Verstappen: If I'd been in the McLaren, you wouldn't have seen me

Verstappen stunned onlookers, not to mention Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, when he took pole for the Japanese Grand Prix in what is effectively the fourth fastest car on the grid.

And while Norris and Piastri kept in touch with the four-time Formula 1 champion during the race on Sunday, his lead was never threatened as he drove a beautifully judged race to take his 64th career win.

Verstappen's pole meant he finished the toughest part of the job as overtaking proved difficult in the 53-lap race even with the aid of DRS.

Speaking to Viaplay on Sunday, Verstappen: "When I came here, I didn't expect to win here at all—and after Friday, not at all.

"Starting on pole was the most important thing this weekend. McLaren, I think, was faster, but they couldn't get into the DRS to make a move."

Verstappen was quizzed whether his win was down to his prowess as an F1 driver; he responded: "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 jokingly claimed.

However, the Dutchman did not fail to give credit to the team that supported him from the pitwall; he added: "In the end, it's always a team that works well together, with GP [Gianpiero Lambiase].

"This weekend I also had another performance engineer. I worked with him until the end of 2020 as well, and that actually went really well.

"In the end, we made the right choices before we went into qualifying. If you listen to the onboards, it runs very smoothly between me and GP. Those are things that are very important, though," he insisted.

But Verstappen was wary not to be too optimistic, saying: "This was a great result, but it was difficult to overtake, and qualifying was very important here.

"This does not mean that we are going to win all the races, but we can be very happy with this," he concluded.

Verstappen remained second in the 2025 F1 drivers' championship, one point behind rival Norris.