World champion Max Verstappen banished his early season has a fourth successive pole-to-flag victory at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen was holding off the previously dominant McLarens with some ease for his first win of the year.
Verstappen crossed the line in his Red Bull for his 64th Grand Prix victory to an ovation from the 115,000 crowd some 1.4 seconds ahead of McLaren’s championship leader Lando Norris in second place.
“I am incredibly happy. This weekend started off quite tough but we didn’t give up, kept improving the car. Today it was on its best form,” said Verstappen, the first driver to win four times in a row at Suzuka.
Norris’s lead over Verstappen in the drivers’ standings was slashed to one point after an all but incident-free race effectively decided in Saturday’s qualifying.
“Max drove a good race today, no mistakes,” said Norris, who won the season-opening race in Melbourne.
“It was a flat-out race from start to finish, so tough, but just not enough today, nothing special that we had that we could get Max on.”
Reuters
