Max Verstappen has scored some spectacular Grand Prix wins over his stellar career, but his 64th success was something special.
At times over the Japanese GP weekend it looked like Red Bull had the fourth fastest car, and Verstappen was clearly not happy with it.
However, he worked away at improving it with his engineer, and when it mattered in Q3 he banged in a perfect lap to surprise even himself and his team to pip the McLarens to pole.
Not for the first time he had flattered his car and squeezed out a lap time that probably no one else could have found. And on this occasion pole proved to be even more valuable than thought at the time.
As of Saturday there was still a suggestion that rain could have an impact on the race, which could have added an element on uncertainty. In the end it fizzled out in the morning and the track was dry throughout the afternoon.
And in such conditions pole at Suzuka is almost as important as it is at Monaco – if Verstappen could stay in front on the first lap, there was a decent chance he could remain there for the duration. And that’s how it turned out.
“What a great race, an incredible race for Max,” said team boss Christian Horner after the flag. “I think the majority of the hard work was done yesterday. When you look at, I guess 90% of the cars finished in the order that they started in. But it was a flat out sprint race today. There was very low degradation.
“We know the McLarens are very, very fast, and it needed Max to be inch perfect with two very fast McLarens right behind him. And for 53 laps, he made not a single mistake, and had the pace to cover them, keep them out of his DRS.
“He was particularly strong in Turn 11 and the last corner to keep that vital second gap, and had enough to cover whatever they could throw at us today.”
That 0.012s advantage over Norris was invaluable.
“It was absolutely inch perfect,” said Horner. “If you look at the overlays between him and Lando, you can see that they’re absolutely neck and neck. There’s tiny bits in it. Lando was good in Turn 6. Max was very strong in Degner One, in Turn 11 [the hairpin] Max again was strong there. Lando, a little bit better in Spoon.
“But the differentiator at the end of it came down to the last chicane. And he absolutely nailed the last chicane. And that was just enough.
“But it was in a car that the theoreticals were behind McLaren’s fastest lap. Max extracted every ounce of performance. McLaren didn’t get that obviously, yesterday. So that was the difference.”
Strategy was the one card that the McLaren could play to get ahead. Piastri pitted first from third place, and then Norris followed Verstappen in on the same lap. Despite Lando’s best efforts at the pit exit, they left in the same order.
“It was clear that pit stops were approaching,” said Horner. “McLaren elected to pit Oscar first. But prior to that, they called a dummy with Lando. That really to us didn’t make any sense, because he would just come out in traffic.
“So we stuck to our guns. We didn’t react to the dummy. They then pitted Oscar, and it was clear that they were going to pit Lando the following lap. So it was then a matter of covering Lando.
“We didn’t have a totally clean pit stop. We’ve got a reserve crew with two members missing this weekend, and Lando got close-ish at the exit, but it never looked alongside or anything like that.
“And thereafter, on the hard tyre for 30-odd laps Max had the pace to cover whatever McLaren could throw at us, and at different times. One minute it was Lando, the next minute, Oscar looked very quick. But as you could see, overtaking throughout the field was almost negligible.”
Horner acknowledged that juggling the interests of both drivers is not easy for McLaren, and potentially helps RBR.
“I guess the problem they have is they have two drivers that are fighting for the drivers’ championship. And I guess the difficulty they have is that they’ve made a bed where they’re going to let them race. That’s the compromise that inevitably comes with that.”
When I asked if even among his many wins this was one of Verstappen’s best performances across qualifying and the race, Horner agreed that it was.
“I think that’s one of Max’s best weekends that he’s had. We literally turned the car upside down set-up wise, he’s worked very hard with the engineering team.
“Finally, we were able to give him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday, with the most stunning lap, and then convert that today in a hard fought victory in a straight fight.
“It puts him one point behind in the in the drivers’ championship. So we leave Japan still with plenty of work to do, but huge motivation.”
Along with getting second driver Yuki Tsunoda fully up to speed the other challenge that Red Bull faces is trying to start the weekend with the RB21 in a good place for Verstappen, rather than spend three practice sessions largely on experimentation.
It does potentially plant doubts about the simulation tools that the team uses when deciding the initial set-up of the car on a Friday.
“Inevitably, those questions always get asked, and the biggest sensor that you have in the car is the driver,” said Horner. “And I think all credit to the team this weekend, at the beginning the weekend, we looked like we were out the window.
“We managed to get the car into a decent window. And Max Verstappen demonstrated why he’s got the number one on the car.
“Inevitably, you’re always learning. Ride heights, weight distributions, wing levels, roll bars, almost every adjustment on the car we’ve been through this weekend.
“And it just demonstrates if you keep working hard and you never give up, anything is possible. And Max has been stunning this weekend, and demonstrated once again why I think he’s the best driver on the grid.”
Adam Cooper F1 