If anything was clear at the Japanese Grand Prix, it’s who’s in charge. Max Verstappen showed Lando Norris who the champion is in Japan with a convincing demonstration of how to win a race and how much the Englishman still has to learn and improve to compete.
It was a clean race, but with an intense moment between the two drivers. After the only pit stops for Verstappen and Norris, they both went almost parallel out of the pits, with Norris losing traction as his right tires passed over the grass. At that moment they both argued with their mechanics about whose fault it was, although they later played down the incident, or not…
Verstappen and his recital in Japan
Max Verstappen and Red Bull revived the race by dominating from start to finish (or from Q3 to the race) to take the victory that everyone had assumed would go to McLaren. The Dutchman showed that hardly any of his rivals have his quality and, with a supposedly inferior car, he kept the two McLarens, that of the British driver Lando Norris, second, and that of the Australian Oscar Piastri, third, at bay for 53 laps.
A large part of the world champion’s victory in the third grand prix of the year was cemented by his first place on the starting grid on Saturday on the narrow and difficult Suzuka track. Max had not won since the penultimate race last year, in Qatar, in December.
Lando Norris, who finished second, was unable to trouble Max throughout the GP. The New Zealander stole first place from the “papaya” in qualifying, and there was no way to get him out of there. The Red Bull is a worse car, but Verstappen is a much better driver, as he demonstrated on Sunday.
Norris is fed up of hearing compliments about Verstappen
The McLaren driver got fed up with the number of questions from journalists about Max Verstappen’s victory in the Japanese Grand Prix. “I am often asked if Max surprises me when he does something like he did on Saturday or a race like he did on Sunday. Maybe people expect me to say yes, but I don’t know why. It’s never going to be like that. I have a lot of respect for Max, but when you’re in the car and you’re driving you know what’s good and what’s not good. I don’t need anyone to tell me what Max is capable of or whether I think one thing or the other.
“I have my opinion, I have a respect, I know what he is capable of since we first greeted each other in 2014 or 2015. That he was half the age he is now. I don’t need people to keep telling me these things and for people to be surprised when I say I’m not surprised and things like that. I know how good he is, I know what he’s capable of. Nothing comes as a surprise anymore. But I think we’re going to have good races and that we can fight wheel to wheel, and some days he’ll finish in front and other times I’ll be in front,” said Norris.