Max Verstappen added another pearl to his string of victories, with a dominant performance in the Japanese Grand Prix.

This was the Dutchman's third consecutive win at Suzuka, the 57th of his career. Sergio Perez ensured that Red Bull scored its third one-two finish of the season, its 31st in total.

Carlos Sainz finished third, making it his third podium finish in as many race starts this year, after he missed Jeddah with appendicitis. For his Ferrari team it was a 25th Japanese Grand Prix podium, a total only beaten by McLaren's 27.

For the start, there was a pretty even split between the 20 drivers in terms of those who opted for the Medium (all in the top ten except Alonso, plus Ricciardo, Tsunoda and Zhou) and those who went with the Soft. However, the red flag on the opening lap meant that seven drivers - the Mercedes and Alpine pairs, Sargeant, Tsunoda and Zhou - all took the opportunity to switch compounds. The Mercedes duo went from Medium to Hard, both Alpines and Sargeant in the Williams went from Soft to Medium, Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) and Zhou (Sauber) from Medium to Soft.

The restart meant the race was effectively shortened by two laps, with the original opening lap and the one to the grid for the second start still valid. Teams thus went for various strategic options both in terms of the number of pit stops and in their use of the available compounds. The most used was the C1 (545 laps, 60%), with the C2 next (281 laps, 31%) with not much in the way of difference in terms of degradation.

While the Hard and Medium were the most popular, the Soft (81 laps completed, 9% of the total) also had a role to play, either at the start or in the closing stages, despite it demonstrating significant degradation.

Final Results Summary: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon

Japanese GP - Final Results

POS	DRIVER			TEAM		LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS


1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	53	1:54:23.566	26
2	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	53	+12.535s	18
3	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI			53	+20.866s	15
4	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI			53	+26.522s	12
5	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	53	+29.700s	10
6	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO 	53	+44.272s	8
7	George Russell	MERCEDES		53	+45.951s	6
8	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	53	+47.525s	4
9	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES		53	+48.626s	2
10	Yuki Tsunoda	RB HONDA RBPT		52	+1 lap		1
11	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI		52	+1 lap		0
12	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO 	52	+1 lap		0
13	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI		52	+1 lap		0
14	Valtteri Bottas	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	52	+1 lap		0
15	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT		52	+1 lap		0
16	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT		52	+1 lap		0
17	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	52	+1 lap		0
NC	Zhou Guanyu	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	12	DNF		0
NC	Daniel RicciardoRB HONDA RBPT		0	DNF		0
NC	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	0	DNF		0

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media)