Key events
Lap 22/53: Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc all come into the pits. Antonelli goes into the lead for the first time in his F1 career.
Norris gained a second in the pit stop and came out looking for an overtake but he goes off onto the grass coming out of the pit lane!
Norris immediately gets on the radio saying he was forced off and follows that up a few moments later by saying that Verstappen say him alongside, with the pit lane replying that they’re “on it”.
Replays seemingly show that Verstappen just maintained his line and he gets on the blower saying Norris drove himself off. Drama.
Lap 21/53: Piastri is the first of the McLarens to come into the pits, emerging on a set of hard tyres in ninth, just in front of Alonso as they’d hoped.
Lap 20/53: Russell comes out in 13th on a new set of hard tyres, between Tsunoda and Lawson
Verstappen gets on the radio asking if he’s to come in or push and the answer is to push.
Lap 19/53: Ferrari are on the radio telling Leclerc that, right now, there’s no proper gaps for them to target coming out of the pits so, right now, the best play is to stay out there.
Conversely, Russell has just come in so perhaps the Mercedes has spied something.
Lap 18/53: We’re approaching the point wherein the leaders on their mediums might now start looking to come into the pits.
Norris’ team gets on the radio telling him to pit and the crew comes out but it’s quickly revealed to be a dummy.
Lap 17/53: Tsunoda is inching towards Gasly as he looks to gain another position. Up the top of the grid, Piastri has backed off Norris a bit as he looks to save his own tyres.
Lap 16/53: Doohan, the other driver to start on soft tyres, comes into the pits. His tyres lasted around six laps longer than Stroll’s and he emerges in front of the Aston Martin when he comes out on a set of hard tyres.
Lap 15/53: Verstappen leads from Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, Albon, and Bearman.
Lap 14/53: Not much in the way of overtakes or incidents to report amongst the leaders, with Verstappen retaining his lead over the McLarens.
Perhaps the most intrigue at the moment surrounds Hamilton, who is the only driver in the top 16 who started on hard tyres.
Lap 13/53: Verstappen continues to set the pace with all his clear air out in front and for all their speed this season, the McLarens haven’t been able to find a way to properly close the gap. Piastri has just set the fastest lap of the race but finds himself behind Norris.
Lap 12/53: Tsunoda has opened up more than a three-second gap on Lawson down in 13th and is now looking to try and find a way past Gasly for 12th.
Stroll, meanwhile, has fallen well to the back of the grid after having to stop and replace his soft tyres. The gamble hasn’t paid off for the Aston Martin driver.
Lap 11/53: Albon is on the radio telling his garage that his gear shifts are “s**t”. The Williams’ garage responds by asking him to be more specific.
Us Australians have a whole scale that “s**t” can slot into if they want some help.
Lap 10/53: A clean race thus far in Japan, with all 20 drivers still out there racing.
Verstappen leads from Norris and Piastri. Leclerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, Albon, and Bearman make up the rest of the top ten.
Lap 9/53: Russell’s team is on the radio to let him know that they’re expecting a smattering of rain to fall at around the 20th lap. For now, at least, that’s not enough to change Mercedes’ plans for the race.
Lap 8/53: Verstappen’s lead over Norris is now up over two seconds as the Brit backs off a bit to ease the pressure on his car and tyres. Piastri, for his part, remains within a second of his McLaren teammate.
At the back of the grid, Bortoleto has fallen to the back of the grid.
Lap 7/53: Verstappen is back on the radio and his gearshifts are starting to feel a lot better.
Hamilton, meanwhile, is lapping at around the same speed as his teammate Leclerc despite starting on a hard tyre to his teammate’s medium.
Lap 6/53: Verstappen is slowly extending his lead on Norris, the gap from first to second now almost two seconds.
Piastri remains third, followed by Leclerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, Albon, and Bearman.
Lap 5/53: Hamilton uses his DRS on the home straight to move past Hadjar into seventh-place. Further ahead, Russell is all over the back of the Ferrari of Leclerc but, as yet, can’t find a way past him into fourth.
Lap 4/53: Verstappen has moved a second and a bit clear of Norris but there’s no such luxury for the second-placed driver, who has his teammate Piastri all over the back of him.
Lap 3/53: Verstappen is on the radio telling the garage “My upshifts are really bad.” Another challenge for the world champion to overcome as he looks to hold off the two McLarens behind him.
Lap 2/53: So as we settle in, Verstappen leads Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, and Russell in the top five. Next comes Antonelli, Hadjar, Hamilton, Albon, and Bearman.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, has got ahead of Lawson in the battle of the once and current Red Bull drivers.
Lap 1/53: Verstappen with a strong start and he immediately cuts Norris off to shut down any thoughts of a turn one overtake! On a track where overtaking can prove a difficult task, that could prove huge for the Dutchman.
Pretty much everyone got off to a strong start, in fact, as we haven’t had any kind of incidents that will cause any kind of stoppages in the first lap.
Lights Out! We are underway in Suzuka!
We are off and racing in Japan!
The Formation lap is underway in Suzuka. The front of the grid is almost exclusively starting on medium tyres, with the lone exception being Hamilton in eighth, who will start on hards. Gabriel Bortoleto and Esteban Ocon will also start on hard tyres further down the grid, while Jack Doohan and Lance Stroll on the final row are on the softs.
Sam has hit me up on the old Tweeter machine, asking what the ramifications for Red Bull could be if Lawson outperforms Tsunoda in today’s race.
@joeylynchy Hey Joey! Let us suppose that Lawson performs better than Yuki today. What ramifications do you think it’ll have on Red Bull’s future plans?
— Sam (@SamanawyaD) April 6, 2025
The most obvious short-term outcome is that it will heap further pressure on Red Bull brass over a decision that was seen as shocking when it was made and has drawn the ire of their crown jewel in Verstappen. It will also show just how much the talent of the world champion has papered over the cracks in their car and empower the Kiwi – and perhaps even Sergio Pérez – to feel they’ve been made a scapegoat.
On a longer-term, though, it will only add to the doubts and questions that continue to dog the team. And that, inevitably, will attract the interest of rivals keen to get Verstappen behind the wheels of their cars.
A one-stop race seems to be de jour strategy for today’s race, with it likely that those starting on a medium tyre will look to start pitting around the 20 lap mark to put some hard tyres on. For those going from hards to medium, conversely, it’s likely that they’ll start coming in around the lap 30 mark.
For those looking to leap up the grid such as Tsunoda, starting on softs to make some early ground and then pitting early to put some hards on and undercut the field as they start to come in could be an option as well.
Of course, if the rains do come during the race teams will need to adapt.
After both its drivers were disqualified in Shanghai – somewhat spoiling Lewis Hamilton’s sprint race win – Ferrari will be looking to bounce back in a big way in today’s race.
Charles Leclerc will start next to Piastri on the second row as he pursues this rebound and has spoken about his belief that his race pace is quicker than his one-lap pace. If that will be sufficient to stay with the McLarens, though, is another matter entirely.
Hamilton, meanwhile, wasn’t able to nail his final qualifying as his teammate did and will start in eighth, tasked with getting past Hadjar and the Mercedes’ of Russell and Antonelli if he’s to link up with his stablemate.
Pole is always important, of course, but it could prove especially so for Verstappen today.
The Dutchman has gone coast-to-coast from the front of the grid in the last three races in Suzuka and while he hasn’t had to deal with the kind of gap between himself and a rival’s car like experiencing this season with the McLarens, his drive to secure pole yesterday shows you right him off at your peril.
Looking at the latest weather update from Suzuka, it’s currently 14 degrees Celsius (58 in freedom units) with about a 40% chance of rain in the coming hours.
Forecast rain did hit the track this morning and that will have something of an impact but it appears to be drying rather rapidly.
Importantly, that coating of precipitation will have also dampened the grass surrounding the circuit and, hopefully, that will prevent the outbreak of the kind of spot fires that erupted during practice and qualifying and led to delays.
While most of the attention sent Racing Bulls way in the build-up to this race has centred on former-driver Tsunoda and new-driver Lawson, it was Isack Hadjar that stole the show in qualifying on Saturday; repeating his exploits from Shanghai by qualifying in seventh.
The 20-year-old did this despite being in visible discomfort and repeatedly getting on the radio to complain about an issue in the cockpit, which was quickly determined to surround his seatbelts were fastened in an uncomfortably tight manner across his torso and… ahhh… other sensitive areas.
“I had issues with the seatbelts so I had to jump out, jump back in and it was fine,” he said.
“It compromised my first run in Q1, then it was driveable thankfully on that final lap in Q1 to get through to Q2. I was in pain a bit and then for the rest I could reset and just focus on driving fast, and it worked.”
Giles Richards’ is in Suzuka to cover this weekend’s events, here’s his report on Verstappen guiding his temperamental Red Bull to a remarkable pole.
What does Red Bull’s 2025 F1 season have in common with Manchester City’s 2024-25 campaign? More than you might think.
Giles Richards explains.
You’ll notice that there’s been a change in the grid order from how they qualified, as Carlos Sainz was hit with a three-grid-place penalty following qualifying’s conclusion when stewards adjudged him to have impeded Lewis Hamilton and his Ferrari during Q2.
The Grid in Suzuka
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull
2. Lando Norris – McLaren
3. Oscar Piastri – McLaren
4. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
5. George Russell – Mercedes
6. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes
7. Isack Hadjar – Racing Bulls
8. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari
9. Alexander Albon – Williams
10. Oliver Bearman – Haas
11. Pierre Gasly – Alpine
12. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin
13. Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls
14. Yuki Tsunoda – Red Bull
15. Carlos Sainz – Williams
16. Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber
17. Gabriel Bortoleto – Sauber
18. Esteban Ocon – Haas
19. Jack Doohan – Alpine
20. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
Preamble
Joey Lynch
Howdy one and all and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the third race of the 2025 Formula 1 season, coming to you this afternoon from the Suzuka Circuit in Japan.
Splitting wins in Melbourne and Shanghai between them across the opening two races of the season, qualifying began yesterday with the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to set the pace at this famous track. The papaya-clad drivers had tipped the Mercedes of George Russell as having the ability to upset their plans. But Max Verstappen had other ideas.
The reigning world champion stunned the field with a remarkable flying lap in Q3 yesterday to secure a fourth-straight pole in Japan, logging a 1:26.983 lap that Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner called “one of his best laps in qualifying ever” to pip Norris by 0.012s and Piastri and 0.044s.
If the Red Bull has the race pace to keep Verstappen ahead of the McLarens when we go lights out looms large over today.
Looming, too, is the pace of Verstappen’s new stablemate Yuki Tsunoda. The hometown hero was able to get the second Red Bull car into Q2 for the first time this season on Saturday but that was quickly overshadowed when he ultimately qualified behind the man he replaced at Red Bull, now-Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson.
The Kiwi driver’s rapid demotion from Red Bull has proven an early season flashpoint and fuel will only be poured onto the fire if Tsunoda ultimately can’t find a way past him today.
Add to this George Russell seeking to extend his podium streak, rookies Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar starting in the top ten, the early-season pace issues of the Ferraris, and plenty more, there’s going to be plenty to keep our attention today. And that’s not even mentioning the potential wet conditions that could circle!
Lights Out: 2pm JST /10pm PT/6am BST/3pm AEST
