Verstappen Dominates in Japan as Red Bull retain their Constructors’ Championship
Max Verstappen was back to dominating the field today as his win was enough to secure Red Bull Racing their second consecutive Constructors World Championship. McLaren also had a day to remember as Lando Norris finished second whilst Oscar Piastri rounded out the Podium with his first trip to the rostrum in Formula 1.
The Biggest Talking Points
Max Verstappen did superbly well going into Turn 1 to keep both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris behind, and whilst that was going on, chaos ensued behind the leaders as multiple cars collided with each other resulting in a Safety Car on the opening lap. This particularly affected Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon, Zhou Guanyu, Esteban Ocon, and Sergio Perez whilst Lewis Hamilton looked to have suffered a bit of floor damage in the process. When the race got back underway, Max drove off into the distance as Valtteri Bottas’ day got even worse as he was punted off by Logan Sargeant heading into Turn 11. Considering Bottas ran so far wide at Turn 11, I really can’t understand how Sargeant still managed to hit him. Sergio Perez, who went off the track at Turn 13/14 a lap earlier, decided to send one on Kevin Magnussen into Turn 11 which resulted in Perez punting Magnussen round and receiving his second-time penalty of the race (after a Safety Car infringement from earlier on). Elsewhere, the two Mercedes were fighting one another quite hard including at one moment where Lewis Hamilton pushed George Russell off the track and other than Oscar Piastri benefiting a little bit from a Virtual Safety Car (Piastri had just entered the pits when the VSC had come out), not much else really happened in this race unfortunately. Fernando Alonso got overtaken quite a few times as he was on an older set of tyres compared to the drivers around him whilst Mercedes pulled out a strategy that ultimately cost George Russell a place to Carlos Sainz. I’m interested to see if that ends up affecting the fight for second in the Constructors’ Championship between Mercedes and Ferrari. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Red Bull sending Sergio Perez back onto the track after retiring from the race in order for him to serve his second-time penalty (it was a bit odd)!
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve given out two 10’s for today’s race and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen. After a tough weekend in Singapore, Max restored the rightful order at Suzuka by winning by a country mile. The other driver I’ve given a perfect 10 to is Lando Norris as I thought he drove another super race. I believe this is Lando’s fourth second-place finish of the season which is very, very impressive (if you ask me). I also thought Oscar Piastri did a great job to score his first-ever Formula 1 Podium whilst I also thought Charles Leclerc had a really good race that saw him maximise his result.
Drivers who had a Shocker
In total, I’ve given out two 1’s for today’s race, and the first one is for Logan Sargeant. In my opinion, Logan is driving shockingly bad right now and this weekend could well be the worst one he’s had all season. I still cannot believe he punted Bottas off early on in the race! The other driver that I’ve given the lowest possible grade to is Sergio Perez and I’m really starting to get fed up with Checo now. Sergio can be a great driver at times, but other times he’s not and I think it’s fair to say that he was pretty abysmal today. I also thought Kevin Magnussen didn’t have a particularly good day as he finished last of the running cars.
Overall Race Results and My Ratings
Max Verstappen: 10 (FL)
Lando Norris: 10
Oscar Piastri: 9
Charles Leclerc: 8
Lewis Hamilton: 7
Carlos Sainz: 6
George Russell: 5
Fernando Alonso: 6
Esteban Ocon: 7
Pierre Gasly: 6
Liam Lawson: 7
Yuki Tsunoda: 6
Zhou Guanyu: 5
Nico Hulkenberg: 4
Kevin Magnussen: 3
Alex Albon: - (DNF)
Logan Sargeant: 1 (DNF)
Lance Stroll: 5 (DNF)
Sergio Perez: 1 (DNF)
Valtteri Bottas: - (DNF)
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