Round four of this year’s F1 season took place last Sunday in Suzuka, Japan, at the Suzuka International Racing Course. Red Bull Racing had a front row lockout after Qualifying on Saturday, meaning both their drivers started at the front of the grid. Current World Champion Max Verstappen started from pole position with his teammate, Sergio Perez, close behind in second position (P2).
Verstappen took the 57th win of his career after crossing the finish line, regaining his position at the top of the podium after not finishing the previous race in Melbourne. Perez was able to maintain P2 and achieve Red Bull’s third 1-2 finish of the season. Accompanying them on the podium was Carlos Sainz from Ferrari, who won the previous race, who took P3 from McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had qualified in the position. Verstappen also took the fastest lap of the race with three laps to go with a time of 1:33.706 seconds and the fastest pit stop.
The race results allowed Verstappen to extend his lead in the World Championship points and for Perez to recover second place after losing it to Sainz’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, in Melbourne. They also extended the team’s lead in the Constructors’ Standings, with a total of 141 points. Leclerc finished P4 behind his teammate, once again demonstrating that Ferrari is Red Bull’s closest competitor.
The race had two starts after being red flagged in the first lap after a crash between Daniel Ricciardo from Visa Cash App RB and Alex Albon from William Racing. Ricciardo’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, managed to score one point for the team after finishing P10. This was Tsunoda’s first time scoring points in his home country of Japan, for which fans heavily celebrated him. He is the first Japanese driver to score points on home soil since Kamui Kobayashi in 2012.
As Red Bull races with a Japanese Honda engine, performing well in this race was a big priority for them. Their junior team, Visa Cash App RB, also races with a Honda engine and both teams received a lot of support from Japanese fans throughout the weekend.
“Very happy for Honda and all these fans,” said Perez on his radio after crossing the finish line, “And for Yuki in Japan, well done.”
“Very special,” Tsunoda said in the Post-Race show, available on Formula 1’s official YouTube channel. “Even P10 I feel like I scored P1.”
Round five of the 2024 F1 season will take place at 2 a.m. CST on April 21 in China at the Shanghai International Circuit.
