By Razeen Gutta
Max Verstappen made the most of his pole position to pick up his first win of the 2025 Formula One season at the Japanese Grand Prix.The Dutchman beat Lando Norris by 1.4 seconds to secure his fourth straight Suzuka win while Oscar Piastri completed the podium.
The McLaren drivers each have a win this season alongside the Red Bull star, with Norris leading the drivers’ championship by one point over Verstappen while Piastri sits 13 points behind ahead of next weekend’s Bahrain GP.
While Verstappen was happy with the win, he made it clear post-race that he felt McLaren had a faster car.
“I’m very happy with what I’m doing, I don’t even want to think about it if I’d been in that other car [McLaren]. Then you wouldn’t have seen me,” he said per ViaPlay.
“When I came here, I didn’t expect to win; and after Friday, not at all. Starting on pole was the most important thing this weekend.”
“This does not mean that everything is now suddenly hosanna and that we are going to win all the races, but we can be very happy with this.”
“McLaren I think was faster, but they couldn’t get into the DRS to make a move.”
Pictured above: Max Verstappen
Source: @maxverstappen1
