F1
Oracle Red Bull Racing became F1 constructors' champions for a sixth time as Max Verstappen returned to winning ways in Japan, setting up match point for the drivers' title in Qatar.
1. Japan in exactly 74 words*
Oracle Red Bull Racing secured its sixth Formula One constructors' championship and second in succession, Max Verstappen comfortably winning the Japanese Grand Prix for the second year running to take his 13th victory in 16 Grands Prix this season. It was the team's 15th victory of the 2023 season. McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri rounded out the podium at Suzuka, Piastri's third place the first rostrum result of the Australian rookie's career.
* 2023 is the 74th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Japanese GP in six pics
3. Max makes amends, Checo's cruel luck
Verstappen came to Japan on a mission after his 10-race winning streak ended with a whimper last time out in Singapore, where he finished a muted fifth. How much of a mission was illustrated by his spectacular lap for pole position on Saturday, where his 1min 28.877sec stunner drew both internal and external praise. "We witnessed something very special today," said team principal Christian Horner, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was more succinct, calling Verstappen's effort "crazy" after the Dutchman improved by over a second from Q2.
In the race, once Verstappen had successfully repelled Piastri off the line and gone wheel-to-wheel with Norris into the first corner, it seemed a matter of how much the margin of victory would be, such was his speed advantage. To wit: he set the fastest lap of the race on Lap 39 with a time 1.064secs faster than anything any other driver could muster over the 53 laps. His eventual winning margin was 19.387secs.
Verstappen's championship lead is now 177 points; should he leave the following race weekend in Qatar in two weeks' time with an advantage of 146 points or more, he'll be a three-time world champion.
A source of more immediate celebration for the team in Japan – where Verstappen won his drivers' title a year ago – was a sixth teams' crown, adding to the titles won in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and again last year.
It was a tougher Japan weekend for Sergio Pérez, who qualified seven-tenths of a second adrift of his team-mate in fifth place, calling his Q3 lap "scrappy" after struggling with car balance around Suzuka's sweeping corners.
The Mexican ran into trouble immediately at the start, contact with Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes on the sprint to the first corner necessitating an unscheduled pit stop for a new front wing.
A five-second penalty for a safety car infringement added to his pain, and a further clash with Kevin Magnussen's Haas on Lap 12, as he came back through the field, saw him sustain further damage. He retired from the race on Lap 14, but re-joined on Lap 40 for two laps in order to serve a five-second penalty for the Magnussen incident, avoiding it carrying over to the next race in Qatar.
4. AlphaTauri pair just miss out
While Oracle Red Bull Racing had plenty to celebrate in Japan, it was a busy weekend for sister squad Scuderia AlphaTauri, too. On Saturday, the team announced that Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo would make up its 2024 driver line-up, Tsunoda addressing the adoring Japanese fans from the podium after the conformation of his fourth season with the team next year was announced.
Liam Lawson, who deputised for Ricciardo for the fourth straight race as the Australian recovers from a broken left hand, was confirmed as a 2024 reserve driver for both Red Bull teams at Suzuka, the New Zealander focusing on testing, simulator sessions and development work while attending all next year's races.
Tsunoda lined up ninth on the grid, his best qualifying effort in 10 races, while Lawson was edged out of Q3 by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso by 0.043secs to start from 11th.
The AlphaTauri team-mates scrapped it out in an entertaining opening-lap dice that saw them side-by-side for several corners, and there was little between them at the end of 53 laps, too – Lawson finishing 11th and Tsunoda 12th, but both outside of the points.
5. The number you need to know
0.581: In seconds, the gap Verstappen had over the rest of the field in qualifying in Japan, the biggest pole margin at Suzuka since Michael Schumacher way back in 2004 and the largest dry-weather qualifying gap of the 2023 season to date.
6. The word from the paddock
To win here was great, but the most important was to win the constructors' (championship). I'm very proud of everyone working here at the track, but also at the factory. We are having an incredible year. It was quite a straightforward race
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' championship top 5
Constructors' championship top 5
8. Away from the track
Before the Grand Prix, Max, Sergio, Yuki and Liam took part in the latest match-up in Red Bull's (Un)serious Race series. Being in Japan, the home of wacky games shows, this third episode of the series saw Oracle Red Bull Racing pitted against AlphaTauri with both teams set three game show-type challenges to complete.
Whichever team that won two of the three challenges set would start a final race with an advantage. Find out who came out top by watching the action unfold below:
Elsewhere: if you pitted an F1 car, a MotoGP bike, a rallycross car, a WRC car and an electric supervehicle, the Ford SuperVan 4.2, in a drag race, who would win?
Find out the answer in the Ultimate Race, where we find out which vehicle is quickest on a quarter-mile (400-metre) drag strip at a remote airfield location – and with F1 driver Lawson, MotoGP legend Dani Pedrosa, WRX champ Timmy Hansen, WRC driver Adrien Fourmaux and Le Mans winner Romain Dumas at the controls, there's no holding back.
9. Where to next and what do I need to know?
Round 17 (Qatar), October 6-8
Circuit name/location: Lusail International Circuit, Doha
Length/laps: 5.380km, 57 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 1, 2021
Most successful driver: Lewis Hamilton (one win)
Most successful team: Mercedes (one win)
2022: Race not held
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Sébastien Ogier is one competitive beast – you don't become an eight-time World Rally Championship title-winner without that trait – which is why his retirement from the penultimate stage of the Acropolis Rally earlier this month stung. But the Frenchman still found plenty of positives from his display in Greece, both behind the wheel and out of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
Catch up with Seb's latest exclusive blog where he talks about speed, bad luck and his season so far – and pays tribute to the Greek fans and event organisers after the country endured some tough times recently with wildfires, storms and floods.
