout practice and then further hammered home that fact once quali began in earnest. And this time, Verstappen’s teammate Sergo Perez also came to play, putting pressure on Max to up his game in order to earn the pole. In the end, the flying Dutchman succeeded, but only by beating out Perez by a scant .006 seconds, one of their closest qualifying duals since they’ve been Red Bull stablemates. With the RB20s race pace dominance readily apparent so far in 2024, fans will be hoping that Perez can hound Verstappen in tomorrow’s race with just as much elan as the veteran Mexican displayed today in qualifying.

Below those top two standouts, it was a fascinating battle for positions three through ten on the grid, featuring large gaps between teammates in ostensibly identical equipment. This often happens at the highly technical, figure-eight Suzuka Circuit, where hooking up a constant lap through all three sectors is highly demanding even to talented Formula 1 drivers. Excelling the best in a car not named Red Bull was McLaren’s Lando Norris, who bettered last race’s winner, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, P3 to P4. Still flying high from his amazing Aussie GP victory a fortnight ago, Sainz did take it to his Scuderia teammate, Charles Leclerc, who was forced to burn an extra set of Soft Pirellis to secure his transfer out of Q1. Leclerc was thereby disadvantaged by a lack of extra fresh sets in Q3 and could only run one hot lap, which netted him a lowly P8 starting position when all the other times were counted in the final session. Norris’s McLaren teammate and birthday boy Oscar Piastri faced no such tire disadvantage but was only able to qualify P6 after running his full Q3 program.

Fernando Alonso was the lone Aston Martin in the top ten, wringing the neck of his car to will himself all the way up to P5. This put the veteran two-time champ not only ahead of Piastri but also both Mercedes. After a disastrous zero points outing in Melbourne a fortnight ago, the Silver Arrows are still chasing pace, with Lewis Hamilton only able to mange a P7 time but still well ahead of his bewildered teammate, George Russell, who ended up mired down in P9. RB Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda delighted his countrymen in the stands by slotting in at P10 for his home race.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Japanese GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 1AM Eastern Sunday morning here in the States. With Suzuka looking uniquely suited to this year’s iteration of Red Bull, it should come down to an intra-team battle at Red Bull for the win. Can Perez finally make his mark on the 2024 campaign and get back to challenging Verstappen’s supremacy? Look forward to seeing you then to find out!