Japanese GP Sunday: Team & Driver Reports from Suzuka

The Japanese GP was won by Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen who managed to keep both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at bay.

Norris remains in the lead of the F1 drivers' championship but Verstappen is now only one point behind in second place while Piastri moved up to third.

McLaren lead the F1 constructors' championship from Mercedes in second place while Red Bull Racing are third.

George Russell: "Today's race was a frustrating one. With the top six cars all finishing where they started, it was a Grand Prix dictated by yesterday's qualifying performance. It was a relatively easy one-stop strategy and, on a circuit that is very difficult to overtake at, there were few opportunities to make forward progress. We tried our best to make the undercut work on Leclerc at the end of our first stint. Unfortunately, we didn't quite have the pace to pull it off with the traffic that we had to clear in those two laps. Whatever strategy we had attempted though, I think we would have ultimately finished P5.

"Our frustration mainly comes from the fact that we didn't optimise qualifying yesterday. With the pace we showed over practice, we had a car that could have been competing for the front two rows of the grid. It is the first qualifying session of the year where we haven't maximised our full potential. That was a shame, but we can bounce back straight away in Bahrain. It is a very different track to Suzuka, much hotter and a more abrasive circuit. It will be fascinating to see where everyone's relative performance is and is going to be another test for everyone."

Kimi Antonelli: "Today was a good race from my side. I am happy with how it went and the speed we were able to show. Once I got in free air, the pace really improved, and I was able to extend my stint on the Medium tyre. That was a good feeling. Once we switched to the Hard tyre, the car still felt positive. I was able to put in some consistent lap times. I was catching the cars ahead but ran out of time in the end to get on the back of them. It was also a nice feeling to lead the race for a few laps and become the youngest driver in F1 history to have done so. The next goal is to do that on the only lap that matters: the final one!

"It has been a good weekend overall. It's a great track and one that I felt that I was getting on top of by the end of the weekend. Every time I get in the car, I am building my learning and feeling more comfortable with the W16. I am looking forward to heading to Bahrain. Hopefully we can keep improving and begin to fight for some of the positions further forward than we managed today."

Bradley Lord, Team Representative: "We come away from Japan with solid points but ultimately feeling that there was the potential for more this weekend. Suzuka is a difficult track to overtake at and today's race was a good example of that. George looked to have the pace on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in the opening stages but didn't quite have enough speed to make a pass. Being in the dirty air likely hurt his tyres and he therefore couldn't deploy the necessary pace to make the undercut work before his stop. The positive is that, had we started further forward and where we believed our qualifying pace was, we likely could have competed for the podium.

"Kimi meanwhile ticked off several more milestones today. He has built his confidence over the weekend at a demanding track and achieved a solid result. He also led his first laps in F1 and took his maiden fastest lap, becoming the youngest driver in history to achieve these feats. His development is encouraging to see and it's a third consecutive strong race performance from him.

"We now head to Bahrain and will be aiming to be amongst the fight for the podium there. It is a very abrasive circuit and will be another good test of the progress we have made with the W16."

Ollie Bearman: "I think we achieved the maximum today, not quite enough pace to fight the Williams or the VCARB so P10 it is, but I enjoyed my lonely race. Australia was a big shock, and China was an even bigger shock for all of us as to come back with such great pace without changing anything on the car. This weekend we brought a slightly different floor to help the bouncing we've been struggling with and it seems like so far, so good. We have a lot of positives from this weekend so we'll take a point and look forward to Bahrain."

Esteban Ocon: "The aim was to pick up a safety car as we started on the hard compound – we didn't have much to lose trying this strategy – and still managed to get a good start. Sadly, without a safety car it wasn't the best strategy and we knew that, we tried our best – but it is more data, and more information to compare for next race. The important thing is that we transfer the good performance we saw on Ollie's car, so a big well done to him, and to the team for bringing updates after Australia."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a really good job from everyone to get Ollie finishing P10 with one point. It's only one point but that makes a world of difference and it's a big reward for everyone's effort. We knew this was going to be a huge challenge considering the issue we had in Melbourne, but the new parts we brought to Bahrain worked and the engineering team worked hard across the three days and found a good set-up to get the most out of the tires and qualifying. Today, execution of tire management was very good and communication was good. With Ollie, we maximized everything we could've today. With Esteban starting from P18, it was going to be difficult to overtake in a one-stop race, so we couldn't do much. It's about fine margins, so we need to get to the bottom of why we couldn't get Esteban to perform yesterday, and then look at today's race data to try to get both cars up there in Bahrain."

Pierre Gasly: "It was not our race today and there are definitely a few things for us to analyse. It felt like we did everything we could in terms of performance. The car felt good, well balanced and we know where we are lacking a bit of pace. It was an intense first lap, quite dicey with Fernando [Alonso] and we missed out on a place there even if it was a fun battle. We lost a bit of time at the pit-stop so we'll review what happened there and we know how important track position is around here in terms of traffic and pace management. We gave it our best and it was not enough to be near the points. We have a good chance next week in Bahrain where the car seemed to perform well in pre-season testing. Conditions will be different to then, though, but it's a chance to reset and hopefully we can come away with a much better outcome."

Jack Doohan: "It was good to get another full race distance under my belt and continue to gain experience and understanding of the package. Given our starting position, we went more aggressive with tyre strategy with the Softs at the start, which allowed us to attack and gave us the best chance to move forward with the undercut. That also meant we ran a longer second stint on the Hard tyres [38 laps] and had to defend towards the end. I think we did well to keep Nico [Hülkenberg] at bay, but it was a pity we could not keep Carlos [Sainz] behind on the newer Softs. It was positive to move forward at a track that's difficult to overtake and the race pace also felt strong despite no high fuel running. We will take a couple of days between races to rest and recover. I'm looking forward to going again in Bahrain where the conditions will be completely different again."

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal: "It's not been the smoothest weekend for the team here in Japan. We found some good steps in performance compared to the first two rounds. Still, it is not enough for us to score points with Pierre finishing thirteenth and Jack fifteenth. Jack did a good job to climb a number of positions. We go to Bahrain knowing we had a good pre-season test there and aim to continue making steps forwards."

Alex Albon: "We've been experimenting with shift settings all weekend and we thought we'd finally landed on something we were happy with. Turns out, it actually felt much better in Qualifying than it did in the race. The car wasn't easy to drive in the conditions either. In Practice on Friday, the wind suited us more, but it was completely different today. We still scored points though! It just shows that even on days when we're not that optimal, we're able to score points. In that sense, I'm very happy."

Carlos Sainz: "Unfortunately, as expected, it was a difficult race stuck in traffic after a costly Saturday, with some details to polish in Qualifying and then the penalty. On a positive note, I think the pace was there today. I was comfortable with the car, managed to do some good overtakes and overall learnt a lot out there on track. Now the focus is to carry the positive feeling of this weekend on to the next GPs and build from here. Once I start putting everything together, I know better results will come. On to Bahrain!"

James Vowles, Team Principal: "It's great to add another two points to our championship tally, with another strong and consistent performance from Alex. Near enough all cars finished in Qualifying order and my reflection on the weekend is we didn't get it all right with Carlos in traffic yesterday and that's on us as a team. In positive news Carlos' performance is in a strong place and I can't wait for next two races to see how we as a team perform and bring it all together. It's clearly an incredibly close championship battle around us and a few milliseconds is making all the difference, so we'll do everything we can to dig deep and find everything for the next few races."

Fernando Alonso: "It was a difficult race today at Suzuka and despite our best efforts we missed out on the points. The first half of the race I had Pierre [Gasly] within one-second and then Yuki [Tsunoda] close for the second half of the race, so I couldn't make a mistake. Suzuka is a great circuit, and I really enjoy racing here, but it's very hard to overtake on this track. We need to improve our car performance going forward and I'm looking forward to that development."

Lance Stroll: "Ultimately there wasn't much we could do today – we tried to make up some positions at the start, but it wasn't possible. It was still an opportunity to learn what we could, with set-ups for Bahrain, and we'll take that forward. It was just one of those days and we will see what we can do next weekend."

Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "Today's race had its challenges. We tried to seize available opportunities where we could, but in reality, there were very few. We gave our best effort with Fernando, our strategy was strong, but we ultimately finished in eleventh - just outside the points - which was the maximum we could achieve.

"Lance's starting position made it really difficult to progress through the field, especially at a track like Suzuka where overtaking is notoriously tough.

"The race has highlighted other areas we can improve; it's part of the learning and building process and we'll take these lessons forward as we head into Bahrain next weekend."

Isack Hadjar: "That was a long and exhausting race, but we did the maximum we could have done today, and honestly, I feel like we executed a perfect race, so a very well done to the team. Achieving P8 was our target today as Lewis was out of reach. We put it all together maximizing our performance, and therefore we've been able to achieve this result on merit, without benefitting from any issues of the others. I couldn't be happier to be rewarded with my first points in F1 here in Suzuka after a weekend like that. I felt comfortable in the car and I think it suited me very well. Today there was almost no degradation on track, so I was flat out all time and I didn't really leave anything on the table. Now we look at racing in Bahrain next week, and it gives us confidence as I think we can be up there too."

Liam Lawson: "Firstly, a massive well done to Isack for getting his first points in F1 today, he did a great job. On our side, it was a tough start, lap one was pretty tricky; I went a little bit wide in turn 13, and then it was just a train from there. It was hard to overtake, but I don't think from where we were it would have been possible to move from there. There's been positives to take from this weekend, in general, the car has been pretty good, obviously it takes some time to adjust and get used to it. It's been a pretty crazy few weeks and months, I just want to get into a groove and get racing. We get to go again next week with a new style of track, so we'll keep chipping away."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: "A good Sunday here in Suzuka, it's been an amazing weekend, especially from Isack, with P7 in Qualifying and P8 today in the race with some seriously fast cars behind him. That was quite something in only his third Formula One race at such a difficult track. He confirmed that talent today with a faultless race: 53 laps perfectly executed between him and the team and his first F1 points in the bag. Our car has been strong all weekend and it's encouraging for the races to come. All the teams will now be entering into an intense development race and we know we will have to work very hard to keep fighting for these good positions.

"There were also plenty of positives for Liam. He had to learn the car live during the race, with only three free practice sessions to prepare himself; he was just one tenth off Q3 yesterday. With such a tight field, and no happenings providing opportunities, it was not easy to move up the field. With a full race distance now under his belt, we are sure he will be stepping up in Bahrain."

Nico Hulkenberg: "The car didn’t feel too bad today, and I would have liked the chance to explore its full potential a bit more. But Suzuka is a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, and that really defined the race. I spent most of the time in traffic, which made it hard to make any real progress and ultimately turned it into a fairly uneventful race. That’s obviously a bit frustrating. We know there’s still work to do – both in terms of overall pace and car characteristics – and today’s race underlined that once again. It‘s still early in the season and we continue to learn with every race weekend.”

Gabriel Bortoleto: “Even though I was obviously aiming for more than the final result, I’m leaving Suzuka satisfied with how the weekend unfolded. I have learned a lot – it’s been a steady learning curve since Melbourne, and I am feeling more in control with each session. I want to thank the team both trackside and back at base in Hinwil for this, as they are always by my side with their unwavering support. Unfortunately, I didn’t get off to the best start today and found myself at the back of the pack. Climbing back through the field proved difficult, especially at a circuit like Suzuka where overtaking is notoriously tough. I’m taking all the experience and learnings with me as we head to Bahrain for the second leg of this triple header.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: “There are a lot of positives to take away from this race. Despite an unfortunate start from Gabriel, he gained competitive speed during the race and together with Nico, both cars kept pace with the lower midfield pack. Nico had another solid race and given the challenges of overtaking at Suzuka together with getting stuck in the DRS train behind Jack Doohan, he kept pushing to the very end. I want to recognise the great teamwork this weekend and in particular some encouraging pitstop times. That is a good start to the triple header and I want to thank the race team and everyone back at the factory for their support and contribution.”