Suzuka - the build up
This years Japan Grand Prix will see Max Verstappen start from pole position with the Dutchman looking to regain his preferred place on the top step of the podium. Following earlier sessions it looks like his closest challengers will be McLaren, with Piastri starting second and his teammate, Norris, following close behind him in third. So far in his career, Verstappen hasn’t led a dry lap in Suzuka, could that all change today?
Sargent had a shunt in Q1, which gave his team lots of work to do to get his car ready for the race; this will mean he will start from the pit lane. He will also incur a 10 second time penalty for parc-ferme infringements as his mechanics were still making changes to his car after the permitted time allowed.
The lights go out
Verstappen got a good start from the line, covering off both McLarens to maintain his lead. Just behind Norris was able to jump his teammate off the line and make his way up into P2.
Chaos ensued further down the order with multiple incidents at turn 1. It started with Hamiton, Perez and the two Ferraris; the cars somehow managed to drive four-abreast down the pit straight, heading into turn one this was always going to end in some kind of incident. Hamilton was on the receiving end of some contact from Perez which resulted in damage for both of them.
There was also some contact between Albon and Bottas that sent the Williams driver into the air momentarily, this was caused by Ocon moving wide, putting Bottas into the path of Albon and then Zhou.
I've been hit by Perez
So Alex, I think floor damage in the range of 1-2 turns rebalancing
The early laps
All the drama at the start didn’t stop any of the racing, with the Alpha Tauris of Tsunoda and Lawson fighting all the way through lap 1 until the safety car was called out because of debris on the track. Perez, Bottas, Ocon, Zhou and Albon all made their way to the pits because of damage they had from the turn 1 incident. Despite running with some damage from his clash with Perez, Hamilton stayed out on track.
On his way to the pitlane Perez had made his way past some cars before reaching the safety car line in the pit lane. The race was under safety car rules at this point, and passing these care was a clear infringement of the rules and a swift investigation by the stewards saw Perez hit with a 5 second penalty.
As the race continued Verstappen extended his advantage over Norris and Piastri; the Dutchman was looking confident once again at the front of the field.
Further down the track there was a collision between Bottas and Sargent, with the American colliding into the Alfa Romeo driver and sending him spinning into the gravel, causing both drivers to return to the pitlane for a second time. This incident triggered another stewards investigation and Sargeant was hit with a 5 second time penalty. Unfortunately Bottas seemed to be the one that suffered the most as his car became ‘undriveable’ and he was forced to retire.
What the f**k
Come lap 11 there was a 3.6 second lead out front that Verstappen had created from Norris. There was another 3.8 second gap to Norris’ teammate behind.
Behind them, the two Mercedes drivers had begun to battle each other, with Russell diving past his teammate through the final chicane, however Hamilton made his way back through to P6 on the pit straight with the help of DRS.
Who do we want to fight here, each other or the others?
More misery for Perez
After a disastrous start, Perez was beginning to make his way through the field but his good progress was halted on lap 12 when he tried to get the better of Magnussen at the hairpin. He took a risk that didn’t pay off, diving too late down the inside. He caught the rear wheel of the Haas car, making it spin around and also causing himself significant front wing damage. A VSC was called out to clear the debris, and Perez once again found himself heading to the pit lane.
Does the car...Does Perez have a problem? Because he's going very slowly.
This VSC worked out spectacularly for Piastri, who had come into the pits just as the VSC came into effect. This meant the time loss for his pit stop was minimised, so the Aussie headed out in P9. The VSC ended before Verstappen and Norris were able to take advantage which was another huge bonus for Piastri, could this give him the lead of the race?
It's all too much for Perez
On lap 15 Perez was called into the pitlane to retire his car. His car had suffered significant damage from multiple shunts. Once in the pitlane his mechanics wheeled him into the garage.
The race leader, Verstappen, pitted on lap 17 and put on a new set of medium tyres. He returned to the track three seconds ahead of Piastri, with Norris just a short way up the road but a pitstop down. Norris pitted on the next lap, allowing Verstappen to retake the lead, however more interestingly Norris came out behind his teammate Piastri. The undercut and the VSC had worked very well for Piastri with the Australian now attempting to chase down the Red Bull for the race lead.
The Mercedes drivers were fighting out in front and there was an incident with Russell forcing Hamilton outside of the track during some hard racing, this caused the team to pit Hamilton so they wouldn’t waste time fighting each other. With Toto Wolff absent from the track this weekend, was there a lack of discipline within the team?
More retirements
Perez’s retirement seemed to trigger a few more in short succession. Lance Stroll retired on lap 22 because of some mechanical issues with the car. Sargent became the next car to retire on lap 25. On the same lap, Russell finally pitted and came out in P9 – just behind Alonso and Ocon, once again he was looking to catch up with his teammate.
The longer I spend behind now, the worse you're gonna make the race for me so....
What are you...what's he doing? Like I'm way quicker, I'm just in dirty air.
A big surprise came on lap 27, with Perez climbing back into his car – could he be looking to head back out to the race track?
Shortly afterwards Albon was heading to the pits to retire; another fatality from the first lap drama.
On the race track the cars behind Verstappen were running in two-by-two formation: Norris and Piastri in the McLarens, Leclerc and Sainz in the Ferrari cars, Hamilton and Russell in the Mercs and finally Ocon and Gasly in the Alpines.
During his time in the garage the Red Bull team had been in contact with the FIA. They had discovered that as he had not fully served the penalties issued during this race, they could potentially be carried over to the race in Qatar in the form of grid penalties. To prevent this from happening the team decided to restart the car and send him back out on track. By this time he was multiple laps down, and his car was slow as a result of the damage sustained, but by sending him out on track long enough to serve his penalties, he would start with a clean slate next time out.
Perez re-joined the race on lap 41. On lap 42 he was called to the pitlane where he served his time penalties before heading back to the track. On lap 43 he was called back to the pitlane where they retired the car for a second time.
It's all about the team game
Out front Verstappen had a dominant lead, but behind him the two-by-two formations were causing some issues. Norris and Piastri had already inverted earlier in the race, following race orders.
The two mercs had also had their earlier battle, but this resurfaced again on lap 49 with Russell being given the order to let his team mate by. He didn’t have the pace Hamilton had as he was on older tyres and the team needed to secure the strongest possible finish
Yeah, we're going to lose both these positions.
Russell let Hamilton by but had to do so carefully as Sainz was lurking behind looking to take advantage. Hamilton stayed close in front of Russell to try to help him retain DRS, making it harder for Sainz to make a move stick, but Russell’s tyres were too far gone and Sainz was soon sailing by.
Earlier in the race team orders had also been brought into play at Alpine. After a pitstop Gasly had been given the green-light to pass his team mate Ocon; he was on fresher tyres and had more potential for the team to maximise points.
Come the end of the race Gasly was running in ninth and Ocon in tenth. On the penultimate lap the team radioed Gasly and requested that he switch positions with Ocon, to allow him back through. Gasly was clearly frustrated and perplexed at the request but on the final lap he duly obliged and pulled to one side.
Wait, what the...? You're kidding me? What are you saying? Like, I was faster....Are you serious?
The championship was sealed
In the end Verstappen won comfortably, and even though Perez’s race had been an unmitigated disaster, the team had still secured enough points to seal the constructors title for 2023. Given their dominance this season it was only a matter of time really, though perhaps Perez will be keen to wipe all traces of this weekend from his memory…
As with every race in Japan, this year there was a lot going on. Heading in to Qatar in a few weeks, with a sprint race on the cards it will be interesting to see how the internal wranglings of all the team orders this weekend will play out.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Verstappen |
Red Bull |
1:30:58-421 |
26 |
|
2 |
Lando Norris |
McLaren |
+19.387 |
18 |
|
3 |
Oscar Piastri |
McLaren |
+36.494 |
15 |
|
4 |
Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari |
+43.998 |
12 |
|
5 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
+49.376 |
10 |
|
6 |
Carlos Sainz |
Ferrari |
+50.221 |
8 |
|
7 |
George Russell |
Mercedes |
+57.659 |
6 |
|
8 |
Fernando Alonso |
Aston Martin |
+74.725 |
4 |
|
9 |
Esteban Ocon |
Alpine |
+79.678 |
2 |
|
10 |
Pierre Gasly |
Alpine |
+83.155 |
1 |
|
11 |
Liam Lawson |
AlphaTauri |
+ 1 lap |
– |
|
12 |
Yuki Tsunoda |
AlphaTauri |
+ 1 lap |
– |
|
13 |
Guanyu Zhou |
Alfa Romeo |
+ 1 lap |
– |
|
14 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Haas |
+ 1 lap |
– |
|
15 |
Kevin Magnussen |
Haas |
+ 1 lap |
– |
|
DNF |
Alexander Albon |
Williams |
– |
– |
|
DNF |
Logan Sargeant |
Williams |
– |
– |
|
DNF |
Lance Stroll |
Aston Martin |
– |
– |
|
DNF |
Sergio Perez |
Red Bull |
– |
– |
|
DNF |
Valtteri Bottas |
Alfa Romeo |
– |
– |
2022 F1 Course Layout, Japan
Image by Willtron, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).