|
Max Verstappen
rounded off a perfect weekend, dominating the Japanese Grand Prix from start
to finish. Thanks to the Dutchman’s 48th win, Red Bull today clinched its
sixth Constructors’ World Championship title, with six Grands Prix still
remaining this season. The Milton Keynes squad is now also sure of taking
the Drivers’ crown as only Sergio Perez, who retired today, can
theoretically stop Verstappen from picking up his third title.
Joining Max on the podium were the two McLaren drivers, with Australia’s
Oscar Piastri securing his first Formula 1 top three finish. This was
Norris’ tenth trophy winning result, his podium appearances split equally
between second and third places.
THE DAY ON
TRACK:
For the start, 13 drivers went with the Medium for the first stint, seven
for the Soft. Apart from those who had to rapidly change their plans because
of collisions in the opening moments of the race, it was clear to see that
the great majority of drivers had opted for a two-stop strategy, making the
most efficient use of the sets of tyres available. In fact, those who had
two new Hard sets used them both, with the exception of Russell who - having
done a good job of managing his Medium set from the start - tried to mix
things up by going for a one-stop strategy, using the Hard for no fewer than
29 laps. The Mercedes driver also did the most laps (24) on one set of
Medium tyres, while Zhou (Alfa Romeo) did the most (19) on the Soft.
MARIO ISOLA - MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR
“First and foremost, I want to congratulate Red Bull for their achievement
in taking their sixth Constructors’ title as well as ensuring that only Max
or Sergio can now take the Drivers’ crown. The team led by Christian Horner
is making its mark on the current Formula 1 era, beating all the records and
this amazing result is well deserved.
The Suzuka track is one of the toughest on tyres and this year we saw higher
temperatures than usual which increased the demands on them. This afternoon,
everything went as we had expected and all three available compounds were
used, thus creating a situation where we saw several different strategies
between the teams and drivers. After studying the data from free practice,
we reckoned that a two-stop strategy was the quickest and that was
confirmed. Those who tried something different, Russell for example, had to
give best in the closing stages to their two-stopping rivals. Compared to
Friday, we saw that the Medium was the most used, even if the difference in
terms of degradation when compared to the Soft, also today, was not that
big. Clearly the C2 offered greater flexibility in terms of management and
that’s why the majority of drivers opted to start with it.”
COMING UP
NEXT FOR OUR F1 TYRES
The Qatar Grand Prix is next, from 6 to 8 October. Formula 1 will
therefore be making its second appearance at the Lusail circuit, following
on from the inaugural race in 2021. The teams will have the C1 compound as
P1 Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow medium and the C3 as P Zero Red
soft. The facilities at the Doha circuit have been completely renovated to
host the championship which is due to race in Qatar for a further ten years.
This Grand Prix will also be the fourth of the year to run to the Sprint
Format, which will also be seen in Austin and Sao Paulo. |
