Max Verstappen resisted the McLarens to score his first victory of 2025 in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Lando Norris finished second ahead of Oscar Piastri as the top six drivers came home in the order they started.McLaren’s hopes of getting either of their drivers ahead of Verstappen ended when their drivers made their first pit stops. Piastri, running third, was the first of the trio to pit, but was unable to gain an advantage on the cars ahead.
Norris, surprisingly, followed Verstappen in on the same lap. McLaren produced a quicker pit stop than Red Bull, and Norris emerged alongside the world champion, but ran onto the grass at the pit lane exit and fell back in behind him.
That set the order until the end of the race. Norris made a late attempt to chase Verstappen down, but never got within DRS range of his rival. Piastri stalked his team mate to the flag and the trio took the chequered flag covered by just 2.1 seconds.
Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari ahead of George Russell, neither having the pace to join the three-way fight at the front. Andrea Kimi Antonelli led the middle part of the race, running long on his first set of medium compound tyres, but fell back to sixth after his pit stop.
Lewis Hamilton tried to make progress starting on the hard tyres, while those ahead chose mediums, but wasn’t able to extend his first stint longer than Antonelli’s. He passed Isack Hadjar for seventh place, the Racing Bulls driver claiming his first points with eighth.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Williams drivers Alexander Albon was unhappy with gearshift problems and his team’s strategy, but scored points for the third round in a row with ninth. Oliver Bearman took the final point in 10th.
All 20 cars finished the race, and Lance Stroll was the only driver to be lapped by the leaders.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Japanese Grand Prix
- McLaren has to accept upsetting either of its drivers sometimes – Stella
- Verstappen ‘can test our car, I look forward to seeing his disappointment’ – Norris
- Verstappen insists McLaren domination claim was ‘no joke’ after Piastri’s doubt
- Extra mandatory pit stop won’t create more passing at tracks like Suzuka – Sainz
- Mercedes took note of Verstappen’s out-lap tactics after stunning Suzuka pole position
Jere (@jerejj)
6th April 2025, 7:38
McLaren threw away a possible victory chance for Piastri.
Antonelli, Hadjar, Albon, & Bearman are some stand-out performers further down the field.
Tsunoda unsurprisingly failed to make much progress & Stroll was more or less just doing a literal Sunday drive.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th April 2025, 8:03
Piastri wouldn’t have been able to pass Max anyway. Just look at the few cars that were able to pull off passes – they were all done with clear tyre advantages.
The team mistake was probably pitting Norris with Max instead of extending at that point, had they gone differently, we might have seen a bit more interesting race. Still, with Max in the lead at this track in a comparatively fast car, it would have been a real challenge even with a decently fresher set of tyres.
S Arkazam
6th April 2025, 12:22
More likely for Norris by pitting him together with Verstappen.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
6th April 2025, 7:51
Red Bull – Maxterclass. Yuki did well overall – Q1 impressive but q2 set the tone for the weekend. Too much downforce here makes overtaking impossible but no mistakes.
McLaren – shocking again. Lost pole for no reason, fastest in all sectors. Put strategy hopeless again, total cowardice to change strategy or prioritise one driver. Huge number of points left on both driver’s tables after only 3 rounds.
Ferrari – Charles did another solid suzuka job. Car does look a step behind the front 2. Lewis still not totally in tune with the car or team.
Mercedes – Russell top job across all sessions. Antonelli very very impressive. I think Russell was dialling it back which made it closer than both pushing flat out but solid drives from both
Williams – Albon doing a solid job, acrimonious relationship with the team suggest he thinks they might have beaten Hadjar. I’m skeptical. Sainz struggling with brakes. I wonder if that’s due to William’s using CI rather than brembo. He’s still learning the car
Aston Martin – look like a team that knows there’s nothing to play for. Stroll strategy was ill conceived, Alonso went nowhere
Racing Bulls – great drive by Hadjar. Impressive in both quali and the race, Lawson poor as expected despite track knowledge
Alpine – the car looks a lot worse than it did in Bahrain. Disappointed to be a minute off the lead and 8 from points. Doohan will struggle to keep that seat long term based on his start to the season.
Haas – Bearman looks special. Quali and the race and half a minute ahead of Ocon.
Sauber – a bad car driven tentatively by Bortoleto into turn 1, understandable but they look destined for another year at the back. Drivers relatively close, Hulk’s experience showing
An Sionnach
7th April 2025, 2:30
What were they at here? I feel they must know you have to push in the first stint to gain track position. Perhaps the bunched field meant there wasn’t a window to come out without traffic to try the undercut? He did end up behind someone. If he had come in a lap earlier and not gotten stuck in traffic, the slow Red Bull stop would have left Max behind.
Perhaps too many drivers cancelled each other out?
72defender (@72defender)
6th April 2025, 7:54
Hard to take Aston Martin seriously as long as they keep Lance Stroll as the second driver!
0.952 gap to Fernando is inexcusable!
Give Drugovich (sic) a chance for crying out loud!
Doggy
6th April 2025, 20:55
Tbf Lance, after 4 races, has scored all the points for his team.
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
7th April 2025, 5:48
He made just made a mistake during his lap.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th April 2025, 7:56
What a way to lose a GP for McLaren. The drivers under delivered on Saturday and the team shockingly did nothing to make a difference on Sunday. You’ve got two cars close to the leader, darn it. Play that game.
Had Norris stayed out he’d have benefited a lot more from that 1 second delay in Red Bull’s pit stop.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th April 2025, 8:04
Exactly. That was IMO the thing McLaren should have tried, the one advantage they had, but they failed to push that advantage.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
6th April 2025, 8:14
@bascb In today’s age of non-refuelling and also tyres that don’t hit a steep cliff, I’m shocked why McLaren pitted Norris on the same lap as Verstappen.
AlanD
7th April 2025, 3:43
Have to agree with that. I was expecting them to say “Do the opposite of Verstappen” to Norris, but we seem so many pit walls now going for the conservative strategies.
72defender (@72defender)
6th April 2025, 8:16
Agreed! There is enough of a sample size to see McLaren conservative approach paralyzes them from taking the slightest of risks. Their ‘Constructors or Bust’ mindset over say a 1 – 4, or similar, where one driver wins the race at the expense of the other not getting on the podium, will keep them from seriously challenging Max for the Driver’s Championship.
S Arkazam
6th April 2025, 12:28
Interestingly a 2-3 gives them less points (33) than a 1-4 (37) would’ve.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:45
And there was no such risk either: swap positions and let piastri try, if it doesn’t work give the position back to norris: 1-3 or 2-3.
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
6th April 2025, 8:19
I really do ask myself what they were talking about in Mclaren’s prerace strategy meetings, because the scenario of Max leading the first part of the race before the stops was always likely. McLaren literally did everything Red Bull would have wanted.
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 11:00
Max was managing from the first lap. You can argue McLaren should have done this or that but the Red Bull was the fastest package today and Max was not pushing, his true pace was never required.
The undercut didn’t work for Piastri, overcuts very rarely are successful and although maybe worth a try, would more than likely have lost Norris track position to Piastri, than gained anything.
MattDS (@mattds)
6th April 2025, 16:48
Disagree. You don’t manage at 1.5 seconds all race when you have more pace – in that case you keep at least a 3-4 second gap which leaves you with way more options and a way more comfortable cushion.
More so when there’s not one but two McLarens very nearby.
The fact Max, at two moments during the race (pre stop and then about 13 laps from the end) was asked to push and wasn’t able to create a gap should tell you enough, as was the ability from Norris and Piastri to stay so close.
No doubt, had the McLarens qualified where they should have and started the race against, you’d be looking at a double digit winning margin.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
6th April 2025, 16:08
Early days, but starting to remind me of 1998 for McLaren. Clearly a dominant car, but a generational talent in a rival team is keeping them very honest. McLaren prevailed on that occasion, but we’ll see what happens this time.
RH
6th April 2025, 8:10
Maybe this McLaren car didn’t have the advantage I thought it had.
Verstappen won this race as track position turned out to be king given McLarens didn’t have enough pace advantage to pass him on track.
3 cars over 50 laps within 2 seconds. Clearly the papayas are quicker than Max but not quick enough to stick a pass.
Leclerc quietly drove a terrific race. Hamilton did what the car should do given Russell under delivered this weekend.
Overall the right pecking order for this weekend must have been McL Merc RB Ferrari but the first two teams under performing in qualifying led to a Verstappen pole and a win.
Best drivers of the race for me are LEC and VER. Driver of the weekend would be Max. So far he’s one point behind McLaren in a car that’s probably been somewhere between 2nd and 3rd fastest overall. Quite a start to the year.
Mr B
6th April 2025, 9:42
Suzuka is a classic drivers circuit.
Max was superlative from qualifying onwards.
You could argue that todays race was won by the driver rather than the car.
A great weekend performance by Max.
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 11:07
That is not what is meant by a “drivers circuit”. Suzuka is a very good test of car performance with the high speed Senna S’s and spoons testing aero and the low speed hairpin and chicane mechanical grip.
A drivers circuit refer to the flow of the corners, the enjoyability if you like.
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 10:52
Agree RH. Max was managing tyres the whole race. Just before his pitstop he asked should he begin to push.
Piastri stopped a lap earlier but it made no difference. The overrcut was always going to be a long shot for Norris, he would have then been behind Piastri, not ahead of Max.
For all the bluster of 4th fastest etc etc the Red Bull looked very quick today maybe even quicker than McLaren. Max was completely comfortable.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
6th April 2025, 13:15
as always, it looks quick in Max’s hands. If he wasnt in this team, with a lineup like PER/TSU or GAS/ALB or LAW/HAD how would this car look like? Probably barely midfield, as none of these (rather decent) drivers ever made the car look quick.
My point is that the car is not that amazing if it can only be driven fast by a single person, under certain driving styles that are very extreme even for F1 drivers (search for an interview where Albon explains very candidly why Max gets the edge over all of his teammates.)
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 13:25
The drivers you list there are arguably all midfield to back markers. Of course the car will seem slower when you seek out weak teammates.Hadjar has never had a chance so I don’t understand your inclusion, but Lawson will be out of F1 by the end of the year. Arguably he should never have been in it with drivers like Drugovich never having a chance.
RH
6th April 2025, 22:19
McLaren were quicker obviously. They didn’t have enough over pace to pass.
Doggy
6th April 2025, 8:16
What a race from Max, Kimi, Hadjar, and Albon.
Had any of the McLaren gotten ahead of MV at the start, they would have finished, easily, with at least 10 sec gap to Max. So yes, they should have used a different pit strategy. Obviously is so easy to say in hindsight
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 10:56
I think Max had the quickest car today.
Norris couldn’t get into DRS and any time he tried Max just opened the gap to 2 seconds with ease
Max asked just before the pitstop of he should start going faster now!
You always know when Max comes on team radio near the start with a “car problem” that never materialises that Red Bull are comfortable! A “problem” fixed by pressing a key on the pitlane is a setting not a problem.
baasbas
6th April 2025, 12:28
@Davethechicken
I believe this is the best example you youngsters seem to call ‘copium’
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 12:40
Copium, lol, had to Google that one. If only I was still a youngster.
In my younger years there was no team radio and generally a problem meant an engine spewing it’s guts over the racetrack.
The cars are bulletproof now.
You don’t think Max was in control and managing pace?
Osnola
6th April 2025, 13:19
MCL lodtbit by strategy. Did not optimise the fastest xar.
They could have done q undercut and a overcut. On of those would have won.
Dex
6th April 2025, 14:14
I think that Max’ car had the fastest driver. Norris is not in his league. He’s close, but the gap in talent is significant enough to make a big difference.
Davethechicken
7th April 2025, 8:42
McLarens advantage has been primary in race pace this year due to tyre wear. As has been widely discussed including by Horner, it is in terms of preserving it’s tyres, as opposed to outright pace. In Oz, Red Bull was at the same pace as McLaren until Max ran out of tyre.
In Japan the deg was very low, as well as better set up with the learning from previous races meant that advantage was nullified.
SteveR (@stever)
6th April 2025, 17:36
The car settings can’t be adjusted from the pits, only the driver can change them, so no, not a button reset from the pits.
Esteban
7th April 2025, 6:13
Very wrong.
I think Max had the quickest car today. – No, in Q all fastest sectors were by McLaren. Drivers made the difference.
Norris couldn’t get into DRS and any time he tried Max just opened the gap to 2 seconds with ease – No. He couldn’t open any gap at all, twice in the race.
You always know when Max comes on team radio near the start with a “car problem” that never materialises that Red Bull are comfortable! A “problem” fixed by pressing a key on the pitlane is a setting not a problem. – This is just stupid, car settings can’t be controlled or modified in the pits. Do you even F1?
You don’t think Max was in control and managing pace? – No. You don’t manage at 1.2 – 1.6 seconds, you are under immense pressure and always at the edge of the slightest mistake. He was in control of his car, and McLaren while being quicker weren’t quick enough for the overtake, but he wasn’t managing.
Davethechicken
7th April 2025, 8:36
Estaban, please do give a technical explanation as to how a mechanical problem with a gear shift, can he predicted to “fix” itself after a few laps as GP suggested in response to Max saying there was a problem. You do know how a gearbox works, right?
Of course if there is an actual problem it can’t be fixed during a race. If it is a software setting, of course that is a rather different thing.
OOliver
6th April 2025, 8:18
I think Bearman is the real deal.
72defender (@72defender)
6th April 2025, 8:23
Yes, he is!
Ben
6th April 2025, 12:29
He’s coming for Hamilton’s seat, that’s for sure. Perfect timing for 2026 in my opinion.
OOliver
6th April 2025, 14:24
I think he may be a better fit. Hamilton has developed into a very cautious driver.
Pure GenZs just act first and think about it later if ever.
The current car regs require not much planning just crossing the bridge when you get there.
Sumedh
6th April 2025, 8:29
It was a good job by Charles too. His car was slower than Mercs and still he managed to keep Russell behind.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
6th April 2025, 8:38
Winning the race in a midfield car, what a performance from Max! No one on the grid is capable of performing even close to that level and if you think there’s somebody that can do it, ask Tsunoda how good that Red Bull really is.
Also, shout out to Norris driving onto the grass – truly the champion F1 deserves!
Doggy
6th April 2025, 13:46
Can we please stop calling RBR a mid field car?
Yes, McLaren about 0.25sec faster than any other car. Maybe Mercs is just slightly faster than RBR (0.1sec) , but that’s it. Ferrari is even with RBR depending on the circuit
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 14:33
I have a feeling Armchair Expert is also and expert in satire.i do find the posts amusing.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:50
Yes, no way the red bull is a midfield car, what’s the use of comments like this? We’re all in agreement verstappen did a masterclass, but when you start throwing out exaggerated statements about the car, you lose credibility.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:50
Though agree about the norris part, not impressive!
Leo B
6th April 2025, 9:24
Again pit wall protection for Norris squanders Piastri’s possible win. Oscar should have been allowed to at least try.
Frank Stella must seek psychological counselling.
Jungle
6th April 2025, 10:01
I agree with you there. It was worth trying not long after the pit stops. Swap positions and see if Piastri could apply more pressure on Max. If not outright overtake maybe force him into a mistake like in Melbourne. Had the roles been reversed I’m sure Norris would be asking the question a lot earlier than Piastri did.
Anyway Oscar will be ruing those 3/10s he lost in sector 1 during qualifying. Yellow purple purple….
asz
6th April 2025, 12:23
Current standings:
NOR 62
VER 61
PIA 49
Piastri overtakes Verstappen after swap:
PIA 59
NOR 59
VER 54
Norris has been leading the championship, FGS.
Why would he oblige Piastri, potentially gifting him a 13-point offset and let him take the lead in the championship?
Jungle
6th April 2025, 12:50
Not sure if the call would of been up to Lando rather the team. I didn’t see Zac at all over the weekend. Was he there?
asz
6th April 2025, 14:06
Is it worth generating (legitimate) grievance just so the team may lead the WCC by 43 points after 3 rounds instead of 36?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:52
This is a good point in terms of team morale, because if you saw tsunoda’s performance, red bull is incapable of finding a proper number 2 driver, or at least to give them a car they can perform with, and so the constructor’s championship seems guaranteed for mclaren.
Jockey Ewing
6th April 2025, 19:43
But the second option is 59+59 = 118 pts for McLaren in the WCC, instead of 62+49 = 111 pts. And they have not dared to make the call. So early in the championship not making a call, so allowing very careful racing other than holding position can be considered team orders as well. On the other hand taking risks only in the later stages of the seasons is a valid approach. But avoiding every conflict, and doing so by applying passive strategies like this can create a toxic workplace environment in the long run as well.
Now the point is, that most of these case analyses lack the following: the probabilities of the particular cases. Without those there are no reason to do the calculations. Also you have omitted the third and the fourth still somewhat realistic case: Piastri overtaking Norris or both. And after all there are amny other cases. But most likely the teams have some software to study these probabilities or provide live hints about these figures.
For me Andrea Stella looked a bit upset during the late stages of the race. The drivers and many team personnel looked qute chilled and happy after the race considering the defeat. My conclusion is that based on this: they have at about properly executed their pre-race plan/agreement, when it comes to managing the duel of the teammates as well. So they allow some racing, but they do not dare to give or take too much away from either. I think the difference between having 111 and 117 WCC points at thsi point would be worthy of discussion for them OTOH – because having 2 drivers on 59 pts after the 3rd race should not exactly be an unacceptable/perceievedly unfair situation for either of the drivers.
Here again, someone would need to make the call what points swing with what probability is needed to make a swap drivers call.
Jockey Ewing
6th April 2025, 19:48
Edit:
So early in the championship not making a call, so allowing very careful racing at most other than holding position can be considered as applying team orders. I mean, to hold position or to only allow very careful racing is an order too. Especially if they say it quite often. But of course so late in this race, and so early in this season, both decision is ok.
asz
6th April 2025, 20:22
If I am the driver who
– leads the championship, and
– managed to beat his teammate in qualifying, and
– can easily keep him behind during the race,
then sacrificing a 62/49 for a 59/59 is exactly that: unacceptable and unfair.
Why the fuss about how McLaren potentially ‘lost’ points not swapping the drivers? Overall they are still the team to beat and they have two consistently high-points-scoring drivers, so who should they be afraid of in terms of the Constructors’?
A one-driver team? The stumbling horses? Consistent George and Lil’ Kimi? Come on.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:55
I was more thinking about the driver’s championship though: they had a possibility for piastri to win the race by overtaking verstappen, and they could’ve established that, had he failed, he’d have to give the place back to norris.
This way they simply let their opponent win the race without issues, we’re obviously not talking about the constructor’s championship, as there’s no threat atm.
Doggy
6th April 2025, 13:50
It’s not an easy fix dealing with this. All these drivers are primadonnas, making that call will bring a lot of friction within the team.
McLaren knows that they have the car advantage to pull away from other teams during the championship.
Jockey Ewing
6th April 2025, 19:56
Maybe they should be brought up by the junior ladders differently. So, I mean, makeing them more often to obey team orders should not remove their abilities of racing the other opponents really hard. Maybe the best drivers would be those who are doing both happily. Also, these favours should be returned later in the season or at least in a next season, and also scouts and team managers should see further than numebrs, so why one is a manager or scout at all if one does not know about most of the candidates that one’s results are a bit clobbered because his team expolited him too much as a wingman.
Also, if the favour is not returned at an adequate quality and frequency, then it is maybe the best to look after another team/workplace, or care quite a bit less about the management’s/favourized coworkers dreams. Unless one is satisfied with being a wingman, and the size of the bag/promises for the future in exchange of doing so.
Jockey Ewing
6th April 2025, 19:58
Also, I would be fine with no team radio/much less instead of hearing the bargaining. Or I would be fine with having 1 car teams, but even then there would be clashing interests between the backers/manufactureres surely.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
6th April 2025, 9:41
These cars are absolutely dreadful. Awful set of regulations.
BMW P85 V10
6th April 2025, 10:55
And an awful set of tires as well.
Jungle
6th April 2025, 12:17
DRS seems to have minimal effect these days either unless you’re passing a back marker…
Dex
6th April 2025, 14:15
That’s the only positive actually. Down with the DRS overtakes.
Peter
6th April 2025, 9:46
McLaren should have done the the overcut
Osnola
6th April 2025, 14:04
They could have tried both..
Again mcl strategy fail.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:57
True, they had 2 cars: overcut with a driver and undercut with other one.
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 11:16
Yuki looks much better than Lawson despite no time in the Red Bull.
But for his Q2 mistake, he would have been top 8 I think, no problem.
One of the few drivers to really consistently gets into DRS range of the car in front. Be interesting to see how he does next week
OOliver
6th April 2025, 12:11
He has been set many steps back by not doing the preseason tests with Redbull.
He will be trying to understand the car while Max is already making improvements.
Its not helpful Redbull is not trying to give a slower better handling car to him.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 5:57
But from what horner said, it’s exactly what they did: they gave him a slower and better handling car.
Doggy
6th April 2025, 13:54
Not only compared to what Yuki did today in that Redbull. But also relatively compared to what Lawson did today in his racing bulls
Edvaldo
7th April 2025, 0:04
Yuki will score points in Bahrain, easy peasy.
It was the obvious move to make, so now they have all drivers bringing points as Lawson is expected to improve too.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
6th April 2025, 11:35
Top drive by VER. But the car is not bad either, overall 2nd best car without doubt. Still wonder what’s really going on with them/car, going over night so many times from outsiders to winners. And only positive evolutions. It’s like they’re playing games, they’re very bad at setting up the car on Fridays etc. Wish that miraculous positive evolution from Friday to Saturday/Sunday happened to other teams too.
Still a long way to go, but McLaren might end up the season in tears just like in 2007, if they don’t get their act together.
OOliver
6th April 2025, 12:53
Mclaren more often than not will get two drivers then fill them up with egos hoping their competitive spirit to out do each other will give the team the result it needs.
They end up fighting each other, the different garages fighting each other and a different team sneaks the results stealing their thunder.
Alan Dove
6th April 2025, 15:09
2nd best car ‘without doubt’. A second best car ‘without doubt’ has the second drivers 4th today, not 12th.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 6:00
That’s because no driver can adapt to that car, you can’t seriously think verstappen extracts 7 tenths a lap more than other drivers, as good as he is: he gets what you can get from the car, and the second drivers have no excuse to not be in the top 8.
Alan Dove
7th April 2025, 6:47
For a car to be ‘without doubt’ 2nd best, you’d expect the 2nd drivers to have scored at least 1 point by now.
I’ve been fortunate to have watched Max since he raced karts, and he really is that good.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 6:00
Obviously, both mclaren drivers are far less consistent and underachieved in quali, then the team did in the race strategy-wise.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
6th April 2025, 11:43
Enjoyed Villeneuve’s commentary and insights this weekend. Brought a bit of life to Sky’s coverage.
Davethechicken
6th April 2025, 12:23
I liked the way he quickly shut down Croft when he tried to make something out of nothing regards the pit lane exit incident.
But in fairness to Croft, literally nothing else interesting happened the entire race, so was a hard commentate for him.
Dex
6th April 2025, 14:17
And yet Crofty still managed to mix things up, call Sainz Albon (not that they were fighting same battles today) etc. It’s good to have someone to keep him in line. Today it was Villeneuve instead of Brundle and it was indeed pleasure to have him as a commentator. I wish we could try those two as a duo. Crofty is obsolete, AI could do his job (to state the obvious things).
Doggy
6th April 2025, 19:09
+1 Villeneuve schooled Crofty so many times today that is not even funny.
Sky, please take Crofty out and bring Jacques In
Doggy
6th April 2025, 13:59
Yes, sir. Villeneuve was a breath of fresh air.
Hope Sky replace abysmal Crofty and give the chance to Jacques.
I lost count of the amount of times Villeneuve schooled Crofty in today’s race. Crofty kept making mistakes or making stupid/ignorant comments over and over again
Esteban
7th April 2025, 6:19
Not even Jacques can make me watch the insufferable Sky feed.
Edvaldo
6th April 2025, 15:11
Honestly, these 2 last races were so bad i’m beginning to believe no matter the situation of the championship, these cars don’t work on these tracks.
Interest was low last year because it was, at that moment, just 2022 again. But now things were supposed to be competitive, and still, the race was dreadful, a chore to watch.
Suzuka hasn’t had a good race for so long, I’ll probably skip it from now on. Lesson learned.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th April 2025, 6:05
I thought you meant “just 2023 again”, as 2022 was a season that started competitively and ended up with red bull a good way ahead.
Was indeed a chore and the last good race at suzuka was probably 2022 with a good amount of rain, even though they waited again unnecessarily till full wet tyres were no longer useful before restarting it, I miss those races, and probably the race suffered for it too, as it was difficult to undertake in those intermediate conditions.
F1ed (@rinodina)
6th April 2025, 22:12
I thought the “pit lane skirmish” was funny.
Norris: “he forced me off”.
Verstappen: “He drove himself into the grass”.
Which of course was what Norris did.