[Sport] Japanese Grand Prix: 'Max Verstappen shrugs off doubters with crushing statement win

[-CosmiNNe]

Max Verstappen arrived in Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix with the intention of sticking two fingers up to the naysayers in Formula 1 - and left it having proved in the most emphatic way his and Red Bull's superiority over the field this year.

The Dutchman's 13th victory in 16 races this season came at the end of probably his most impressive overall performance of a year in which he and the team have dominated the field in a manner rarely seen in F1 before.

Verstappen said that his aim going to Japan was to win the constructors' championship at the first chance they had - and mission accomplished thanks to his crushing victory.

But he was just as motivated to prove a lot of people wrong after Red Bull's rare off race in Singapore a week before.

There, for the first time this year, Red Bull were off the pace and looked ordinary. Verstappen's record-breaking run of 10 consecutive wins came to an end, as did Red Bull's sequence of winning every grand prix this year.

But what irked Verstappen more was the innuendo that Red Bull might have achieved their unprecedented success unfairly.

Singapore followed a technical directive from governing body the FIA aimed at clamping down on the use of flexible floors and bodywork. So when Red Bull struggled in its aftermath, some in rival teams drew what they felt was an obvious conclusion.

Verstappen found the insinuations insulting, and set about proving it in Suzuka. From his first lap in practice, he was on a mission. That lap - nearly two seconds quicker than anyone else, including his team-mate Sergio Perez, despite being on hard tyres - left mouths agape. And he continued on like that for three days.

Fastest in every practice session. Fastest in all three qualifying sessions. A lap on his first set of tyres in final qualifying more than 0.4secs faster than anyone else. On his second, he really went for it. He was 11km/h faster than before through Turns Four and Five in the Esses, and the result was pole by more than 0.5secs. And 0.8secs quicker than Perez.

Team principal Christian Horner described that as "one of the best qualifying laps of all time".

And when afterwards Verstappen was asked whether he was trying to prove a point, he said: "Honestly, yeah, we had a bad weekend [in Singapore]. Of course then people start talking about… 'ah, it's all because of the technical directives'. I think they can go suck on an egg.

"I was just very fired up to have a good weekend here and make sure that, yeah, we were strong."

Horner said he knew what was coming before the race weekend had started.

"I played padel tennis with Max on Wednesday," Horner said, "and he was properly fired up, and made it clear. He said: 'I want to win the race by 20 seconds.' And in fairness he came within 0.7secs of achieving that.

"You could tell from the very first lap in P1 - when on the hard tyre he was 1.7 seconds quicker than the rest of the field on medium or soft tyres - that he was totally focused on this event.

"It is a circuit he loves and enjoys. It is one of the ultimate driver circuits as a test around here. It was an outstanding performance.

"Max is absolutely at the top of his game. He's the best driver in F1 at this point in time and everything has to come together - car, driver, team in total harmony."

 

Verstappen's weekend in Japan - as so many times this year - contrasted heavily with that of team-mate Sergio Perez. Verstappen has scored enough points to lead the constructors' championship on his own.

Horner claimed after the race that "either driver is pretty much leading the constructors' championship at the moment". But that's an exaggeration. Perez's total would put him fourth, ahead of Aston Martin but 80 points behind second-placed Mercedes.

When Perez won his two races early in the season, Verstappen was a close second. Horner pointed out that Perez had finished second behind Verstappen six times - but he has also not done so on a further eight occasions.

Japan was perhaps the nadir of his season. And perhaps a metaphor for it, too - lacking anything like Verstappen's pace, he was beaten by two McLarens and a Ferrari in qualifying and his race was littered with errors.

Damage to a front wing on a first lap can happen, but Perez then earned himself a five-second penalty for inadvertently passing Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin on his way into the pits to have it changed.

And not long afterwards, impatient to make up ground, he damaged his car again - this time terminally - in a clumsy and over-ambitious attempt to pass Kevin Magnussen's Haas.

The only 'bright' spot was that, after spending 26 laps in the pits, Red Bull made the decision to send him out for a couple of laps again so he could serve the penalty he was given for hitting Magnussen, thus preventing him serving it again in Qatar next time out.

The gulf in class has been obvious all year. And while everyone in F1 accepts that the Red Bull is the best car in the field and believes that a number of drivers could do better than Perez in the Red Bull, it is weekends like Japan that have people up and down the pit lane wondering how much of Red Bull's utter domination this season is down to the car, and how much to Verstappen.

As McLaren team principal Andrea Stella put it when asked after the race whether his team could challenge Red Bull at any point before the end of the season: "That's still a step too far. In fairness, it looks if it is Max who is one step too far."

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/66905383