Max Verstappen won the Japanese Grand Prix, leading from start to finish in his Red Bull. Behind him, the McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and third, in the same positions they started the race. Although McLaren looked like they might have a chance to fight for the win, Verstappen stayed in control throughout.

The team from Woking tried to shake things up during the first round of pit stops. They called Norris into the pits early, hoping to trick Red Bull into reacting. But the plan didn’t work, and Verstappen stayed out. Later on, both drivers came into the pits at the same time, which kept them in the same order.

As the race went on, both Norris and Piastri started to close the gap to the front. Norris got within about a second of Verstappen but couldn’t stay close enough to use DRS.

With around 11 laps to go, Piastri caught up to Norris and was able to use DRS on his teammate. He told his engineer he felt fast enough to challenge Verstappen and repeated this after the race as well. However, McLaren chose not to give team orders and let the drivers stay in position.

Afterwards, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella explained that things weren’t so clear. He said the problem wasn’t just speed, but the effect of the “dirty air” coming from Verstappen’s car, which made it harder for Norris to stay close.

“I don’t think it is so clear that Oscar was faster,” said, Stella quoted by Motorsport Week.

“I think Lando was trying to get in Max’s slipstream even closer, but any time you went below one second, then there was a significant loss of grip.”

He added: “Lando was doing a little bit of an elastic today, trying to cool down a bit his tyres, going again. So I don’t think it is a situation that we should judge at face value in terms of what the pace of the car was. Lando was trying to get close to Verstappen with maximum momentum, but it was difficult.”