Max Verstappen overcomes early season woes to win Japanese Grand Prix

Red Bull champion becomes first driver to secure four victories in a row at Suzuka

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen after winning the Japanese GP at the Suzuka Circuit. Getty Images

World champion Max Verstappen brushed aside his early season misery with a fourth successive pole-to-flag victory at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.

Verstappen kept the dominant McLarens at bay with relative ease for his first win of the year.

The Red Bull driver sealed his 64th grand prix victory to a huge ovation from the 115,000 crowd. He finished 1.4 seconds ahead of McLaren's championship leader Lando Norris in second place.

"I am incredibly happy. This weekend started off quite tough but we didn't give up, kept improving the car. Today it was on its best form," said Verstappen, the first driver to win four times in a row at Suzuka.

“It was fun, just pushing very hard at the end," Verstappen added. “The two McLarens were pushing very hard. We didn’t give up improving the car and today it was in its best form.

“Of course, starting on the pole – that's what make it possible to win this race.”

Norris's lead over Verstappen in the drivers' standings was slashed to one point after a race that was effectively decided in Saturday's qualifying.

"Max drove a good race today, no mistakes," said Norris, who won the season-opening race in Melbourne.

"It was a flat-out race from start to finish, so tough, but just not enough today, nothing special that we had that we could get Max on."

Verstappen broke a mini-slump of only two wins in his previous 16 races, disrupting the momentum of the McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri, who won the season’s first two races in Melbourne and Shanghai.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished fourth followed by George Russell of Mercedes and teammate Kimi Antonelli in sixth.

The weekend probably turned when Verstappen took the pole on his record last lap Saturday in qualifying.

Sunday' start was clean with Verstappen taking the lead with the top starters on the grid falling into line behind him. Verstappen slowly stretched his lead and was two seconds ahead of Norris after 10 of 53 laps and kept the same advantage after 15.

Most of the leaders pitted around the 20-lap mark. Verstappen and Norris exited the pits at almost exactly the same time with Norris driving over the grass, unable to get by Verstappen.

Stewards said almost immediately the incident did not merit further investigation. Norris admitted later it was just part of racing.

"Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space, in a good way, in a racing way," he said.

Antonelli led briefly in the middle of the race. At 18 he is the youngest to ever lead in F1 race.

Norris had to fend off Piastri, the Australian telling his team that he had the pace to challenge the race leader.

Lewis Hamilton again appeared to be having teething issues with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami wanting more information on where he could go faster as he made no impression back in seventh.

The overnight weather helped banish the issue of grass fires which had disrupted several sessions throughout the weekend, including red-flagging qualifying.

McLaren's double podium extended their lead in the constructors' title race to 36 points over Mercedes. McLaren have 111 points, Mercedes are second on 75 with Red Bull third on 61, all scored by Verstappen.