Max Verstappen held off the challenge of both McLaren drivers to win the Japanese Grand Prix.
The result stretches his unbeaten record at Suzuka to 6 years and was both Red Bull and Honda’s fourth successive win at the circuit.
He finished ahead Lando Norris in second and Oscar Piastri in third, with neither driver able to land a blow on Verstappen save for one challenge from Norris at pit exit which saw the Brit take to the grass.
The Dutchman is now only one point behind Norris in second place in the Drivers’ Championship in a car some believe is only 4th fastest.
Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.
Isack Hadjar took his first points of the season in eighth to become the second highest Red Bull-backed driver in the standings with four points, ahead of a frustrated Alexander Albon and Ollie Bearman in tenth for Haas.
In what was a largely processional affair, Verstappen made the best of starting from pole position to lead away from the lights, and through the first stint was never troubled as Norris could rarely get close enough to stay within DRS.
After some jockeying from McLaren in the pit lane, both lead drivers pitting on lap 22.
A slow stop for Red Bull allowed Norris alongside, but with the pit lane narrowing Verstappen was never going to move aside and Norris went grass-tracking.
Verstappen was never troubled from there on.
At points it was Piastri who looked the quicker of the two drivers, the Australian getting to within one car length on lap 50 as the closest he could get to second place.
Leclerc was best of the rest for Ferrari but ultimately never close to the cars ahead with Hamilton a distant seventh on a different strategy as Ferrari produced a steady weekend after the double-disqualification farce in China two weeks ago.
George Russell could not re-produce his podium heroics of Shanghai, as yet another quiet race yielded fifth ahead of his charging young teammate Antonelli, whose overcut strategy ultimately yielded no gain from sixth on the grid.
Further back it was more of the same with little action to excite the fans, the best action coming as Albon and Hadjar both passed slowing traffic including Liam Lawson and Carlos Sainz as they came through the field on new tyres on their way to decent points finishes.
Hadjar’s pace had been excellent all weekend, and starting seventh he and his Racing Bulls team will be pleased to finish in the top eight on a weekend where former teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who replaced Lawson at Red Bull for this race, could only manage 12th at his new team.
Albon’s race was apparently blighted by upshift issues and some less than happy radio exchanges, the Thai driver taking aim at Williams’ strategy after earlier shift frustrations, while Bearman built on a superb Chinese Grand Prix to score another point for Haas in tenth.
Image: Pirelli Media
