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00:0053 laps to come here at Suzuka, where it's lights out, and away we go!
00:06Verstappen gets away better than Norris and cuts him off straight away.
00:09Piastri slots into third, ahead of Charles Leclerc, and then come the two Mercedes.
00:13It's Verstappen in the turn one ahead, and now it all gets concertina'd together.
00:18Round the outside, there is the racing bull of Isaac Hadjer, ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
00:24It's Verstappen from Norris, and then comes Oscar Piastri.
00:27The top three are getting away well, Fernando Alonso under pressure,
00:30battling away with Pierre Gasly as they go up through the S's.
00:33It is a lot, but it only helps.
00:36Oh, oh, Antonelli at the chicane, that is not the way to take that.
00:41No, definitely not, and they will have a look to see if he's gained any distance on the car.
00:47Double-edged sword there, you're not sure what the best situation is.
00:50That's what George Russell's facing at the moment behind Charles Leclerc.
00:54So, Verstappen got the better launch, and cut off any threat from Lando Norris straight away.
00:59He did, but Norris was really good, aggressive into turn one, was on the outside,
01:03and Piastri was really far behind. He backed off into that turn one,
01:08to give space for his teammate to do a fight with Verstappen ahead.
01:13Saw Fernando Alonso briefly getting ahead of Pierre Gasly,
01:17and then that carried on that battle, and he did manage to stay ahead in 11th.
01:21As we can watch now, as from Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes,
01:26Isaac Hadja right behind him, and this is where it all gets very close for comfort,
01:31and you can almost hear the drivers shouting over the engines as you go into turn two.
01:35Yeah, because they want to be aggressive, they get hard on the gas,
01:38they don't want to be overtaken, but the tires are not yet up to temperature,
01:41and that's when they get caught out.
01:43Gabriel Bortoletto, caught out by Dampach, I think, there.
01:45A lot of wheel spin, and quickly passed by Esteban Ocon.
01:49And he backed off of it as well. Okay, we're at the back anyway, let's not do anything stupid.
01:54Yeah, as through go the soft-tire runners, Duin and Obstroll,
02:00and this is the Gasly-Alonso battle.
02:04They were running wheel-to-wheel for pretty much all of the 3.6 miles that encompass the first lap,
02:09and god, how close did they get there?
02:11Yeah, but what you don't see there, this close,
02:14the driver behind is actually taking the air out of the driver ahead,
02:17and it slows down the driver ahead.
02:19Not enough for Pierre Gasly.
02:21Look how much closer Oscar Piastri has now got to Lando Norris.
02:26He's got DRS, one DRS zone here down the main straight.
02:30Norris hasn't got that extra advantage on the straight in his battle that he's losing out to at the moment.
02:38Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, who he said got past Nico Hülkenberg,
02:41that's where that happened at the hairpin.
02:43In his junior career, and also in his career in F1 so far,
02:47he's not quite within range yet, as Carlos Sainz has a little lock-up going into the chicane.
02:54Sainz behind Liam Lawson.
02:57Verstappen is coming in, Lando Norris is coming in, and also Charles Leclerc.
03:02So the top three on the road, as it were, are all making their stops,
03:05and this is where the pit crew can make a huge difference with a speedy start.
03:10But that looked a little bit unsteady for Lando Norris,
03:14but it was a second faster than Max Verstappen when he was stationary.
03:18Oh, and it's Norris onto the grass!
03:21Max Verstappen stays ahead of Lando Norris.
03:24He gained a second, did Norris, on Verstappen in the pit stops.
03:28Norris for one moment thought, you know what, there's an overtake chance here,
03:32but it all went a little bit wrong for him.
03:33Fortunately, for his sake, he is still ahead of Behrmann.
03:37He forced me off.
03:38OK, we're on it.
03:39This is what happened now with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
03:43Leclerc at the end of the pit lane.
03:45Really good stop.
03:47And there's Verstappen just coming into view.
03:51Oh, no.
03:52Did...
03:54Was it ever going to work for Lando Norris?
03:57Verstappen keeps the same line here, doesn't veer over to the right,
04:01he's looking in the mirror.
04:02He drove himself into the grass.
04:04Yeah, we know the game.
04:06How's your arm?
04:08He didn't do anything wrong there.
04:09He was on his line.
04:10Also, he pressed the pit lifter off too early.
04:13There's no way he'd bump a seagull.
04:15How can he tell?
04:16How can he tell from there?
04:18OK, Lando, they said no further action on the pit exit.
04:20Just means we'll have to overtake him on track.
04:23Doing a good job with the tyres.
04:24Better job than he is.
04:27We're on board now with the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda.
04:32This is another driver caught out under braking into the chicane.
04:36He did lose time through the chicane.
04:38And, well, Hamilton is just picking up the pace.
04:41A record in the first sector.
04:44So his hard times now are working quite well.
04:48And keeps the racing bull at bay.
04:50Hadger, though, is going to come back for a little bit more.
04:53Sights on older tyres, medium tyres,
04:56that he's run from the start of this race, goes towards the inside.
04:59Hadger goes around the outside.
05:00It was a little bit uncertain,
05:02but knew he had the pace to clear that Williams.
05:05Just proved there that he's got the determination as Isaac Hadger
05:10after his seatbelt pressure problems of yesterday.
05:14And driving through the pain barrier in qualifying.
05:16That will certainly put a smile on his face.
05:18Important move on Alex Eterbom.
05:20Because his fight today, Hadger, was with Lewis Hamilton.
05:23And he needed to clear that Williams as quickly as he possibly could.
05:28On the last lap.
05:31What are we going to watch here?
05:32Lock up again from Lewis Hamilton.
05:35Came into the pits and got back out ahead of Isaac Hadger,
05:38who was the driver who started one place behind on the grid.
05:41And Antonelli can wait.
05:42He had a big gap over Lewis Hamilton.
05:44So he can do a lap or two and still come out with this ahead of him.
05:49And that's what it looked like from the rear.
05:51I really like the way I'm slowing.
05:548.9 and 13.40.
05:56OK, but how much?
05:58Yeah, value.
05:59Yeah, 1.10, 8 and 9.
06:03We suggest engine braking plus one.
06:06Yes, you've already done this.
06:07I don't do it for a reason.
06:11He's breaking the 1, 2, 3.
06:13Separated by a few car lengths.
06:15And this is Kimi Antonelli into the chicane.
06:18Yeah, and he's a bit more right-handed.
06:20He has not been any closer than this to his teammate down the main straight.
06:2517 kilometers an hour.
06:27Extra pace.
06:28He is gaining on Norris.
06:29He's gaining on Norris.
06:30He can't quite get wheel-to-wheel with the other McLaren going through and into Turn 1.
06:36And you can see there just how twitchy it is for Oscar Piastri through those exits.
06:40We've been talking about Carlos Sainz, who's been trying to make progress up the field.
06:46Gets a nice slipstream and DRS advantage behind Jack Dewan.
06:50And that'll be an overtake for Carlos Sainz, I would imagine.
06:54Let's have a little look.
06:55He's trying to go around the outside.
06:56Dewan didn't have the pace.
06:58They went into this race, Red Bull level, with McLaren and Ferrari on seven wins here at Suzuka.
07:03They are going to make it eight for the team.
07:06And Max Verstappen with just three more corners to go now.
07:09It's going to become the first driver to win four consecutive races here at Suzuka.
07:14What a performance from the reigning champion.
07:17Max Verstappen wins the Japanese Grand Prix.
07:20McLaren have to settle for second and third.
07:24Lando Norris stays ahead in the championship.
07:27It's just a point between the drivers now.
07:29Max Verstappen started first, finished first.
07:32Never in doubt.
07:35That's perfection.
07:37Just perfection, Max.
07:39Fantastic.
07:41Wow.
07:43Thank you, guys.
07:44Wow.
07:45Oh, what an unbelievable weekend.
07:47What a great turnaround after the difficult start.
07:51You see, we never give up.
07:53We keep pushing together.
07:55Well done, everyone.
07:56Max, that was one of your finest weekends.
07:58That was a truly inspirational performance.
08:01So, as you say, never, ever give up.
08:03All to play for.
08:04Well done, mate.
08:05Exactly that.
08:06We keep pushing.
08:08Yeah, unbelievable.
08:10What a great, great weekend for us.