Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix Prediction: Crisis? What’s that? Verstappen dominated at Suzuka

Last weekend we had the street track, this time we have Suzuka in question, a track known as what drivers call 'old school'. Suzuka will be the scene of a new fight for victory, podiums and points. The teams and drivers transferred their equipment to Japan after their stay in Singapore, so they did not return to their headquarters. Last race weekend we saw a new technical directive prepared by the FIA for teams to deal with flexible wings, both front and rear, and the governing body is asking all teams to have a clear understanding of the limits they can go to. How much this directive has affected some teams, and the most mentioned in the paddock is Red Bull, which until Singapore was the only team with all the victories in the current season, will be seen at the Japanese Grand Prix. On the other hand, Mercedes currently holds second place in the Constructors' Championship. Here they will look for extra points to increase their advantage. In the last race, Ferrari took the first victory of the current season and thus ended Red Bull's winning streak. The Italian team wants to transfer that momentum to Suzuka, and their performance this weekend will be especially important because there are a lot of fast corners here.

After a troubled weekend in Singapore, Max Verstappen is once again dominating Formula 1. In qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, he won pole position with a huge advantage, which he was very pleased with. The race weekend at the Suzuka track is completely dominated by Max Verstappen for now. The two-time world champion had the fastest laps in all three free practice sessions, and he confirmed his power in qualifying by winning the pole position with a time of 1:28.877. Max confirmed that his Red Bull is "flying" again, after that traumatic experience in Singapore a week ago, when he failed to enter Q3 in the qualifications. Verstappen's closest followers were the McLaren drivers, but the reality is that they remained very, very far from the first position. Oscar Piastri won second place with a gap of a little less than six tenths of a second (+0.581), while Lando Norris was three and a half hundredths slower than his teammate. Such a big difference was last seen at Suzuka in 2003 when Rubens Barrichello won pole position ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya with an advantage of 0.699 seconds.

If Red Bull scores more points than Mercedes in Sunday's race and does not score 24 points less than Ferrari, the constructors' title will be secured. According to everything seen, the only thing that can stop Max on his way to victory is a crash or a breakdown of the car. The real battle will be between McLaren and Ferrari for a place on the podium. After what we saw from Ferrari in the last race I believe that they can have both cars in the top 6 in this race in Japan.

OUR PREDICTION: Both Ferrari’s in the top 6