Max is back with win in 'improved' Red Bull: What happened in the Japanese GP

An “inspirational” Max Verstappen claimed his first victory of 2025 at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he finished just ahead of both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, having led the McLarens throughout the race.

The reigning world champion had expressed doubts about his car’s race pace, but he was barely challenged by the two McLarens who observed his win from a respectful distance that rarely dropped below 1.5sec for most of the race.

The only major threat to Verstappen’s victory came during his sole pitstop when he and second-placed Norris changed tyres simultaneously.

McLaren’s crew was a full second faster than its Red Bull counterpart, and Norris was released alongside Verstappen — who still had his nose ahead. For a moment, Norris could see the lead, but the exit of the pitlane narrowed and his strip of asphalt turned to grass.

With a spectacular wiggle and burst of dust, the McLaren once more fell behind the Red Bull.

“He forced me off,” complained Norris over the radio. “He drove himself into the grass,” said Verstappen.

“He saw me alongside. I was easily alongside,” Norris continued. Seemingly sensing the McLaren radio traffic, Verstappen also kept making his case, accusing Norris of switching his pit limiter off too early. Stewards took no action.

With Piastri having stopped a lap previously, running an identical strategy to Norris, McLaren had no other tricks up its sleeve. Neither of its drivers was able to challenge the Red Bull driver again even though Piastri looked to have stronger pace at the end of the race, but remained third (often extremely close) behind Norris.

In the first two races of the year, Red Bull had no challenge to McLaren’s pace, but over the weekend, it has “chipped away” at set-up issues, finding enough speed to start on pole and keep the McLarens at bay.

“The two McLarens were pushing me very hard,” said Verstappen. “I’m incredibly happy. It started off quite tough this weekend, we didn’t give up, we kept improving the car and today it was in its best form.”

Team boss Christian Horner hailed the win as an “inspirational performance”, and Red Bull’s championship hopes look a lot more hopeful, with Verstappen just one point behind Norris in the title race.

Verstappen also paid tribute to Honda, which is powering Red Bull for the final time in its home grand prix — marked by the team’s one-off livery themed around Honda’s first GP winner in 1965.

Throughout the race Verstappen rarely saw anything other than clear air; the polesitter maintaining his lead at the start, as the frontrunners also retained their grid order as they slotted into line round Turns 1 and 2.

Behind them, Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly were battling wheel-to-wheel for 11th; the pair overlapping on the back straight before Alonso pulled ahead into the high-speed 130R corner.

Yuki Tsunoda entered that turn ahead of Liam Lawson, having got past his Red Bull predecessor when Lawson’s Racing Bull had a wobble in Spoon Curve, just ahead of the back straight.

All of the frontrunners bar Lewis Hamilton started on medium tyres; the Ferrari driver had little trouble keeping up on his hard tyres, and passed Isack Hadjar for seventh.

Earlier in the weekend, sparks from F1 cars had ignited fires in the dry grass at the sides of the track. The overnight rain meant that it wouldn’t be an issue in the race but as drivers splashed through the few remaining puddles in the opening laps, viewers were waiting in vain hope for the Grand Prix to burst into life.