Max Verstappen’s trusted race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, known across the paddock as GP and the man on the end of multiple rants and rebukes from the four-time F1 world champion for nearly a decade, is not one for excessive superlatives.
Such is his job, now Head of Racing at Red Bull, he has to keep a cool head amidst an often chaotic grand prix weekend, which is precisely why his reaction to Verstappen’s pole-setting lap in qualifying for the Japanese GP on Saturday was so noteworthy.
GP’s statement was simple: “That is insane,” he said to his driver over team radio. It set up Verstappen’s first win of the season, as he looks to become only the second man – after Michael Schumacher – to win five consecutive F1 world championships.
It was not in the script, either. McLaren, whether it be Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, had led throughout the weekend practice sessions. The Australian was on provisional pole after the first flying laps in Q3, while the Briton looked set for the top of the timesheet after he put a brilliant lap together in his second run.
But Verstappen’s lap, beating Norris’s time by 0.012 seconds with a 1:26:983 – a new lap record around Suzuka – was not just brilliant. It was a scintillating 87 seconds of on-the-limit driving.
His final sector, in particular, was where he made it count, making up a two-tenths-of-a-second deficit. In F1 terms, that is substantial. With speeds between the two cars similar around the high-speed 130R left-hander, it effectively means Verstappen perfected the tricky final chicane – wrestling with the RB21 through the eye of a needle – before steering the car flawlessly close to the wall for maximum time.
"I was fully committed on the final lap,” he admitted afterwards. “At points, not sure if I was going to keep it [on the track]. If you look at how our season started, even this weekend, it is very unexpected and that makes it a very special one."
Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso, 43 and typically tough to impress, was eulogising over the Red Bull driver’s display. “Only he can do it,” Alonso said. “I think there is no other driver at the moment that can drive a car and put it so high. Higher than the car deserves.
“I think it was a magical moment for everyone here.”
From then, in the knowledge that if he retained the lead at ...
