His race engineer Gianpiero “GP” Lambiase called it “perfection.” His team principal Christian Horner called it “inspirational.” One rival called it “magical,” while another said that “nothing is a surprise anymore.”
In a career running out of superlatives, Max Verstappen’s performance at the Japanese Grand Prix left those around him searching for the best way to describe what they just witnessed, as he first took pole position and then captured his first win of the season.
Verstappen and Red Bull arrived in Suzuka facing more questions than answers. The team was third in the Constructors’ Championship race and made the early call to demote Liam Lawson and replace him with Yuki Tsunoda. As for Verstappen, despite sitting second in the Drivers’ Championship he was lacking “confidence” in the RB21, and practice sessions in Suzuka saw him off the pace set by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
But then came Saturday.
Verstappen delivered a thunderous lap in Q3 to take pole position in Suzuka, a lap reminiscent of his performance at the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix when he extracted every available millisecond out of his car, and every possible millimeter out of the track.
It was a performance that Fernando Alonso described as “magical” when the dust settled following qualifying.
“Only he can do it, only he can do it,” Alonso told Viaplay after the Red Bull driver seized pole position ahead of Norris by 0.012 seconds. “I think there is no other driver at the moment that can drive a car and put it so high, or higher than the car deserves.
“I think it was a magical moment for everyone here.”
Still, that McLaren duo loomed behind him. With Norris starting second and Piastri starting third, McLaren had options available to them to try and put the pressure on Verstappen in the Grand Prix itself.
They also had a car, the MCL39, that Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner called the “dominant” package on the grid just moments before lights out. Speaking with F1TV the Red Bull boss downplayed Verstappen’s chances at keeping that pair at bay, saying that would require “one hell of a job” from the driver.
Job, done.
Many will wonder if McLaren made the most of their situation. With two drivers in the top three, they perhaps could have tried to shake up the strategy a bit more between Norris and Piastri. They started both drivers on a set of medium tires, as the rain held off and the one-stop strategy seemed the preferred path for the teams.
They pitted Piastri first, a move that in the aftermath of the race was made to cover off George Russell behind them, rather than put pressure on Verstappen with an undercut in front of them. Then when they saw Verstappen dip into the pits on Lap 20, Norris followed rather than keep him on the track for an overcut.
What came next was perhaps Norris’ best chance to catch his rival, as the crew in his pit box put together a blazing stop, and Norris pulled out of his stall with a chance to beat Verstappen back onto the track. But the Red Bull driver held his line, Norris soon found himself in the grass, and Verstappen held onto his lead despite the slower stop:
While Norris was frustrated in the moment, speaking trackside after the race he described it as a “racing” incident.
“It’s racing, I think,” said Norris. “He was still ahead, it kind of squeezes into one, and Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space, you know, in a good way, in a racing way, so nothing more than that.”
That was when the door effectively slammed shut. Norris and Piastri tried in vain to chase him down, but the British driver never got within DRS range of Verstappen in front of him, and the Red Bull driver never made the mistake McLaren needed to open the door again.
Three grands prix, three different winners this season.
But from Verstappen, a performance that had those around him reaching for the superlatives again.
“I know how good he’s been since, you know, we shook hands back in 2015 or something—2014—and I was half the height I am now,” said Norris in the FIA Press Conference after the race. “So, you know, I don’t need people to tell me these things. And people seem shocked when I say I’m not surprised and stuff like that, but I know how good he is.
“I know what he’s capable of doing. So I would say nothing is a surprise anymore.”
As for Verstappen, when asked if his performance in Suzuka felt as special to him inside the car as it did to everyone else in the paddock, he conceded that was exactly the case.
“Yeah, it does,” began Verstappen. “I mean, it also means, I guess, that I really care, even though of course it’s not been the easiest start to the year for us.
“You know, we are not where we want to be in terms of performance. I think that’s no secret. But yeah, this weekend has been really, really nice.
“Sometimes you have those kind of moments where you get some really great laps out of it. And luckily, of course, also the balance got a bit more together throughout that qualifying,” continued Verstappen. “So yeah, we just have to keep on working. I mean it’s nice, but I’m a bit of a person—I don’t listen to the positives and the negatives. I’m just in the middle, you know. So I just focus on my own performances and yeah, just keep working, keep grinding.”
Verstappen may not listen to the positives and the negatives, but those around him certainly do.
And after a week like this in Japan, the positives are off the charts.
