Max climbed three places from his grid spot to finish eighth at the flag, while Isack lost out during a Safety Car period that left him crossing the line in P12
At lights out, both front-row starting Mercedes cars made a terrible start. And as they bogged down, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri sailed through to take the lead. The Australian was followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the second McLaren of current world champion, Lando Norris.
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Hear from the Team after the Race in Suzuka
Behind them, Isack got away well to hold his starting position of P8, while after difficult race starts in Australia and China, Max got away cleanly, powering around the outside of Esteban Ocon’s Haas in Turn 1 to take tenth place.
The Dutchman soon bettered that, though unfortunately it was at the expense of Isack who was not faring well in the opening laps. The French driver was passed by VCARB’s Arvid Lindblad and then by Max. The Dutchman then quickly arrowed in on Arvid, and by lap four Max had passed the teenager to take P8.
Isack was fighting back, however, and the Frenchman soon got involved in a thrilling multi-lap tussle for 10th with Arvid. The rookie driver took the battle over the limit, however, and he was soon shown a black and white flag for moving under braking.
Lap 17 was when we started seeing the first of the front runners heading into the pits, with Lando being the first, closely followed by Charles who had been passed by Kimi Antonelli. The pair emerged behind Max, with the Ferrari driver ahead of the McLaren. Next in was race leader Oscar and as George Russell took the lead the McLaren driver fitted Hard tyres and he too emerged behind Max, though, importantly for him, ahead of Charles and Lando.
Behind them Arvid bailed out of the battle with Isack and on lap 19 the VCARB driver headed for the pit lane. It was a slow stop, and sensing an opportunity, the team quickly pitted Isack for the undercut. After a short halt to bolt on a set of Hard tyres, the Frenchman rejoined in P15 ahead of the teenager.
George made his stop from the lead at the end of lap 21 but just as the Mercedes driver rejoined the yellow flags were flown and with Ollie Bearman’s Haas lodged in the barriers at the exit of Spoon and the Safety Car was immediately deployed.
The Haas driver had attempted to pass Alpine’s Franco Colapinto but ended up losing control and slid hard into the barriers at high speed, hitting them at around 50G. Thankfully, Ollie was able to climb out of his car but after limping away, he had to sit and wait for the medical car to arrive.
The Safety Car handed a number of drivers a pit stop, and it was Kimi who benefited most, immediately jumping ahead of Oscar, George, Lewis and Charles.
Max also took advantage and switched to Hard tyres, but with Lewis and Pierre doing the same ahead of him, the Dutchman rejoined in P8 behind the SC. As others saved time in their stops, Isack slid to P13, behind Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg. The SC peeled off at the end of lap 27 and Kimi held his lead in front of Oscar. Lewis was on the move, however, and he muscled his way past George to briefly claim a podium spot.
Max was also trying to make his way forward, quickly embroiled in a close battle all the way to the flag with Pierre. But although Max tried, his former team-mate defended resolutely and crossed the line just three tenths of a second ahead keeping Max in P8.
For this race I tried everything I could to get back into the points and work myself forward. I had a better start, maximised my race and recovered positions. I tried to pass the Alpine, but Pierre did a good job with no mistakes and made it unfortunately too difficult. When trying to overtake, there was no battery on the main straight; I was waiting to see if he might make a small mistake, but he did everything well and there was no way to pass by.
Max continued, “we ultimately scored good points considering the issues that we had this weekend, but it was not really where we want to fight. Now of course we have a month to analyse everything so we can be more competitive and sort more things with the car. It will be important to work to find a bit more rhythm and understand more about the car, the engine and deployment. Everyone is working flat out and doing the best they can and there is a lot that we can do over the next few weeks."
Max climbed three places from his grid spot to finish eighth
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It was a similar story for Isack as he battled hard to recover from the time lost to the Safety Car but in the end, he crossed the line in 12th place, four seconds behind Nico.
Today felt like a long race for us
Isack continued, “I had a good start and a strong first lap, the plan was to fight with Pierre, and I was able to do that until the back straight where I lost a lot of battery. We need to improve our deployment, as we really struggled with it today. The timing of the Safety Car was also unfortunate and after that we found it hard to get back into the points. I had a good fight with the Audis but didn't have the pace to get passed them. Everyone is working hard to understand the issues, and we now have until Miami to put ourselves in a better position.”
At the top of the order, Kimi stretched away in the closing stages to take his second consecutive win, 14 seconds clear of Oscar. Charles defended well against George to take the final podium spot, while Lando finished fifth ahead of Lewis, Pierre and Max. The final two points positions went to VCARB’s Liam Lawson and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto.