Max Verstappen regained the pleasure of victory in Japan and Carlos Sainz confirmed that he plans to fight in his farewell to Ferrari. The driver from Madrid, third in Suzuka, was once again the best in the “rest of the world that is not Red Bull”, and has decided to settle on the podium. In three races that he has run, he has been in the box three times.
For his part, Fernando Alonso, with a good strategy and once again using his old fox wisdom, achieved a creditable sixth place, beating the two Mercedes and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
The clean start in the front positions, without changes in the positions, was tumultuous in the caboose, where Albon and Ricciardo had an accident when they touched each other laterally and went off the track in turn 2. Both crashed into the protection wall, Albon’s Williams and the Australian’s RB were buried by the tires, but neither driver suffered damage.
Due to the damage to the protective fences and the need to extract the cars, a red flag was declared, that is, suspension of the race and restart from the grid. The race was stopped for 26 minutes.
In the second start, the front positions were also maintained, with the only change being Leclerc (7th) who overtook Hamilton (8th), given that the Englishman had fitted a hard tire on the grid. The others faced the remaining 50 laps from their starting positions: Verstappen in the lead, with Pérez as squire, Norris behind, Sainz fourth and Alonso fifth.
Verstappen started to leave very early on. On lap 7/53, a slight departure from the track by Pérez was reason enough for the Dutchman to open a 2.3-second gap over the Mexican.
As the laps went by and the tires deteriorated, the two Ferraris pushed the two McLarens, who were suffering with the means. Sainz was pushing Norris for third place, while Leclerc was pushing Piastri for sixth.
The Madrid driver from Ferrari rose to third position (v. 12) when his English friend from McLaren went out to change tires, with the mid-range wheels melted. He had a clear track from the Spaniard, with Pérez 4 seconds behind. Alonso, on the rebound, also climbed one place, fourth, although with soft tires he would not take long to change tires. He did it on lap 14 and started 8th, ahead of Magnussen.
The movements took place in the front positions. Sainz and Pérez stopped (v. 16) and the Mexican lost position with Norris. It did little for Verstappen, who was able to maintain first position safe from the undercut of the McLaren, which was virtual second.
Sainz, who could not lose ground if he wanted the podium, had fallen behind Hamilton after the pit-stop and was able to regain his position by overtaking the Mercedes (v. 19) to reconnect with Norris and Pérez.
Fernando Alonso also benefited from the disaster of the two Mercedes with the hard drivers, who was able to overtake Hamilton and surpass Russell. The Asturian grew to sixth position (v. 23/53).
Pérez, with softer and younger tires than the McLaren, regained the position from Norris and Leclerc (who had not changed his medium tires) to once again be second behind his leader.
One of the most exciting plays was the pit-stop alongside Leclerc and Norris (v. 27) to put on the hard ones. A maneuver in which the Ferrari gained position over the McLaren, 6th and 7th, respectively. So Sainz – who should stop again – rose again to provisional third position.
Starting on lap 34, with 20 left to go, the second stops were rushed, as indicated in the strategy script. Pérez and Alonso stopped at 34, Verstappen at 35 and Sainz at 37. The Spaniard, who fell to provisional 7th place, should overtake the two Mercedes, Norris and Leclerc to regain the podium.
The Madrid native overtook Hamilton on the track while Russell went out to change tires; two positions less. He was already 5th with 14 laps remaining. He had his friend Norris and Leclerc in front of him.
With 10 laps to go, Sainz overtook Norris without problems. Superior with fresher tires, the Spaniard gave a good account of the McLaren and went after Leclerc, his last obstacle to the podium. He had his teammate 2.1 seconds behind, and 9 laps ahead. “We are competing with Norris,” they reminded Leclerc on the radio. To clarify the situation.
In just two laps he jumped on top of his teammate, whom he unceremoniously overtook to take third position. He then had Pérez 9 seconds behind, with six laps ahead. He wouldn’t reach it, but no one was going to take the podium away from him: Chili has settled into the box, third in the three races he has finished. And in the World Cup he is only 4 points behind third place, which is occupied by his teammate Leclerc.
Sainz expressed his satisfaction in the official FIA prepodium interview, conducted by Mark Webber. “I had a good race, I’m very happy because it was hard with the tire degradation. Overtaking is always difficult at Suzuka. I thought it was going to be difficult to get back to third position. I felt very good with the hard tire and I was able to push,” commented the man from Madrid.
“Three podiums in three races is something to be happy about. It seemed that everything was getting complicated for me and that I was going to finish fourth or fifth, but in the last stint I was able to overtake Lando and Charles. Red Bull was a few tenths ahead, but the positive “It’s that we are closer than last year. We can fight a little more, we can advance,” he later pointed out to Dazn’s microphone.
