Max Verstappen notched up his first win of the season today, after winning the Japanese Grand Prix for the fourth year on the bounce. He led home the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after keeping the pair at arms length for the entire duration.

Verstappen took pole after a spellbinding lap shocked the whole paddock, setting a new track record in the process, lining up alongside his championship rival from last season. Tsunoda’s Red Bull debut didn’t quite go to plan on the other side of the garage however, tumbling out of Q2.

McLaren will be frustrated that they couldn’t use the pace that they had in the MCL39, Piastri seeming the quicker of the two but the team order to switch never came despite there being a big gap to the car behind.

The only time the World Champion’s lead ever looked under threat was during the pit stop phase, with a slow stop for Verstappen allowing Norris to draw alongside at the pit exit. The Brit claimed he was forced onto the grass but the stewards saw no issue and from there Verstappen controlled the race.

It was another underwhelming race for Ferrari, Leclerc maximising his result in P4 and Hamilton coming in P7 behind the two Mercedes.

Elsewhere, the most interesting subplot of an otherwise mundane race was Isack Hadjar. He qualified P7 despite extreme discomfort in Q1, and topped it off with a solid drive to score his first points ahead of both Tsunoda and Lawson in the other Red Bull family cars.

Albon scored points for the third race running for Williams and Bearman took home the final point for Haas in the tense fight of the midfield.

The gap at the top of the world championship is down to just one point with Verstappen breathing down the neck of Norris as F1 heads to Bahrain for the next stop on the triple header next weekend.