Tag Archives: Red Bull

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Results & aftermath

Norris holds off Leclerc for maiden Monaco win in plodding, strategic race; Piastri P3, Verstappen P4: FIA double-pit stop rule change backfires

Formula 1 and the FIA tried to fix the age old problem of passing at the venerable Monaco circuit and avoid last year’s Red Flag-induced processional by mandating two separate pit stops for Sunday’s dry and sunny Monaco Grand Prix. It did not quite work out exactly as planned. Instead of creating more opportunities for strategic overtakes, the clever team engineers bent the procedure to their own individual goals for the race and ended up using whichever car and driver that qualified lower as a blocker for the car that qualified in the better position to create a safe window for their pit stops. This created long stretches of the 78-lap race where most of the field were running well below full speed, as drivers like Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon took turns playing cork in the bottle to the second half of the field to ensure each of them could pit twice without any real threat of being overtaken. In the end, the key to Monaco, as it almost always is in good weather, was the Saturday qualifying order. And pole-sitter Lando Norris, who also set the track record in his McLaren en route to the top starting spot, was able to survive the best efforts of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, as well as having to wade through a slew of back markers, to capture his first Monaco victory.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen did his best to put a spanner in Norris’s works by running a long and not particularly fast second stint from nominal the race lead while waiting for the penultimate lap to make his mandated second stop for fresh Pirellis. This backed Norris into Leclerc late in the going as Verstappen was simply goal hanging for a Safety Car of some sort or a Red Flag, and therefore the proverbial “cheap” pit stop.  But there were no late incidents and once Verstappen ducked in, Norris sped away from Leclerc’s Ferrari rather easily to secure the win, with the Monegasque and last year’s storybook winner settling for second place. Norris’s McLaren teammate Piastri had a bit of wild and wooly weekend in the principality, with plenty of drifting and airborne kerb-banging, but kept it clean enough in the race to bring the car home in P3. Piastri now leads in the Drivers’ championship by a mere three points over the reinvigorated Norris. Verstappen, who had nothing to lose by running  to the bitter end for his second stop due to his massive time cushion over the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, claimed P4 at the finish, exactly where he started.

While Hamilton ran a lonely and unsatisfying race after a bit of clever pit strategy early on to get him out in front of Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, his P5 was two places better than his penalty-induced seventh place start on the grid and about as much as one could expect for improvement here on the streets of Monte Carlo. Hadjar continued to impress despite ceding a spot to Hamilton early in the race on pit cycles and came home a very solid P6, with Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson also scoring for the squad in P8. Esteban Ocon secured his and Haas’s best result of the season in P7, while the Williams duo of Albon and Sainz were rewarded for their slow going shenanigans by scoring valuable team points in P9 and P10 respectively.

Mercedes had a disastrous day as their gamble on running a long first stint on Hard tires with both their cars did not pay off at all due to the slow pace of the midfield runners in front of them. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli scored exactly zero points on a frustrating day the Silver Arrows team will be keen to put behind them as they pack up for the short trip to Barcelona next weekend.

Top 10 finishers of the Monaco GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

78

1:40:33.843

25

2

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

78

+3.131s

18

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

78

+3.658s

15

4

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

78

+20.572s

12

5

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

78

+51.387s

10

6

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

77

+1 lap

8

7

31

Esteban Ocon

Haas Ferrari

77

+1 lap

6

8

30

Liam Lawson

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

77

+1 lap

4

9

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

76

+2 laps

2

10

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

76

+2 laps

1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time as F1 wraps up another hectic sequence of three races on the trot with the Spanish Grand Prix from the well-loved Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Hope to see you then at a much more conventional and faster race track where overtaking should at least be reasonably possible and we’re also sure see the return of only the single mandatory pit stop after this weekend in Monaco’s unintended consequences from the FIA’s fiddling.

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Qualifying results

Norris beats Leclerc to pole in Monaco, sets track record; Piastri P3, Hamilton demoted from P4 due to blocking penalty

On the biggest race weekend of the year, with the traditional Memorial Day Weekend Sunday lineup of the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the Coca-Cola 600, Saturday qualifying for arguably the most prestigious trophy of them all took place on the fabled streets of the Principality of Monaco under perfect conditions. With the elite teams of Formula 1 posting ultra-competitive lap times on this tight and twisty temporary circuit, it came down to a final Q3 shootout between hometown hero and Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc and the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. In the end, Norris pipped Leclerc for pole by dint of setting the new lap record, an astonishing 1:09.954, ahead of the Monegasque’s seemingly impervious 1:10.063. It was quite the fillip for young Norris, who, after displaying a lack of confidence under intense pressure from teammate Piastri, has reasserted himself with his decent P2 in Emilia-Romagna last weekend and today’s impressive one-lap heroics on one of the toughest circuits on the calendar. Of course, Leclerc will be charging hard from P2 at the start of tomorrow’s tilt in an effort to execute an opening lap pass on Norris, often the surest way to victory on what is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake.

With Piastri coming up a bit short of that sterling top two and slotting in at P3, it appeared his partner in the second row on the grid would be the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton. But Hamilton, who had a small shunt to end free Practice 3, was also dinged three grid spots for impeding Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during qualifying after his race engineer gave him some incorrect information about Verstappen’s pace on track. That dropped Hamilton to a difficult P7 spot on tomorrow’s grid, while Verstappen reaped the rewards and was elevated to P4 despite only qualifying P5. The Racing Bull of impressive rookie Isack Hadjar and the Aston Martin of veteran pilot Fernando Alonso also benefitted from Hamilton’s misfortune, with Hadjar being promoted to P5 and Alonso to P6 for tomrorow’s race. Esteban Ocon did yeoman’s work to make Q3 and hustle his Haas up to P8; the second Racing Bull of Liam Lawson qualified a confidence-boosting P9 and Alexander Albon put his Williams in P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Monaco GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.285

1:10.570

1:09.954

27

2

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:11.229

1:10.581

1:10.063

27

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.308

1:10.858

1:10.129

29

4

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:11.575

1:10.883

1:10.382

28

5

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:11.431

1:10.875

1:10.669

21

6

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:11.811

1:11.040

1:10.923

27

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:11.674

1:11.182

1:10.924

30

8

31

Esteban Ocon

Haas Ferrari

1:11.839

1:11.262

1:10.942

32

9

30

Liam Lawson

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:11.818

1:11.250

1:11.129

26

10

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

1:11.629

1:10.732

1:11.213

34

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 9 AM Eastern here in the States. While it looks to be a Norris-Leclerc/McLaren-Ferrari shootout from the front, the second McLaren of Piastri and Verstappen’s Red Bull are sure to be in the mix thanks to Hamilton’s unfortunate penalty. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna — Results & aftermath

Verstappen takes win with immaculate start at Imola, Norris bests Piastri for P2; Hamilton maximizes performance to score P4 for Ferrari; Williams closing the gap as Russell plummets to P7

Top 10 finishers of the Emilia-Romagna GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

63

1:31:33.199

25

2

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

63

+6.109s

18

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

63

+12.956s

15

4

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

63

+14.356s

12

5

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

63

+17.945s

10

6

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

63

+20.774s

8

7

63

George Russell

Mercedes

63

+22.034s

6

8

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

63

+22.898s

4

9

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

63

+23.586s

2

10

22

Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

63

+26.446s

1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna — Qualifying results

Piastri keeps mojo rolling with McLaren pole at Imola; Verstappen & Russell just behind in P2 & P3, but Norris disappoints in P4; Ferrari on back foot on home soil with Leclerc only good enough for P11, Hamilton P12

Top 10 qualifiers for the Emilia-Romagna GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:15.500

1:15.214

1:14.670

18

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:15.175

1:15.394

1:14.704

17

3

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:15.852

1:15.334

1:14.807

17

4

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:15.894

1:15.261

1:14.962

19

5

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:15.695

1:15.442

1:15.431

19

6

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

1:15.987

1:15.198

1:15.432

21

7

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

1:16.123

1:15.521

1:15.473

20

8

18

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:15.817

1:15.497

1:15.581

21

9

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:16.253

1:15.510

1:15.746

17

10

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

1:15.937

1:15.505

1:15.787

17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9 AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Miami — Qualifying results

Verstappen shines again in Miami to take pole ahead of Norris; surging Antonelli finds pace to claim P3 ahead of Piastri

Top 10 qualifiers for the Miami GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:26.870

1:26.643

1:26.204

18

2

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:26.955

1:26.499

1:26.269

21

3

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

1:27.077

1:26.606

1:26.271

20

4

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.006

1:26.269

1:26.375

16

5

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:27.014

1:26.575

1:26.385

20

6

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

1:27.098

1:26.847

1:26.569

20

7

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

1:27.042

1:26.855

1:26.682

20

8

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:27.417

1:26.948

1:26.754

20

9

31

Esteban Ocon

Haas Ferrari

1:27.450

1:26.967

1:26.824

21

10

22

Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:27.298

1:26.959

1:26.943

21

Complete qualifying results available via Fomrula1.com.

Sunday’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 4 PM here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Verstappen can hold off Norris steaming into Turn 1 or if both potentially clash to open the door for another contender!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Results & aftermath

Piastri romps to victory after first-lap penalty to Verstappen, assumes championship lead; Leclerc holds of Norris for P3

Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix all came down to the opening lap, when pole-sitter Max Verstappen ran his Red Bull off track at Turn 1 in an effort to avoid the surging McLaren of Oscar Piastri and then rejoined ahead of the young Aussie still retaining P1. After a Safety Car neutralized the race for two-laps as a result of a crash between Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, the stewards adjudged that Verstappen had gained an unfair advantage and the Dutchman was handed a 5-second time penalty for not previously handing over the position to Piastri. While the top two continued to hold station at the front when the race resumed on Lap 3, Piastri and the McLaren braintrust were confident the 5-seconds that Verstappen would serve on his first pit stop would redound to their benefit. They also played the undercut, boxing Piastri on Lap 20 of this 50-lap contest at the Jeddah Corniche street circuit, while Verstappen ran to Lap 22 before following the preferred strategy by doffing his opening stint Medium Pirellis in favor of the Hards, while also serving his penalty. When Verstappen reemerged, he found himself in fifth place, while Piastri had assumed P3, behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and teammate Lando Norris, both of whom had yet to pit.

While Leclerc eventually came in on Lap 30 after getting the most out of his Mediums, Norris continued on with his Hard tires, looking to maximize a long run strategy gambit after crashing out of qualifying and starting from P10 on the grid. When Norris finally did pit, Piastri assumed the lead of the race for the first time and, with the entirety of the field running a one-stopper, he would not relinquish the point en route to his second win on the trot and third out of five rounds run so far in 2025. The excellent result also gave Piastri the lead of Drivers’ Championship for the first time, 10 points clear of his teammate Norris. Verstappen held on to P2 easily and ended up only two points adrift of Norris in the Drivers’, although he and the team will likely rue not immediately handing Piastri the lead after that Lap 1 contretemps. And, while Norris made a valiant comeback drive from that unfortunate P10 starting spot, he could never really get onto Leclerc’s gearbox to execute a pass for the final podium position, the Monegasque heading him P3 to P4. This was also Ferrari’s first Grand Prix podium of the season, although Lewis Hamilton did win the Sprint in China in Round 2. The Mercedes duo of George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli took the checkers in P5 and P6 respectively, while the second Ferrari of Hamilton settled for P7 after some spirited battles with the McLarens earlier in the race. Of the midfield runners, Williams had the best day, with an increasingly confident Carlos Sainz slotting in at P8 and teammate Alex Albon holding off the hard charging Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar, P9 to P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Saudi GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

50

1:21:06.758

25

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

50

+2.843s

18

3

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

50

+8.104s

15

4

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

50

+9.196s

12

5

63

George Russell

Mercedes

50

+27.236s

10

6

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

50

+34.688s

8

7

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

50

+39.073s

6

8

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

50

+64.630s

4

9

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

50

+66.515s

2

10

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

50

+67.091s

1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight, as the teams get a breather after a grueling three weekends in a row,  F1’s first of three visits to the United States for the Miami Grand Prix. Can Piastri keep up his remarkable run of form at yet another challenging street circuit or will Norris eliminate the errors that have cost him and find a way to regain his championship momentum after a breakthrough win in Miami last year? Or will Verstappen spoil the McLaren party at a track he dominated in 2022 & 2023? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

Verstappen nabs pole from Piastri as Norris crashes out; Russell P3, Leclerc P4 foreshadowing hyper-competitive race

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen once again showed that he’s not ready to cede his current championship crown to McLaren or anyone else, as the flying Dutchman laid down a blistering lap on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to secure pole for Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In a hyper-competitive Saturday Qualifying under the lights of the tight and twisty Jeddah street track, Verstappen’s final flier in Q3 was good enough to pip McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for P1 by a slim .01-seconds. Earlier in that final quali session, Piastri’s teammate and current point leader Lando Norris lost control running over the curbs exiting Turn 4 and binned his car in the walls  across from that the exit. Under pressure from not only his teammate Piastri, the dominant winner last week in Bahrain, but also the stubbornly excellent Verstappen, Norris will be forced to start from P10 on the grid at a track where overtaking is extremely difficult.

Once again, Mercedes’ George Russell capitalized by keeping it clean and putting in a very solid effort good enough for P3. While the Silver Arrows may not quite be ready to take a win on pure pace, Russell certainly shows all the signs of earning one should one or more of the top two come to grief in the race. His rookie Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli also acquitted himself well in P5. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc spilt the Silver Arrows in P4 but teammate Lewis Hamilton was out qualified by the Williams of Carlos Sainz, P6 to P7. Sainz seems to really be getting to grips with his new mount for this season, while Hamilton continues to suffer from inconsistency in the Prancing Horse. The second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda completed qualifying in P8 and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took P9, both ahead of the stricken McLaren of Norris, which will certainly require some overnight repairs.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Saudi Arabian GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:27.778

1:27.529

1:27.294

19

2

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.901

1:27.545

1:27.304

18

3

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:28.282

1:27.599

1:27.407

16

4

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:28.552

1:27.866

1:27.670

19

5

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

1:28.128

1:27.798

1:27.866

17

6

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

1:28.354

1:28.024

1:28.164

23

7

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:28.372

1:28.102

1:28.201

20

8

22

Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:28.226

1:27.990

1:28.204

16

9

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

1:28.421

1:28.025

1:28.367

22

10

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.805

1:27.481

DNF

11

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 1PM Eastern here in the States. Expect a real street fight between at least the top four players and it wouldn’t be surprising if an accident-induced Red Flag jumbled things up. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

McLaren’s Piastri rockets to dominant pole in Bahrain but teammate Norris fumbles final effort en route to P6; Mercedes’ Russell and Antonelli qualify P2 & P4 but penalized one spot each for pit infractions; Leclerc elevated to second on grid; Verstappen and Red Bull nowhere

A week after being thoroughly outperformed by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were keen to reassert their dominance during Saturday Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. But it ended up only Piastri who flew the Papaya flag by laying down a stunning marker here at the very tricky and twisty 5.4 kilometer Bahrain International Circuit, blasting his way to a dominant pole position, some two-tenths ahead of his closest pursuer, Mercedes’ George Russell. Meanwhile, Piastri’s normally superlative McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, failed to get the best out of his MCL39 and to come to grips with the windy conditions in the desert and could only manage P6 on his final flier in Q3, over four-tenths behind his pole-sitting teammate. While it is certainly more possible to pass here than at what ended up a stagnant Suzuka circuit last week, Piastri will have a major advantage getting away from the point while Norris has to fight his way through a quartet of fairly fast drivers to get back on terms for a win. Piastri will certainly be looking to maximize that advantage and take a victory that would vault him ahead of Norris for the points lead. Game on.

Mercedes were impressive and were definitely the next best team on pace here, just ahead of Ferrari and well ahead of the struggling Red Bull duo. But, while Russell was hyper-competitive with a P2 effort and rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli excelled to slot in at P4, the team were penalized for a pit lane infraction under Red Flag conditions after Haas’s Esteban Ocon had a major crash earlier in Q2. Both drivers were docked a grid place for the team’s error in sending them info the fast lane prematurely while the medical car was still driving to the front of the pits after Ocon had been dropped off for examination, big no-no. That elevated Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to second on the grid and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who had a genuinely superb qualifying effort regardless, up to the second row and P4. Meanwhile, a week after their surprise victory in Japan, Red Bull were nowhere in Bahrain, with both Verstappen and Tsunoda struggling mightily with balance and breaking. It all ended up with a humbling P7 effort for last week’s winner Verstappen, with Tsunoda at least making it to Q3 for the first time in tow tries, albeit with only the tenth fastest time.

Carlos Sainz appeared to finally get the handle on his Williams with a very solid P8 result, but Lewis Hamilton again struggled in his Prancing Horse and could manage no better than an underwhelming P9.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:31.392

1:30.454

1:29.841

15

2

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:31.494

1:30.664

1:30.009

20

3

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:31.454

1:30.724

1:30.175

16

4

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

1:31.415

1:30.716

1:30.213

20

5

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

1:31.462

1:30.643

1:30.216

19

6

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:31.107

1:30.560

1:30.267

18

7

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:31.303

1:31.019

1:30.423

17

8

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

1:31.591

1:30.844

1:30.680

19

9

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:31.219

1:31.009

1:30.772

18

10

22

Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:31.751

1:31.228

1:31.303

17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

The adjusted grid after Mercedes’ penalties are factored in is here. 

After a raft of overnighters to start the season, tomorrow’s race airs at the perfectly decent time of 11AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With a supreme advantage over his teammate and the rest of the field, Piastri will be looking to both stamp his authority on the race from the get go and then vault himself ahead of Norris in the Championship by dint of the victory. But do the Mercedes duo of Russell and Antonelli have anything to spring an upset when the lights go out, even from their slightly demoted positions? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Results & aftermath

Verstappen delivers vintage performance at Suzuka to hold off McLarens for victory; Norris P2, Piastri P3 as team indecision rears its head

Despite not having the fastest car on the grid, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen converted his outstanding pole effort on Saturday, and the benefit of the clean air that came with it, into a comfortable victory at Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. In what turned into an unusually processional affair at the normally unpredictable Suzuka Circuit, perhaps due to earlier rain showers cleaning the track and cooler temperatures limiting tire degradation, Verstappen was able to easily parry the best efforts of the trailing McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who started from P2 and P3 on the grid respectively. And when it became clear over the course of the Grand Prix’s 53 laps that Verstappen would not be able to be passed from behind on raw pace alone, McLaren declined to split their one and only pit stop strategies, thereby possibly delivering an advantage to either Norris or Piastri in their personal hunt for a Drivers’ Championship and the day’s win. Piastri was the first to pit from third on Lap 21 but then Norris followed Verstappen in a lap later, when there was also the option of running Norris one or two more laps longer in clean air to try and reap the benefits of an overcut strategy. But, with all three drivers making the switch from Medium to Hard Pirellis for their final stint and tire degradation much lower than expected, the McLaren braintrust decided that the risks to Norris from such a potential play on aging Mediums were too great, as the pace of Mercedes’ George Russell, who had come in a lap earlier than Piastri on Lap 20, proved formidable on the Hard tires right out of the box.

The closest thing to a real contretemps between contenders in what ended up being an unusually static race was Verstappen’s and Norris’s side-by-side exit from the pits, when Norris tried to shove his way past the Red Bull but Verstappen, of course, gave no ground, forcing the McLaren onto the grass verge and nearly into a spin. Norris lost valuable momentum with wheel spin and dirty tires but, while both drivers complained about the other vociferously, no penalties were handed down and the race resumed as it had before, with Verstappen at the point, Norris trailing him and the arguably fastest car of Piastri up on his teammate’s gearbox in P3. Obviously, McLaren were never going to make the move to swap the two, as that would have handed Piastri the championship points lead. And so, as the laps wound down, Norris and Piastri had to hold station behind a Red Bull that proved impossible to close up on no matter the efforts of the McLaren duo. While it was a relatively close finish, with Verstappen taking victory ahead of Norris by some 1.42 seconds, the outcome was really never in doubt, proving once again that a Red Bull in Verstappen’s hands out front in clean air is still a strong contender to win any race on the calendar, even in 2025 when their other advantages seem to have dissipated in the final year of the current formula.

Behind the elite three, Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari some much needed good news a fortnight after their double DQ in Shanghai with a P4 finish. Teammate Lewis Hamilton managed to gain one position over his starting spot by passing rookie Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar for P7 but it was still another less than comfortable run from the seven-time champ in only his third race with the Scuderia. In truth, Ferrari have got a lot of work to do to catch up with McLaren on pace, or even the Red Bull in Verstappen’s magical hands. One wonders how much energy and resources the fabled team from Maranello will be putting into improving the SF-25 with an entirely new car and engine needed for next year’s formula change. Mercedes’ young duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli also finished where they started on the grid, in P5 and P6 respectively, although the rookie Antonelli impressed by becoming the youngest F1 driver to lead a race and set the GP’s fastest lap.

Despite the early overtake by Hamilton, Hadjar acquitted himself well and kept his car clean en route to a P8 finish, the first F1 points of the young Frenchman’s career. Williams’ Alexander Albon also scored in P9, despite some testy exchanges over strategy with the pit wall during the race, and Haas’s Oliver Bearman continued to impress by picking up the final point in P10, making him the third rookie to score on the day.

Interestingly, newly promoted Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda was voted driver of the day by the fans despite finishing outside the points in P12. This was largely due to Tsunoda being the darling at his home Grand Prix and to be fair, the young Japanese driver did make the most overtakes during the race. But with Verstappen earning the win and Tsunoda finishing eleven places in arrears in ostensibly the same equipment, one wonders how long this particular honeymoon phase with the big team is really going to last.

Top 10 finishers of the Japanese GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

53

1:22:06.983

25

2

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

53

+1.423s

18

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

53

+2.129s

15

4

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

53

+16.097s

12

5

63

George Russell

Mercedes

53

+17.362s

10

6

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

53

+18.671s

8

7

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

53

+29.182s

6

8

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

53

+37.134s

4

9

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

53

+40.367s

2

10

87

Oliver Bearman

Haas Ferrari

53

+54.529s

1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, as F1 heads to the Bahrain International Circuit. Can Verstappen build on his momentum and exploit the tensions starting to simmer within McLaren to make this a genuine three-driver championship hunt? Or will McLaren’s dynamic duo of Norris and Piastri regain their mojo at the desert circuit, where more overtaking should be on offer? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Qualifying results

Verstappen stuns McLaren duo at Suzuka with surprise pole; Norris out-duels teammate Piastri for P2; Tsunoda fails to impress after promotion to Red Bull for home race

Saturday qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix at the storied Suzuka Circuit looked for all the world like a battle for pole between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. With Norris taking victory in Piastri’s backyard to open the season in Melbourne and Piastri getting the better of Norris for the win in China two weeks ago, all eyes were on the Papaya duo to see who would emerge as the fastest qualifier. But all eyes were on the wrong team and drivers. Reigning champion Max Verstappen proved he is not ready to go gently into that good night this early in 2025, with a blistering final lap that knocked a stunned Norris off the pole and relegated Piastri to P3 and the second row. With Verstappen’s Red Bull trimmed to the limit for maximum straight line speed even though Suzuka has many more twisty bits than straights, the Flying Dutchman was able to hustle his RB21 to the tune of a track record 1:26.983, a mere one hundredth ahead of Norris. It was not only a nice moment for Verstappen after a challenging first two rounds of the season but also for Red Bull engine supplier Honda at their home circuit. However, new Red Bull Number Two Yuki Tsunoda did not fare much better on the day than most of Verstappen’s other wingman of recent vintage. The young Japanese driver, opting for a much more downforce heavy setup, ended up a desultory P15 despite the enthusiastic urgings of his countrymen in the stands. Liam Lawson, the driver Tsunoda replaced at the big team just three races into the season, out-qualified him in P14 driving his own former Racing Bull. That was probably not what Tsunoda or Red Bull had envisaged when they made the switch and this race weekend began.

Behind the elite top three, Charles Leclerc bettered by some margin his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, P4 to P8.  Mercedes’ George Russell had a fairly ragged final effort in Q3 and could not improve his P5 position when the scoring was over, while rookie Silver Arrows teammate Kimi Antonelli made impressive leaps throughout the three difficult sessions to wind up a surprisingly strong P6. Fellow rookie Isack Hadjar was able to overcome a persistently painful too-tight lap belt situation to pull himself all the way up to an quite solid  P7, while Williams’ Alexander Albon and Haas’s Oliver Bearman, yet another rookie, filled out the rest of the top ten in P9 and P10 respectively.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Japanese Grand Prix:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:27.943

1:27.502

1:26.983

17

2

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.845

1:27.146

1:26.995

15

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.687

1:27.507

1:27.027

18

4

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:27.920

1:27.555

1:27.299

21

5

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:27.843

1:27.400

1:27.318

17

6

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

1:27.968

1:27.639

1:27.555

18

7

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:28.278

1:27.775

1:27.569

18

8

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:27.942

1:27.610

1:27.610

23

9

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

1:28.218

1:27.783

1:27.615

20

10

87

Oliver Bearman

Haas Ferrari

1:28.228

1:27.711

1:27.867

21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.,com.

Tomorrow’s race airs overnight here in the States beginning at 1 AM Eastern Sunday morning on ESPN. With Verstappen in his preferred spot — up front and in clean air — we’ll have to see if McLaren’s long run pace can pull the Red Bull back into their clutches of if the four-time Champ is only beginning to show that he’s a serious contender to earn his fifth on the trot despite all predictions to the contrary. Hope to see you then to find out how it all plays out!