TEAM by team analysis of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, the 16th round of the 22-race Formula One season (listed in championship order):
RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez retired)
Red Bull secured the constructors’ championship for the second successive year and sixth time in all. Verstappen won in Japan from pole for the second year in a row, his 13th victory of the season and 48th of his career. He also took fastest lap and can win his third title at the next race in Qatar, with Perez now his sole rival but 177 points adrift. The Mexican had a nightmare, colliding with Hamilton on lap one. He pitted for a new front wing but was handed a five-second penalty for overtaking during safety car conditions. He collided with Haas’ Magnussen on lap 12, requiring another front wing and serving his first penalty. He returned an hour later to serve a second penalty for the collision before again retiring.
MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 5, George Russell 7)
Both dropped a position at the start, Hamilton after the collision with Perez. They raced each other early on, fighting for position. The seven times champion stopped on laps 16 and 34 (medium-hard-hard) while Russell did a one-stop medium-hard strategy that backfired. Mercedes told the drivers to switch position on lap 49 to protect Hamilton from Sainz and leaving Russell on worn tyres to be overtaken by the Spaniard. The team’s lead over Ferrari dropped to 20 points.
FERRARI (Charles Leclerc 4, Carlos Sainz 6)
Ferrari outscored Mercedes for the fourth race in a row. Sainz got ahead of Perez for fifth at the start, Leclerc pitting on lap 17 and Sainz on 18. Leclerc pitted again on lap 34 with Ferrari keeping Sainz out longer to give him fresh hard tyres for the closing stages. Leclerc passed Russell for fourth and Sainz did so after the Mercedes drivers switched positions.
ASTON MARTIN (Fernando Alonso 8, Lance Stroll retired)
Stroll retired for precautionary reasons after the team detected a rear wing failure after he made up five places at the start. Alonso took issue with the team pitting him early to go from softs to hards and accused them of throwing him “to the lions” as rivals passed. He did better on a second set of hards.
MCLAREN (Lando Norris 2, Oscar Piastri 3)
McLaren’s first double podium since Monza in 2021 and rookie Piastri’s first in Formula One. Norris got ahead of the Australian at the start but Piastri got a cheap pitstop on lap 14 when the virtual safety car was deployed. Norris pitted four laps later but was right behind his team mate by lap 26 and went past after McLaren told them to swap for strategic reasons.
ALPINE (Esteban Ocon 9, Pierre Gasly 10)
Alpine switched their drivers around to give Gasly an opportunity to attack Alonso but then switched them back at the end, Gasly angrily complying at the last corner of the last lap. Ocon and Alfa’s Bottas collided on lap one.
WILLIAMS (Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant retired)
Sargeant started from the pitlane with a 10 second penalty after post-qualifying work on his car and came out into debris from first lap collisions. He got another five second penalty for locking up and hitting Bottas and retired with front wing and floor damage. Albon retired due to lap one damage.
HAAS (Nico Hulkenberg 14, Kevin Magnussen 15)
Hulkenberg started 18th on softs but got up to 12th before the safety car was deployed. The German pitted for mediums on lap eight and then made two more stops for hards and then mediums. Magnussen started on mediums but was spun around by Perez, forcing a pitstop for hards. He pitted again on lap 32.
ALFA ROMEO (Guanyu Zhou 13, Valtteri Bottas retired)
Bottas suffered damage in two early collisions and retired, finally taken out by Sargeant. Zhou had to pit for a new front wing, gaining six positions by the chequered flag on a two stop strategy. The Chinese did the most laps on the softs (19).
ALPHATAURI (Liam Lawson 11, Yuki Tsunoda 12)
Lawson and Tsunoda both started on softs and raced each other for position early on for ninth place, the Kiwi saying it was aggressive but fair. The Japanese felt he pitted for hards too late, with tyre degradation dropping them out of the points.
