SUZUKA, 24 Sep: Max Verstappen survived a dramatic first lap then coasted to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday to move a step closer to securing his third consecutive Formula One championship.
\nThe Red Bull driver, who missed out on the podium a week ago in Singapore, started from pole and held on for his 13th win of the season.
\nWith Verstappen\u2019s victory, Red Bull secured the constructors\u2019 title, their sixth overall and second in a row. They did it with six races remaining.
\n\u201cWhat an unbelievable season we are having,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cYou can all be very proud here at the track and back at the factory. You guys built a rocket ship of a car, well done.\u201d
\nMcLaren driver Lando Norris was second, 19.4 seconds back of Verstappen, while his teammate Australian rookie Oscar Piastri was third for his first F1 podium.
\nVerstappen, who also secured a point for the fastest lap, increased his lead over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to 177 points. He could wrap up his third consecutive title at the Oct. 6-8 Qatar Grand Prix.
\nThe race got off to a thrilling start with Verstappen, Piastri and Norris going wheel-to-wheel but the Red Bull driver held his lead through the first two turns.
\nVerstappen commented on the excitement at the start.
\n\u201cLuckily nothing happened,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cIt all got quite close but that\u2019s racing, that\u2019s how it goes at the start. And then of course you had a good battle into Turn 1 and Turn 2, I was lucky there (was) a bit more grip in Turn 2. \u201c
\nIt was a disastrous day for Perez, who was given a penalty for hitting Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and retired from the race after serving the penalty.
\nThe Mexican driver won in Saudi Arabia in March and Azerbaijan in April but has struggled since.
\nVerstappen saw his record 10-race winning streak come to end at Marina Bay in Singapore and came to Japan determined to get back on top of the podium. Prior to Sunday\u2019s race, he led every session at the fast Suzuka circuit, where he wrapped up last year\u2019s championship in a rain-shortened race.
\nConditions on Sunday were ideal and Verstappen took full advantage.
\nThe safety car came out on the first lap when Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas made contact with another car resulting in debris on the track. Verstappen was able to quickly retake the lead after his first pit stop and was never seriously challenged.
\nFerrari driver Charles Leclerc was fourth followed by Mercedes\u2019 Lewis Hamilton.
\nA battle between the McLaren drivers was ultimately won by Norris. The Briton got ahead of Piastri at the start, dropping behind after the rookie pitted under a virtual safety car then producing enough pace to swap positions.
\n\u201cThe progress we\u2019ve made is pretty outstanding,\u201d said Norris who was also second in Singapore. \u201cWe\u2019re coming for Red Bull.\u201d
\nIt was a memorable result for a Piastri with the 22-year-old driver just signing a contract with McLaren until the end of 2026.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a pretty special week,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cObviously with the announcement of the extension and then qualifying on the front row and the first podium today it\u2019s definitely been a fun week.\u201d
\nLast week\u2019s winner Carlos Sainz Jr. finished sixth for Ferrari, ahead of George Russell in the other Mercedes. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SUZUKA, 24 Sep: Max Verstappen survived a dramatic first lap then coasted to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday to move a step closer to securing his third consecutive Formula One championship. The Red Bull driver, who missed out on the podium a week ago in Singapore, started from pole and held on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-224831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}