April 6. 2025
Max Verstappen wins an uneventful Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit
Early morning rain had fallen over the Suzuka circuit, which was exactly what the Japanese Grand Prix needed to keep all the grass fires that have happened during the practice and qualifying sessions under control.
However, not even the pre-race rain could help create an entertaining atmosphere on the circuit, as quite literally nothing happened in this race after the opening seconds following lights out, where Max Verstappen edged out the two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from poll to maintain his lead.
See Also: Max Verstappen takes poll for the 4th straight year in Japan
From that moment on, the Japanese grand prix was practically a parade around the Suzuka circuit. There were no grass fires, no flags – red or any other color, and there certainly wasn’t any over-taking or actual racing going on.
No. The race was a single-file parade around the race track that saw only one position exchanged with the top ten from start to finish. That’s just one change from the line-up that completed the finally qualifying session yesterday. One. One change. The Japanese Grand Prix was determined by qualifying on Saturday, where Verstappen put in an unearthly lap to come from out of nowhere and usurp pole position from under the nose of Norris.
Lewis Hamilton passing Isack Hadjar, once the chequered flag had been waived, was the sole positioning change of the ten cars that ran the final qualifying run on Saturday. Simply put – that is a problem. The Suzuka circuit has never really been known to have a lot of passing, but with the cars growing wider all the time, less are the passing opportunities.
Furthermore, it wasn’t as if Verstappen had run away with the race either – both McLaren’s were within striking distance of his Red Bull throughout the whole race. There simply weren’t any opportunities for drivers to challenge for positions or make passes. It took a seven-time world champion to make the only notable pass, and he did that over a young man who was in just his third career Formula One race.
Even the drivers racing in the race found it a snooze, as both Alex Albon and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso both commented at how boring the race had been – and of course, had to walk back on those comments so as to not earn the scorn of those in charge. Formula One has a problem. Everyone knows it, but it can’t be spoken about – and gimmicks like Sprint qualifying are but a bandaid solution for problems that really need serious attention.
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Sitting watching this race almost had me wishing for a grass fire to spruce up the action a little bit, but the stewards had taken that under control just well enough to make even that a non-issue.
Formula One now packs up and heads to Sakhir, for the Grand Prix of Bahrain in a week’s time.
