With the victory, the Dutchman was only a point behind Lando Norris at the Pilot World Cup
He smiled again after reaching the top of the podium at the Japan GP at dawn on Sunday (6), surpassing McLaren de Lando Norris and Oscar Piostri’s favorite cars, winners of the first two races. After triumphing only for the third time in the last 17 races, the four -time champion celebrated the performance of his Red Bull and was confident of fighting for the fifth world title. “We still have work to do, but it shows that if we get everything right, we can be up there,” said Verstappen. “We couldn’t have wanted a better result. It was amazing and I’m really proud of what we did this weekend. We made all the right choices during the race,” he added.
The result left the Dutch only one point behind at the Pilot World Cup – 62 to 61 points – after the third of the 24 stages of the season. For him, the positive outcome was only possible thanks to the pole position won on Saturday, as Suzuka is one of the circuits that does not favor overtaking.
“The key to victory was to start at pole. We maximized everything we could and follow this with victory is fantastic. We know of our limitations and we still have work to do. We are just finding where we can take the car to the limit and we need to maximize everything we can to get the best of the car and make it more balanced,” he explained.
Lando Norris remained behind Verstappen throughout the race, but failed to threaten him in the narrow Suzuka circuit. “I could see Max clearly throughout the race, but I couldn’t do any foray,” the championship leader lamented, who ended up in the grass when trying to overcome him when they both came out of the pits together, but exempted their rival. “He (Verstappen) had the position and the right to do what he did,” said Norris. “He was still in front and Max is the last guy I would expect to give me space.”
Now Max Verstappen and Lando Norris prepare for the next duel. The fourth stage of the season will be played at the Sakhir circuit at Bahrain next weekend.
*With information from Estadão Content
Posted by Nátaly Tenório
