Max Verstappen held off the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to win the Japanese Grand Prix in brilliant style on Sunday.
The Dutchman’s coolness under pressure to fend off two faster cars coupled with a scintillating drive to qualify in pole position on Saturday made for “one of the best weekends that he’s had in Formula One,” his Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports afterward.
“The hard work was really done yesterday but today again in the race, he was inch-perfect,” Horner added. “McLaren were quick but we were able to be that bit quicker to hold them off behind.”
Meanwhile, Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli recorded the fastest lap in the race, becoming the youngest ever driver to do so, aged 18 years and 224 days old. He also briefly led the race, becoming the youngest ever driver to reach that milestone too.
On Saturday, Verstappen had surprised the paddock and his team to pip Norris by just 0.012 seconds on his final lap during a chaotic qualifying session that was halted for six minutes when the fifth trackside grass fire of the weekend broke out.
Damper conditions quelled any threat of further fires during the race itself, and Verstappen quickly built up a two second advantage over Norris.
And, for the most part, the two McLaren cars couldn’t erode that gap, though they had a sliver of an opportunity when Norris and Verstappen pitted at the same time. Norris came out almost level with Verstappen in the pit lane but ended up driving across the grass as the Dutchman refused to give him any space.
The British driver initially said his rival had pushed him off the track but later clarified it was simply “racing.”
“He was still ahead,” Norris said afterward. “It kind of squeezes into one and Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space, in a good way and in a racing way, so nothing more than that.”
In the end, he finished in second place while his teammate Piastri rounded out the podium in third. By winning, Verstappen pulled himself back to within just one point of Norris’ drivers’ championship lead.
“I’m incredibly happy,” Verstappen said after the race. “It started off quite tough this weekend but we didn’t give up, we kept improving the car and today it was in its best form. Of course starting on pole really made it possible to win this race.”
Carlos Sainz, who finished the race in 14th place, suffered a “stomach issue,” arrived late for the pre-race national anthem and was subsequently fined €20,000 ($22,000) by the FIA, motorsport’s governing body.
Half of that fine is suspended for a year, the FIA said in a statement. The organization also noted that Sainz’s stomach issue was verified by a doctor, reducing the fine from €60,000 ($66,000) as laid out in the rule book.
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