Verstappen returns to winning ways with victory in Japan Grand Prix

Max Verstappen avenged his failed race of two weeks ago in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. It was another dominant win for the three-time world champion in Japan. It was his 57th F1 victory and his third of the season.

Sergio Pérez made it a one-two for Red Bull by finishing second. He arrived twelve seconds after Verstappen. Carlos Sainz, the race winner in the Australian Grand Prix, finished third in his Ferrari.

Verstappen did not finish the race in Melbourne, which ended a run of 43 races completed in a row. The Dutch driver did not like this and was hell-bent on putting it right in Japan.

He succeeded despite a delay due to a heavy crash in the first lap between Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB) and Alexander Albon (Williams). Both drivers left their mangled cars unharmed, but fixing the tire wall took a while.

Verstappen got away nicely on the restart from pole position. The Limburger was first into the corner and kept Perez behind him. He lost his lead shortly after his first pit stop to Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari chose a different strategy with one pit stop while all other drivers changed their tires twice.

Verstappen caught the driver from Monaco quite quickly and retook the lead after 21 of the 53 laps in the race. He then calmly built on his lead.

Perez also easily drove to second place behind him after losing a few spots due to pit stops.

The second pit stop also resulted in Verstappen losing his lead. Carlos Sainz took over but the Spaniard could not keep it up for long in his Ferrari due to old tires on his car.

The battle for third place was the only exciting battle at the end of the race. Lando Norris of McLaren was not able to keep up with Sainz and Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Verstappen reached another milestone near the end of the race. He has been in the lead in an F1 race for over 3,000 laps.