Race week review
Formula 1 returned to Suzuka for the first time since pre-covid and it was a weekend where Max Verstappen could clinch the World Driver’s Championship, all things going his way. It was also the first home grand prix for Yuki Tsunoda who was very happy to race at Suzuka.
During the week, Daniel Ricciardo stated that he would not be on the grid in 2023 and was looking towards 2024 prospects. Meanwhile, Alpine finally announced the long awaited news of their new driver, Pierre Gasly and replacing the Frenchman at AlphaTauri is Nyck De Vries, who finally gets a drive in F1.
Practice
Before the first practice session, rain fell on the circuit, so wet and intermediate tyres were the tyres of choice. Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in FP1, ahead of both Ferrari drivers, Sainz & Leclerc. Ocon and Magnussen were further back in P4 & P5, both having very good sessions. It wasn’t a good end to the session for Mick Schumacher who had a shunt at Turn 7, losing his front wing in the process.
For some period of time at the start of FP2, drivers stayed in the pitlane as the rain poured. At the end of the session, when all the times had been set, George Russell topped the charts, his teammate Lewis Hamilton in P2, with Max Verstappen completing the top 3. At times, drivers did struggle to keep their cars on the track as they dealt with the wet conditions. Schumacher did not take part in the session as a result of his crash in FP1.
The drivers finally got in a dry practice on Saturday morning in FP3, where Verstappen finished the session ahead of Sainz and Leclerc. Alonso, once again, had an impressive session, clinching P4 in his Alpine in the bid to retake P4 from McLaren in the constructors championship.
Qualifying
Mercedes tested out medium tyres with their drivers but quickly saw that it wouldn’t guarantee them safety, so Hamilton and Russell went back out on soft tyres to set themselves up for Q2. Gasly complained to his team on the radio about brake issues at the end of the session which attributed to him not setting a good enough lap time to get into Q2. Latfi was also going to serve a 5 place grid penalty for his crash with Zhou in Singapore. Also unable to escape elimination were Albon, Magnussen, Stroll and Latifi.
Verstappen, Sainz and Leclerc only did one run in Q2, while Perez set the fastest time on his second run. Sebastian Vettel made it to Q3 for the first time in 10 rounds (since Baku), which unfortunately meant that Daniel would miss out by the smallest of margins, 0.003s to be exact. Following Ricciardo out in Q2 were Bottas, Tsunoda, Zhou, Schumacher.
In Q3 Verstappen set a super quick time leaving him with provisional pole; but, his slow lap saw an incident with Norris which was investigated after the session (resulting in a reprimand for the Dutchman). The incident saw Norris go onto the grass to avoid contact with Verstappen as the reigning world champion’s quick movement surprised the Brit. Leclerc and Sainz were very close to Verstappen’s time but didn’t do enough to dethrone him from first place. Norris’s session was affected by the incident and he was the slowest of the 10 cars.
Top 10: Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Ocon, Hamilton, Alonso, Russell, Vettel, Norris
Race Review
It was a wet and rainy day in Suzuka last Sunday, meaning we faced delays for a long while before being able to run a proper race. When we finally did, it was Max Verstappen who took the victory, and in the last moments, the world championship was also clinched – much to Max’s own surprise!
Charles Leclerc finished in second place on the track for Ferrari, but due to a late five second penalty he was demoted to third, which gifted Sergio Perez the second place finish, allowing Red Bull a 1-2 finish. Unfortunately for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz failed to finish the race after aquaplaning and crashing at the very beginning of the grand prix.
Another excellent day for Alpine saw Esteban Ocon finish in fourth place for the team and within grasp of a podium place, with teammate Fernando Alonso in seventh place. An excellent job for the French team yet again this season, we can only hope this success will continue.
It was a bit more of a mediocre day for Mercedes in comparison – after a few races with strong performances, it was a shame to see the drivers struggle with a lack of straight-line speed. In the end, it was Hamilton who finished in fifth after being unable to pass Ocon, and Russell in eighth after losing time due to a double-stacked pitstop.
Sebastian Vettel once again proved that he is still one of the best wet weather drivers the sport has ever seen, finishing the race in sixth place after dropping all the way to the back of the pack on the first lap of the race, and picking up the Driver of the Day vote for good measure. His Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll finished in twelfth place for the British team, doing well to stay out of trouble during the race.
After an excellent race in Singapore, it was a blow for McLaren to only be able to finish in tenth and eleventh place with Norris and Ricciardo. With the team only taking one point, they fall back behind Alpine in the fight for fourth place in the Constructor’s Championship.
It was an awful day to be Pierre Gasly on Sunday. After a deeply scary moment where the French driver had to pass a tractor that had made its way on to the circuit, he was only able to finish in seventeenth on the track, before a 20 second penalty was added to his race time for going too fast when the red flag was shown. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished his first home race in thirteenth place, meaning that the Italian-based team left Japan empty handed.
After a number of good races this season, it was a shame to see neither Haas driver in the points – especially since Mick Schumacher had led the race for a brief period of time, and looked set for a good points finish. However, he eventually finished in eighteenth place (seventeenth after Gasly’s penalty), with his teammate Kevin Magnussen finishing in fourteenth place.
While Alfa Romeo was another team to leave Japan without any points, it is worth noting that Zhou Guanyu was able to steal the fastest lap of the race, showing once more that the Chinese driver is a strong force which will almost certainly come into play over the coming years.
Next we head to the Circuit of The Americas in the USA, where Red Bull will look to take another step to solidify their grip on the Constructors Championship and Charles Leclerc will try his best to reclaim P2 in the Drivers Championship.
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