Four Suzuka Clean Sweeps For Max Verstappen

Following on from his fourth consecutive Suzuka pole, Max Verstappen also made it four straight Japanese Grand Prix wins in a row. It was a triumphant weekend for the four-time world champion, who has been totally dominant on Saturday and again on Sunday at this track over all four years with the current generation of cars. 

Today was the Dutchman’s 64th career win, Red Bull’s eighth in Japan, and the 123rd overall for the Christian Horner-led team. McLaren could celebrate a double podium with Lando Norris second and Oscar Piastri third, with the English team’s podium total in this race now up to 29. Andrea Kimi Antonelli set two new records today when he took the chequered flag in sixth place. He knocked Max Verstappen off the top of the tables for the youngest driver to ever lead a Grand Prix and to set the race’s fastest lap.

15 drivers, all on the top eight rows, lined up on the starting grid having chosen the Medium for the opening stint. The only exception was Hamilton, who opted for the Hard. On the back two rows, the places were split between Hard and Soft: Ocon and Bortoleto chose the C1, Stroll and Doohan the C3. Almost the entire field made just the one stop, the quickest strategic option according to analysis of Friday’s data.

The Hard compound was the near-universal choice for the second stint, although Sainz and Lawson ran the race without using the hardest tyres, going for a Medium-Soft strategy instead. Stroll was the only driver to run all three compounds. The longest stint of all came courtesy of Doohan, who ran a set of Hards for 38 laps, while Sainz and Lawson went all the way to lap 33 on the Medium before pitting.

Max Verstappen – P1

“We couldn’t have wished for a better result today in our final race with Honda here together. It’s been amazing and I’m really proud of what we have done this weekend. We made all of the right calls during the race, were constantly pushing and our tyres weren’t overheating so much due to the colder tyre temperature which helped us. Yesterday was a beautiful day for us and the key to the win was to start from pole. We maximised everything we could and to follow this up with the win is fantastic. We know our limitations and still have work to do. We are just finding where we can push the car to the limit and need to maximise everything that we can to get the best out of the car and make it more balanced. Finally, this is a perfect send off for Honda and our relationship is something I will never forget. I’ve enjoyed my time with them and how they work: they are so professional and dedicated and they have given me so much. Together to win four Drivers’ Championships and two Constructors’ Championships is unbelievable. It did cross my mind whilst driving that it would be insane to win here today and at a home track for Honda, so that gave me a bit of motivation as well. It’s a proper send off and we couldn’t have wished for a better weekend.”

Lando Norris – P2

“A tough race today, it was flat-out from start to finish but the pace was too similar to do anything. Max drove a good race with no mistakes, and it ultimately came down to Qualifying positions today. It’s still been a very good weekend for the team securing more points together, but we will continue to work hard as we head to the next one in Bahrain.”

Oscar Piastri – P3

“A good haul of points and a nice result for the team. I think the pace today was really good and I was very happy with that. We got close for the overtake a few times, but track position around here is just so important. I think yesterday was the day where you effectively won the race, and we just didn’t put it all together, so I’ll absolutely take the podium. We go to Bahrain with a lot of positives, and ready to challenge again.”

Christian Horner – Red Bull Racing Team Principal

“What a race! An imperious drive from the front secured a fourth consecutive win at Suzuka for Max, the Team and of course our engine partners Honda who we owe a debt of thanks and gratitude for their support over the years. In reality though the hard work was done yesterday. It has to be one of the best weekend’s of Max’s career, one that further underlines Max as the best in the world currently. Suzuka is a driver’s circuit and boy did Max deliver. Equally, credit has to go to the engineering Team as well for turning things upside down after Friday and pushing together to get the job done. It was a solid performance for Yuki. The nature of the race meant overtaking was hard to come by throughout, but he made some ground and will only improve as he continues to settle into the Team the next few races.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport   

“When the top six on the grid take the chequered flag in the very same order, it’s easy to characterise the race as boring. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say we witnessed the most thrilling show in the sport’s history, there was still some close racing. You only have to look at the top three, separated by just 44 thousandths in qualifying and then finishing within two seconds of each other in the race. “After a fairly cautious first part, especially through the first sector, the most demanding from a tyre perspective, in the second part, all the drivers pushed all the way to the end. In fact, 14 of the 20 drivers set their fastest lap in the final five laps. It’s worth noting that Antonelli’s time of 1’30”965 was 2”741 quicker than last year’s fastest race lap, set by Verstappen, which shows just how much the performance has improved compared to 2024. “On a track where thermal degradation has traditionally played a major role, today we saw virtually no drop in lap time performance with the Hard and Medium compounds, even over long stints. That was down to the low ambient and track temperatures, actually the lowest recorded at Suzuka since 2011. The other contributory factor is the improvements brought to the 2025 tyre range, specifically aimed at reducing this type of wear. Another of our technical objectives was to limit graining and today, even with these low temperatures, we saw almost no signs of this issue across the field.”