Verstappen leads another double with ‘Checo’ and Sainz maintains his sensational streak in Japan

Photo Credit To Agencia EFE

The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) reinforced his leadership in the Formula One World Championship by winning the Japanese Grand Prix, the fourth of the year, which was held this Sunday at the Suzuka circuit, where he won ahead of his teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez -who regained second place in the championship-, and the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), who finished second and third, respectively.

Verstappen, 26, who also set the fastest lap, achieved his fifty-seventh victory in F1 – the third of the season and the third in a row in Suzuka -, confirming the dominance of the Austrian team, in a race in which Sainz He achieved his twenty-first podium in the premier category – the third in the three races he has competed – and the other Spaniard, the Asturian double world champion Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), finished sixth.

Red Bull shone once more and did not have too many problems to make the waters return to normal with another superb performance on the circuit owned by its motorist, Honda. In a race in which Sainz extended his brilliant start to the season and in which he once once more brought out the colors of those responsible for the most successful team in history, who decided not to renew him and gave his wheel for 2025 to the Englishman Lewis Hamilton ( Mercedes). Ninth this Sunday in a Grand Prix in which only the other seven-time world champion, the German Michael Schumacher (who achieved one more), improves on his five victories.

Verstappen, who led all the Grand Prix time tables with the exception of the useless second free session on Friday, ruined by the rain and in which he barely ran, had signed on Saturday, “without doing a perfect lap”, his thirtieth sixth ‘pole’ since racing in F1. The fourth in the first four tests of the year. That, following improving, by only six hundredths, in the main timed, to ‘Checo’, with whom he had signed ‘doubles’ in the first two races of the year: in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia.

But in Australia it had once once more been Sainz – who last year had already scored the only victory that the red bulls did not score – who questioned the enormous dominance of the Austrian team. With an epic triumph, just two weeks following having undergone emergency surgery for appendicitis. In a race that Verstappen abandoned on the second lap, due to a brake problem; and in which the best driver in the history of Mexico did not go beyond fifth place.

In such a way, taking over the front row of the grid once more announced, as it did, that the premier category was recovering its ‘status quo’. At least from the perspective of the Milton Keynes team. Even more so when ‘Checo’ had not started from the front row since the Miami Grand Prix (USA) last year. That is, 21 races later.

Sainz had been fourth in qualifying and started from the second row, next to his former teammate, and yet friend, Lando Norris – who would finish fifth, just behind the other Ferrari, that of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc -; while Alonso -fifth in Saturday’s qualifying rounds- did so from third, with the other McLaren, that of Australian Oscar Piastri, next to him.

Hamilton and Leclerc started from the fourth row; and behind them came the other Mercedes, that of George Russell – seventh at the end, but investigated -, and the local idol, the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (RB), who drove to the finish line with his tenth place on the grid. On the hottest day of the three of a Grand Prix held on a ‘pilot’ circuit, with a unique design – in the shape of an eight -, a sloping finish line and 18 curves, some of them high speed, very abrasive, so tire management was going to be, once more, crucial.

Among the top ten, everyone started with the medium, except Alonso – with soft, since he was the only one who still had a new set of that compound left – who thought that the simulations predicted him a ninth place. But Mike Krack – team manager of the Silverstone team – warned that the car was better than the position it occupied on the grid. In the end, the Luxembourg engineer got it right, but only because the brilliant Asturian driver once once more optimized resources and finished sixth. His teammate, Canadian Lance Stroll, was twelfth.

Shortly following starting, on the first lap, the red flag waved. Fortunately, the only one of the day. The Australian Daniel Ricciardo (RB) and the Thai Alex Albon – from the Williams at this very unfortunate start to the championship – had an accident following touching in the third corner and following an interruption of almost half an hour, they started once more from the grid. With the first nine places intact, the Mercedes switched to hard and Sainz with the new medium tire.

Verstappen escaped once more at the start, this time without incident; and ‘Checo’ also opened a gap with respect to the rest in the links of the first sector of the track. And among the top nine, only Leclerc overtook Hamilton to snatch seventh place. Shortly before Tsunoda regained the tenth place that he had lost before the interruption.