F1 News: Verstappen holds off McLarens to win Japanese GP

Defending World Champion Max Verstappen, driving the inferior #1 Red Bull Honda, was under intense pressure from the superior McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri the entire race, but never put a wheel wrong and won the 2025 Japanese GP at Suzuka.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen, who put in one of the greatest laps ever to win pole in an inferior car, held off the #4 McLaren Norris by just 1.423s to win a record 4-straight Japanese GPs breaking the 3-straight record he was tied with Michael Schumacher.

Lap after lap the Red Bull and the two McLarens pounded around the purest drivers track in the world, distancing themselves from the rest.

As the laps wound down all three drivers – Verstappen, Norris and Piastri – were putting in personal best times as the two McLaren drivers tried to get within DRS range of the Dutchman, but Verstappen was driving the wheels off the Red Bull, matching whatever lap times Norris threw at him from behind.

The gap fluctuated between 2.5 and 1.1 seconds, but never got below 1-second the entire 53 laps, the Dutchman properly schooling the Brit and the Australian.

Verstappen has the best pole to win conversion rate in F1 history (80%) when analyzing any driver that has more than one victory.

For reference, Fernando Alonso’s conversion rate is 63% and Lewis Hamilton’s is 58%.

“It was tough, pushing very hard,” said a happy Verstappen, who won his 64th F1 race.

“The two McLarens were pushing me very hard so was a lot of fun out there. I’m incredibly happy. It started out tough this weekend, but we didn’t give up, kept improving the car and starting on pole, could win the race.

“It is important to maximize your performance, and we did that very well this weekend.

“[Suzuka] means a lot to me. I knew I needed to try and stay ahead, in our final farewell race to Honda in Japan. This is the perfect send off.”

“I guess we just lost out yesterday,” said Norris. “Max drove a good race today, made no mistakes. A flat out race from start to finish, so it was tough but there was nothing we could get Max on.

“[The pit lane incident] was racing. Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space, in a good way, in a racing way.

“They deserved it this weekend. They are quick, they have been catching up and as a team, we didn’t have enough this weekend so we need to work hard.”

Oscar Piastri brought the #81 McLaren home in third, right behind Norris and 2.129s behind Verstappen.

“The pace today was really, really good,” said Piastri. “I was happy with that, but the track position around here is so important. I think yesterday was the day you effectively won the race, and I didn’t do a good enough job.

“The pace was mega, I just need to make sure I’m in a better position to use it.”

Charles Leclerc finished where he started, in 4th, in his #16 Ferrari, 16.097s behind Verstappen.

George Russell rounded out the top-5 for Mercedes and ahead of his teammate Kimi Antonelli in 6th, 18.671s behind Verstappen in the rain-free and caution-free race.

Lewis Hamilton was 7th in the #44 Ferrari, while Isack Hadjar, Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman rounded out the top-10.

Hadjar might have lost out to Hamilton, but he didn’t really put a foot wrong and came home ‘best of the rest’ to pick up his first F1 points today.

Yuki Tsunoda took P12 on his Red Bull debut, a result that the Japanese racer will perhaps be unhappy with after failing to score points, though he did still earn the Driver of the Day accolade from the fans.

Verstappen closed to within 1-point in the World Championship standings heading to round 4 in Bahrain next weekend.

Japan was the first part of a triple-header, so the teams do not have much time to sort anything out before Bahrain next weekend.

Saudi Arabia follows that, by which point the pecking order should start to become clearer.

2025 Japanese GP Results – 53 Laps