Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris celebrate on the podium with Japanese Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen.Credit: AP
Max Verstappen’s legend grew at Suzuka on Sunday with a stunning drive to claim his fourth-straight win at the famed circuit, but this was one that got away from Oscar Piastri and his McLaren teammate before race day even rolled around.
Verstappen, in claiming his 64th career grand prix victory, is “without debate” the best driver in the world, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner in the Japanese Grand Prix post-race, but Melbourne-born superstar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris have what looks to be this season’s best car – and they know it.
The in-form McLarens, who won the season’s first two grand prix races, set the pace right throughout practice until Verstappen in his Red Bull turned it up a gear in qualifying – setting a scintillating new track benchmark of 1:26.983, just head of Norris (1:26.995) and Piastri (1:27.027). But that’s all it took.
Asked by host broadcaster Sky after Sunday’s race if he thought qualifying sealed his fate for race day, Piastri was unequivocal.
“Yes,” he said.
“The pace today was really, really good and I was very happy with that – I obviously got close a few times and tried to mount a challenge, but track position around here is just so important so, yep, I think yesterday [Saturday] was the day where he [Verstappen] effectively won the race and [I] didn’t do a good enough job.”
With key sections of the track newly resurfaced and tyre wear not having its usual impact, qualifying became even more important, and even Piastri knew he’d be fighting an uphill battle in starting from the second row of the grid.
Overtaking was at a premium throughout the race, which was largely incident-free, despite rain being predicted for the closing stages.
Unlike in Melbourne, that rain never arrived – and neither did the drama.
The biggest eye-catching moment from the race came on the pit exit when Norris was trying to get ahead of Verstappen after a sluggish Red Bull pit stop. Norris ran out of room on the re-entry of the track and cut across the grass, leaving Verstappen to say later – caught by the Sky cameras and microphones as the top three were about to step on to the podium – “quite an expensive lawn mower”.
Piastri, also watching the replay of the near-miss next to Verstappen and Norris, couldn’t believe how little drama the highlights package included, with so many drivers finishing in the same order, or near enough to, their qualifying positions.
“There’s still a lot of positives to take out of this weekend – I think the pace was mega,” Piastri said later on Sky. “Next time I just need to make sure I’m in a better position to use it.”
Piastri was very matter of fact when asked whether he felt McLaren should have issued team orders to Norris in second to let him past and then try and chase down Verstappen. Piastri was catching Norris each lap for certain stages, but couldn’t capitalise with a telling overtake.
“There wasn’t much [talk from the team about swapping places with Norris under team orders], to be honest,” Piastri said.
“I felt like I had really strong pace, and felt like if I had the track position I could go and get Max … but that’s what happens when you qualify behind, unfortunately.
“I at least asked the question [of the team], and I think that was a fair response. I think it was a good race and that’s how I want to go racing.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was asked to explain the team’s strategy in the wash-up of the race.
“Certainly the race was mostly decided yesterday [on the Saturday], when, for a matter of a few milliseconds, Verstappen managed to score the pole position,” he said.
“He defended on the first lap today, and then there wasn’t much action going on. I think the pit-stop timing was pretty much set by the other people pitting – not much to play with – and we just ended up with the same result as qualifying.
Piastri was forced to settle for third on the podium.Credit: Getty Images
“We saw that staying out [and not pitting Norris on the same lap as Verstappen] would have not been faster than pitting. We saw that from [George] Russell as soon as he pitted and he went on the new hard [tyres] – he was very fast.”
Stella also explained why Piastri wasn’t let through by the team to have his chance at attacking Verstappen for the race win. He said it wasn’t about team harmony in an outfit with two No.1 drivers.
“As soon as you get within one second, you get a lot of dirty air [off the car in front] and your performance drops,” he explained.
“It’s fair that Oscar makes the comment [over team radio] ... but I think today [it] was simply not possible to overtake.
“He got close on Lando because Lando was managing his tyres trying to give it a go to Max.
“I think we need to be a little careful in judging superficially.”
The second Australian on the grid, Jack Doohan, had a much-improved weekend following his horror smash on Friday. He finished 15th in his Alpine.
Norris leads the drivers’ standings by a point from Verstappen, with Piastri in third. McLaren have a clear early lead over Mercedes in the constructors’ title battle, with Red Bull third.
