Max Verstappen showcased an exceptional performance at the Japanese Grand Prix, maintaining dominance throughout the race. Despite constant pressure, he expertly kept the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri behind him, making no mistakes in the process.
The start of the race, anticipated to be treacherous due to earlier rainfall, was surprisingly uneventful. The top ten racers held their positions, with Tsunoda making a gain at Lawson’s expense and Alone overtaking Gasly at the Spoon Curve.
Though the track was still slightly damp and quite chilly, it didn’t pose a significant issue. Most drivers chose medium tires, except Bortoletto who opted for hards, and Stroll and Doohan went with softs. Unfortunately, the soft tire strategy didn’t pay off as expected, with both drivers pitting early on laps 11 and 16 without making notable progress.
At the front, the gaps between drivers remained fairly consistent, hovering around two seconds within the top ten. Leclerc trailed Piastri by 2.7 seconds, and Antonelli was in a similar position relative to his teammate.
Norris realized by lap 19 that his best chance to overtake Verstappen would be during the pitstop phase. Verstappen’s performance in the hairpin made it difficult for Norris to close in on the straight sections following the Spoon Curve.
Russell initiated the pit stops on lap 20, quickly followed by Piastri. The next lap saw Leclerc enter the pits, with Verstappen and Norris coming in concurrently. While McLaren executed a faster pitstop, Norris still found himself trailing Verstappen. In an aggressive move, Verstappen kept Norris in check, pushing him onto the grass and cementing his lead as they exited the pit lane, which led to Norris filing a complaint with the stewards.
Hamilton made his pit stop from second place on lap 30 and rejoined in sixth, with Antonelli right behind him. This reshuffled them back to their pre-pitstop positions, although Hamilton managed to find himself within DRS range, unlike earlier in the race.
Up front, the race tempo was back to pre-pitstop dynamics, with Verstappen leading Norris by about 1.5 to 2 seconds, while Piastri hung closer to Norris. Leclerc, unfortunately, lost touch with the podium hopefuls, trailing them by about seven seconds.
Around lap 40, Piastri increased his pace, slowly closing in on Norris. He inquired whether Norris was still conserving energy, receiving the answer “This is Lando’s pace,” a cue that Piastri might seize the opportunity to overtake and challenge Verstappen, who was just 1.3 seconds up on Norris.
Piastri almost executed a move at Turn One on lap 43 but lost the DRS advantage momentarily due to a minor error at the hairpin. Meanwhile, Norris narrowed his gap to Verstappen to 1.2 seconds but was yet to reduce it further. Piastri quickly recovered, closing the gap to Norris to 0.7 seconds just a lap after his hairpin misjudgment.
