Max Verstappen wins an uneventful Japanese GP and becomes the first driver to win 4 Japanese GP’s in a row, while Yuki Tsunoda manages 12th place in his first race with Redbull
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Start
As the grid lined up for the start of the Japanese GP, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris lined up their cars to try and cut each other off, the 5 lights went out to signal the start of the GP and it was Max Verstappen that was slightly better off the line, maintaining first place. uncharacteristically for the Japanese GP the whole field survived the the first lap with no issues.
Yuki Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz all made places on the first laps but the whole field were very well behaved and settled into the a rhythm
Early Going
In the early running Max Verstappen built up a decent lead of around 2 seconds, however the reigning World Champion complaining of some issues with the upshifts, this was sorted with the help of the pit wall and the Redbull engineers, Lewis Hamilton was sowing some good early pace on the Hard tyre, as Ferrari decided to split the strategy, with LeClerc on the Medium tyre.
Lance Stroll was the first driver to head to the pits for a scheduled pit stop after Aston Martin took a gamble and started on the soft tyre, the only other driver that started on the soft tyre was the Doohan in the Alpine, who remained at the rear in the early part of the race.
Drama in the Pit Lane
As the Japanese GP headed to the the pit window, both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen headed to the pit lane together, Redbull and Max Verstappen were a second slower than Lando Norris and McLaren, which allowed the McLaren to come out along side Max, unfortunately for Norris, he was not able jump the Redbull and had to take to the grass at the exit of the pitlane, it was noted and quickly put in the “no further action” file.
On to the Chequered Flag
As we head to the end of the race both McLarens were trying to gain on Max Verstappen, however they were just unable to get close enough to attack. The top three were separated by less than 2.5 seconds but the McLaren pair just could not gain on the Redbull.
The top three finished the same as they started with Max Verstappen takes the win with Norris and Piastri completing the podium.
Yuki Tsunoda will be slightly disappointed with his performance taking a 12th place and no points in the sister Redbull, while Liam Lawson finished down in 17th in the RB.
The 2025 Japanese GP will be remembered for it’s attempt to be as exciting as the 2019 French GP. I’m just glad that we are racing again in a week.
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