Jack Prentice

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

Max Verstappen will start from pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix for the first time since last year’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman took a shock pole for Red Bull Racing by 0.012s ahead of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

George Russell will start tomorrow’s race from fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, while Russell’s Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli will start sixth.

Isack Hadjar, who had to overcome seat issues earlier in the day, starts and excellent seventh for Racing Bulls ahead of Lewis Hamilton, while Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Ollie Bearman complete the top ten.

Eyes were on both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, with Lawson having been moved to Racing Bulls from Red Bull after two poor weekends ahead of the Grand Prix this weekend to be replaced by Tsunoda.

Lawson advanced through to the second session for what was already his best qualifying session of the season, knocking out Nico Hulkenberg in the process.

The German joined teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Alpine’s Jack Doohan and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll on the sidelines after the first session.

That was to be as far as both men would get, with both departing in the second qualifying session.

Lawson did manage to outqualify Tsunoda in 14th as the Japanese driver, who had looked quick throughout the weekend, made a mistake at Turn 2 to only manage 15th on the grid.

They’ll start behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in 13th, Carlos Sainz’s Williams in 12th and Pierre Gasly in 11th.

Image – Pirelli Media

Confirmation of the news that no one in F1 has been waiting for came on Thursday morning, as Red Bull announced that Yuki Tsunoda will replace Liam Lawson in the senior team.

Lawson will drive for Racing Bulls, the team he drove for in 11 races across two part season spells in 2023 and 2024, and returns after twice qualifying last at the Sprint weekend Chinese Grand Prix and 18th at the Australian Grand Prix, while crashing in the race in Australia and finishing 15th on the road in Shanghai.

Tsunoda gets his chance after over four seasons and 89 starts with the Red Bull junior team in the guises of Alpha Tauri, VCARB and Racing Bulls.

Red Bull are renowned for their ruthless handling of their young driver programme. Just ask Pierre Gasly, who in 2019 got half a season and despite obvious improvement in the junior team was never again considered for the senior team.

Even for Red Bull though, two races is a new low.

Not since Yuji Ide’s infamous four race spell for Super Aguri in 2006, where he lost his superlicense when three dreadful flyaway races were followed by the Japanese flipping Christijan Albers at the San Marino Grand Prix, has a stated permanent drive gone so wrong, so quickly.

Lawson will get a chance to go again.

What’s changed?

Much has and will be made of the decision to replace Lawson, a driver Red Bull  believed had the mental fortitude to be teammate to four-time World Champion Max Verstappen with Tsunoda, who not three months ago was not believed to have the mentality to be able to cope with the same role he’s now been thrust into.

Team Principal Christian Horner said of Tsunoda when announcing the switch: “Yuki’s experience will prove highly beneficial in helping to develop the current car.”

When announcing Lawson’s move to Red Bull, Horner said:  “Liam’s performances over the course of his two stints with Racing Bulls have demonstrated that he’s not only capable of delivering strong results but that he’s also a real racer, not afraid to mix it with the best and come out on top.”

Contrast that with this week:

“We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam and together we see that, after such a difficult start, it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience as he continues his F1 career with Racing Bulls, an environment and a team he knows very well.”

How times  change.

Red Bull’s muddled thinking

On the face of it, Red Bull have, completely by themselves, got the worst of both worlds.

The reality is worse than that.

When all meaningful metrics – race finishes, points, qualifying points – pointed to Tsunoda being the right choice to replace the shredded Sergio Perez for 2025, Red Bull chose Lawson based on being a “real racer” and other intangibles.

It then gave Lawson a full pre-season and two races in a car that, while tricky, is better than the New Zealander has been able to show at two tracks he’d not driven on before pulling the trigger.

In taking Tsunoda out of the Racing Bulls frying pan and throwing into the Red Bull fire this early on, it is giving Tsunoda almost a full season in a car notorious for being difficult to adapt to, while wasting the chance to ease him in and help the Japanese prepare with pre-season testing.

Tsunoda’s most recent meaningful time in a Red Bull was at the end of season test at Abu Dhabi last year.

He has carried on what was an impressive end to last season in 2025, and would have scored points in both Grands Prix were it not for poor strategy calls from Racing Bulls, after a 6th in the Chinese Sprint.

However, promotion to Red Bull this soon in the season with the media interest that will generate, plus the adaptation process that will inevitably come with joining a new team, in time for his home race will bring a pressure he hasn’t previously been under.

His fiery personality and some expletive-laden radio exchanges are ultimately what led to doubts at Red Bull about his ability to cope with pressure.

It is worth remembering that despite outshining every teammate since Gasly left for Alpine, Tsunoda was Red Bull’s third choice for this seat.

The team brought Daniel Ricciardo back to what was then Alpha Tauri for a shootout to join the senior team in the second half of 2023 before injury hampered his comeback.

A slow start to the 2024 season made Red Bull realise that the Australian – the first choice to replace Perez – was not the same driver as the daring, late-braking and often rabbit-out-of-hat driver that deposed Sebastian Vettel as team leader before leaving for Renault in 2019.

Masking a fundamental issue

The decision to drop Lawson and the circus around Red Bull’s second seat should not detract from the fact that since design genius Adrian Newey left Red Bull almost a year ago, they have gone backwards in competitiveness.

Verstappen won the World Championship with two weekends to spare in 2024, but he won just two of the last 14 races and one of those was at the wet Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.

The Dutchman has hinted that Red Bull have the fourth fastest car, repeatedly criticised the car’s balance and even hinted that Racing Bulls may have a faster car.

While the car is obviously better than Lawson has shown and should score points at every weekend, Verstappen has more than maximised the car’s potential and taken advantage of quicker rivals falling by the wayside.

Verstappen, the last true success of Red Bull’s once fabled young driver programme, is believed to view the decision to drop Lawson as the wrong call, and the fundamental issue is with the RB21 and not the second driver.

While in part that may be a Formula One driver talking up his own performance, the evidence backs up Verstappen’s view.

If finally giving Tsunoda a chance backfires, it will once and for all expose a team in complete disarray.

Oscar Piastri took his third Grand Prix victory with an imperious win at Shanghai International Circuit.

His McLaren teammate Lando Norris had to manage a brake issue but managed second to complete a 50th 1-2 for the team, while George Russell was third for Mercedes and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth.

The result leaves Norris eight points clear of Verstappen in the fledgling Championship standings, with Russell a point further back and Piastri a point behind in fourth.

.The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were fifth and sixth, while Haas improved from a dreadful Australian Grand Prix with seventh for Esteban Ocon and tenth for Ollie Bearman.

Kimi Antonelli in eighth and Alex Albon in ninth completed the points positions.

It was the perfect start for McLaren as Piastri blocked off Russell to hamper his entry into Turn One, with Norris sweeping around the outside to take second.

Max Verstappen was another to go backwards as he was passed by both Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc, who lost a chunk of front wing hitting Hamilton, through ahead of the Dutchman.

A slow burner of a first stint was curtailed as the midfield, led by Pierre Gasly, Ocon and the Racing Bulls duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar pitted before lap 12.

Expected high tyre wear throughout the race failed to materialise as the leading five cars – all of whom pitted before lap 17 – making it to the end of the Grand Prix on their hard tyres.

At the front, Piastri completed his most complete weekend with a race win during which he wasn’t troubled, with a difficult Friday giving way to a dominant display to underline his own World Drivers’ Championship credentials.

A strong undercut, where the car behind pits for fresh tyres to pass the car ahead when they pit, was prevalent in China and helped Russell briefly repass Norris, but the McLaren had regained second by lap 18 and gradually built a gap.

That gap became important for Norris, who in the last 15 laps reported a long brake pedal that was critical by the penultimate lap.

An eight-second gap became 1.3s by the end of the race as a quietly effective Russell maximised his weekend once again.

Behind that Verstappen grew into the race after an off-colour first stint in which he dropped back from the Ferraris in sixth.

The Dutchman salvaged fourth as Leclerc’s damage caught up with the Monesgasque driver with four laps to go.

Hamilton’s hard tyre performance fell away leading Ferrari to call him in for a second stop before Verstappen passed his old rival.

It was another chastening weekend for Liam Lawson at Red Bull, as he twice qualified 20th and last and could only manage 15th in the race, over a minute behind Vertappen.

Haas’ turnaround from an Australian Grand Prix weekend in which they were clearly the slowest team to an excellent weekend in China was remarkable.

Ocon expertly judged his one-stop strategy to pass and stay ahead of Antonelli’s Mercedes while Bearman, starting 17th, managed his tyres superbly for tenth.

Lando Norris survived late challenges from both Max Verstappen and the weather to win the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

Norris had serenely led the race through three Safety Car periods before a heavy rain shower 14 laps from the end caught both he and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri out two corners from the end of the lap.

The Brit recovered, but Piastri ended up beached on the grass for nearly a lap when a podium at worst would have been on the cards.

George Russell was third for Mercedes ahead of an excellent fourth place for Alex Albon in the Williams, while the impressive rookie Kimi Antonelli was fifth from 16th on the grid.

Lance Stroll took a quiet sixth for Aston Martin ahead of Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc eighth ahead of a disappointed Piastri, who recovered to ninth by passing Lewis Hamilton on the last lap.

Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar gave a taste of what was to come as he both crashed on the formation lap, leading to a delay of 15 minutes, while fellow rookie Jack Doohan got one sector further before spinning under acceleration on lap one, with Carlos Sainz going off later that lap.

A quiet race briefly livened up when Piastri passed Verstappen on lap 19, with both McLarens quickly opening up a lead over Verstappen that still looks ominous for the rest of the season.

Fernando Alonso then spun off at the exit of Turn 6 on lap 35 to pull the pin on the rest of the Grand Prix, as the Safety Car was deployed and drivers pitted for slick tyres.

Shortly after this a heavy rain shower fell on the Albert Park circuit, and three laps after the Safety Car pitted all hell broke loose as Norris and Piastri both went off at Turn 12.

Norris sought refuge in the pit lane to fit Intermediates while Piastri took over a minute to free himself from the grass to drop to the back of the field.

Liam Lawson spun in identical fashion to Hadjar before him as Gabriel Bortoletto also found trouble at Turn 12 to bring the Safety Car out, with Ferrari the big losers as a strategy gamble to stay out on slicks backfired.

Leclerc was able to pass Hamilton at the Safety Car restart before later taking eighth from Gasly, but it was a bitterly disappointing start to the season for the Scuderia who would have expected much more than 5 points from the season opener.

The Safety Car allowed Piastri to rejoin the pack and gave the Australian a shot at points – a chance he took by passing Gasly two laps from the end, before an excellent move on Hamilton at Turn 9 on the last lap salvaged ninth and two World Championship points.

On a tough day for the Championship’s rookies with four of the six failing to finish, Kimi Antonelli kept his head save for one small spin at Turn 4 early race as he picked his way through to fourth on the road, and fifth overall courtesy of a post race penalty.

The Italian’s maturity stood out with passing moves Hulkenberg and Stroll particular highlights as he recovered well from a disappointing qualifying on Saturday.

Lando Norris will start the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from pole position.

The Brit beat McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by 0.081s as the pre-season favourites send out an ominous message to rest of the field.

2024 World Champion Max Verstappen will start third on the grid ahead of Mercedes rival George Russell, while it was a disappointing session for Lewis Hamilton and his new Ferrari team.

Hamilton will start only eighth having struggled with rear instability all session, but he’s only one spot behind teammate Charles Leclerc as two midfield teams usurped the Scuderia.

Alex Albon confirmed Williams’ solid pre season form with sixth place on the grid, behind Yuki Tsunoda and his Racing Bull in fifth.

Pierre Gasly for Alpine and Carlos Sainz’s Williams round out the top 10.

Q1: Top team rookies toil

The surprises didn’t end at Row Three.

Liam Lawson was qualifying for Red Bull for the first time after an 11-race, two-spell audition with their junior team and struggled on a torrid Saturday in what’s been dubbed Formula One’s toughest seat.

After losing the entire Saturday practice to an engine issue, Lawson struggled with the balance in a bitty qualifying session for the New Zealander.

He’ll start 18th after locking up at the penultimate corner, ahead of only the two Haases of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.

Lawson wasn’t the only well-fancied rookie to struggle, as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli could only manage 16th on Saturday.

The Italian has been all over the kerbs all weekend and after clouting them one too many times, damaged the bib on the underside of the car, which Mercedes believe cost him three tenths to teammate Russell on the straights.

Nico Hulkenberg, so often the star of qualifying last season, was the other driver out in Session One in his Sauber.

Q2: Hamilton spin effectively ends the session

The second session ended in anti-climactic fashion, as a spin from Hamilton right at the end brought out double-waved yellow flags to hamper a number of drivers.

One of those was the quietly impressive Jack Doohan, who was unlucky to line up 14th after being on track to be at least on the cusp of getting through the the final session in his Alpine.

It also ended the session of Fernando Alonso, who had fought with the leaders in session one but could only manage 12th in the Aston Martin, ahead of teammate Lance Stroll but behind Isack Hadjar, who backed up the improvement showed by Racing Bulls since testing.

Gabriel Bortoletto survived a scare to keep his Sauber out of the wall, but will start 15th after a good opening Saturday.

Q3: McLaren come good in the end

McLaren recovered from a scrappy start to the final session to snatch the front row away from the rest of the pack.

Norris had his first time deleted for track limits at Turn 6, while Piastri made a mess of the final sector to initially fall half a second behind the early pace.

Verstappen, cast in the unusual role of underdog with Red Bull far from the force they have been since 2022, had gone fastest ahead of late-2024 rival Russell.

The surprises in the final session were two-fold. Ferrari’s lack of pace was evident throughout the session as the Prancing Horse struggled with rear instability.

That manifested with Hamilton’s spin in Q2, and neither driver was anywhere near their early weekend pace as Leclerc could only manage seventh ahead of the seven-time champion.

That opened the door for two of the midfield’s strongest performers this weekend, with Albon initially deposing the Scuderia.

That before Tsunoda made his point to the Red Bull hierarchy having been passed over for the main team over the winter to nick 5th.

Lando Norris will start Sunday’s US Grand Prix on pole position, after Mercedes’ George Russell crashed at the end of the final qualifying session to  end Max Verstappen’s run at pole position.

The McLaren driver laid it all on the line early in Q3 to set a time of 1:32.330, 0.031s ahead of Verstappen on a weekend where the team haven’t been as imperious as previous weekends.

Russell’s crash at the fast Turn 19 a minute before the end of the session likely saved Norris’ pole, as both Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz looked likely to overhaul the Brit

Behind the front row it is Sainz who starts third ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, with the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri fifth.

Provided there’s no chassis damage to Russell’s car he’ll start sixth ahead of the impressive Pierre Gasly in the Alpine, while Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin eighth.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen will start ninth ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who lost his best time in Q3 to a track limits offence and couldn’t complete his final lap due to the yellow flags for the stricken Russell.

The first qualifying session saw one of the biggest shocks of the season so far as Lewis Hamilton was a surprise exit to qualify 19th quickest.

The seven-time World Champion lost almost half a second to a mistake at Turn 12 and crossed the line with a minute to spare, and not enough time to recharge his battery start another lap.

A dejected Hamilton joined the less surprising quartet of the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, with the Saubers of Valterri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu sandwiching the Brit.

The second qualifying session was somewhat more routine, with only the minor surprise of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas missing out on the top ten after mistakes on his final flying lap to start 12th.

The German had looked nailed on for the top ten before that, and was absolutely gutted on the team radio on his inlap.

Teammate Kevin Magnussen did squeeze through in tenth to outqualify Hulkenberg for the first time in 8 races, while Yuki Tsunoda was 11th despite a tow from teammate Liam Lawson, starting last after a host of engine penalties. The Kiwi proved his own point with third fastest in Q1, with Esteban Ocon 13th and Lance Stroll 14th.