Verstappen once again miles ahead in Japanese Grand Prix, Tsunoda scores in front of home crowd

Those who thought that the Australian Grand Prix was a precursor to an interesting title fight and some technical issues for Red Bull were firmly put in their place today. Max Verstappen once again obliterated the rest of the field in the Japanese Grand Prix, winning his third race of the season and firmly solidifying himself as the 2024 champion.

Verstappen did us all the courtesy of keeping our hopes alive beforehand. Even though he drove to a dominant pole position on Saturday, he insisted that we shouldn’t take that result as gospel. “Our racepace isn’t what I’d like it to be”, he said after qualifying. “Ferrari seems very comfortable. It’s clear that they drove very competitive long runs. McLaren was very strong too. It’s not that our car was bad, but I just wasn’t happy.”

It was a page out of the Book of Toto, written during the time when Mercedes was at their strongest. The Art of Sandbagging. Before every race, Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton would decry their horrible brick of a car, claiming that every single driver on the grid would run circles around them, only to then win by a landslide. And that’s exactly what happened here. Verstappen drove away right at the start and wasn’t seen again until he crossed the finish line with a 13 second lead over his teammate. He even mentioned during the race again that his car was having trouble with understeering and sliding, which is quickly becoming his version of “Bono, my tyres are gone!”. 

Chaos at the start and scramble for the podium

That doesn’t mean that the race was a snoozefest though. Red Bull may have scored their third 1-2 finish in four races, but the rest of the grid was scrambling for the other points. There was mayhem already right at the start, as Daniel Ricciardo appeared to be cracking under the pressure of maybe losing his seat and made contact with Alexander Albon. The result was a trail of pieces that used to be a Williams car, a Racing Bulls car turned into an impromptu tricycle, and a red flag that lasted half an hour.

But when the race restarted, the real fun began. Ferrari - having seemingly had a lecture on the meaning of the word “strategy” - put their drivers on competing tactics that put both of them within a shot of getting a podium. McLaren must have walked out of that lecture halfway through, because they brought Lando Norris in for another pitstop when his tyres were only halfway through their projected lifespan, which handed the podium place to Ferrari on a silver platter. 

Tsunoda scores points in front of homecrowd for the first time

This race was in many ways a summary of the season so far. Many of the recurring themes of 2024 reappeared in the Japanese Grand Prix. Red Bull and Verstappen being absolutely untouchable. Sainz showing Ferrari just how much they messed up by firing him. Tsunoda absolutely dunking on Ricciardo. Mercedes yet again not being able to make their car work. And Alpine being horribly bad in last place. 

The next race will be the Chinese Grand Prix. It will be the first time since 2019 that F1 touches down in China, and it will also be the first sprintrace of the 2024 season. Let’s hope that this race brings us some new storylines to focus on, because it has become abundantly clear that there is yet again no title battle in 2024.