Max Verstappen held off the two McLarens throughout the Japanese Grand Prix to clinch his first Formula 1 victory of 2025, crossing the line with a 1.4-second advantage.
The Red Bull driver capitalised on his impressive qualifying run to put together a controlled drive at the front of the order, ensuring that he did not wilt under the scrutiny from the two McLarens behind - as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could not prise open a chance to pass Verstappen.
Verstappen pulled a two-plus-second gap over Norris in the opening laps to ward off any early threats under DRS, and did not respond to McLaren's apparent dummy call for Norris to pit - as engineer Will Joseph suggested his driver could "box to overtake", but the Briton subsequently stayed out.
McLaren tried to force a response by stopping Piastri at the end of the 20th lap, and Verstappen did indeed pit - but Norris followed him into the pitlane. The McLaren pit crew found a second on its Red Bull counterparts in the box, putting Verstappen and Norris level at the exit, but Norris did not have space to go two-wide on the exit and ran across the grass.
His attempt to draw the stewards' attention on the radio did not come to pass as the incident was waved off, leaving his only opportunity of securing a second win of 2025 to come with an on-track overtake.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
But, over the following 30 laps, Norris was unable to find a way to get within DRS range of Verstappen, and could only match the Red Bull driver for pace. This left McLaren with a quandary, as Piastri was happily sitting within a second of Norris and angling for a switch in positions.
McLaren did not elect to pull the trigger despite Piastri's better pace, which left Verstappen untouched in front; the orange cars were left to flank the four-time champion on the podium.
Charles Leclerc clinched fourth place, preserving his grid position to beat the Mercedes duo; although the earlier-stopping George Russell got to within 1.2s of the Ferrari driver by the end, he was unable to find any further ground on the Monegasque despite offering early pressure. Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed sixth with a long medium-tyre stint, and finished a further 1.3s behind his more experienced team-mate.
Lewis Hamilton's contra-strategy, starting on the hard tyres, paid off to some degree with seventh, having gained a position on rookie Isack Hadjar - who scored his ...
