Verstappen claims a record fourth straight Suzuka win, while Antonelli becomes the youngest F1 driver ever to lead a Grand Prix.
As we do after every Grand Prix, it’s time to highlight the most significant statistics, broken records, and ongoing streaks or those that came to an abrupt end over the weekend.
Qualifying Highlights: Max Verstappen became the fourth different pole sitter of the season, following Lando Norris in Australia, Lewis Hamilton during the Sprint in China, and Oscar Piastri for the Chinese Grand Prix.
With a blistering lap time of 1:26.983, Verstappen secured the fastest pole in Suzuka’s history, marking his first front-row start of the year.
He remains unbeaten at Suzuka in both qualifying and racing since 2019.
This pole is Verstappen’s fourth at Suzuka, bringing him close to Sebastian Vettel (5 poles) and Michael Schumacher (8 poles) at this circuit.
Honda celebrated its home pole in what is the final season of its partnership with Red Bull.
Oscar Piastri, who qualified third, missed out on his first front-row start of the year.
Charles Leclerc has not made it to the top 4 on the grid since the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
George Russell had his worst qualifying result of the season… yet still managed his best-ever start at Suzuka.
This marks the first time since 2019 that two Mercedes drivers qualified in the top 6 at Suzuka.
Isack Hadjar qualified 7th, matching his best-ever position with Racing Bulls and marking the team’s best result in Japan since 2018.
Lewis Hamilton’s 8th place equaled his worst start at Suzuka since 2012.
Another strong showing from Williams, with Alex Albon qualifying 9th – the team’s best result in Suzuka since Felipe Massa’s 8th place in 2017.
Ollie Bearman secured Haas’s first Q3 appearance of the season and the team’s best start at Suzuka since 2019.
Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on Q3, finishing 11th, just 0.039 seconds behind, closely followed by Carlos Sainz (+0.014), who also faced a 3-place grid penalty.
Fernando Alonso, qualifying 13th, had not started this far back at Suzuka since 2018 (18th).
Liam Lawson, back with Racing Bulls, made his best-ever qualification performance, reaching Q2 for the first time this season.
Yuki Tsunoda, now at Red Bull, was outqualified by both Racing Bulls drivers and failed to reach Q3 for the first time this year. It was, however, the first time the second Red Bull driver had made it to Q2 in 2025.
Nico Hülkenberg was eliminated in Q1 for the second time in three races, while his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto was just 0.052 seconds behind.
Esteban Ocon, for the first time since 2016, was beaten in qualifying by his young teammate and eliminated in Q1.
Jack Doohan, who faced his second consecutive Q1 elimination, gave Alpine their worst starting position in Japan since 2014.
Finally, Lance Stroll qualified 20th, marking his fourth consecutive failure to reach Q2 at Suzuka.
Race Highlights: Max Verstappen became the first driver to win four consecutive Grands Prix at Suzuka.
This was his 64th career victory, exactly double the number of wins Fernando Alonso has.
Honda celebrated a home victory in their final Grand Prix with Red Bull in Japan.
With eight wins at Suzuka, Red Bull surpassed Ferrari and McLaren to become the most successful team at this circuit.
Up until this race, Verstappen had only led two laps this season.
Lando Norris finished second and maintained his lead in the driver’s championship, holding a one-point advantage over Verstappen.
Oscar Piastri secured third place, helping McLaren break a record by becoming the most successful team in podium finishes at Suzuka, with 26 podiums.
Piastri extended his record streak of 29 consecutive races in the points – the longest active streak.
The top three – Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri – finished in the same order as they qualified, with a tight gap between them.
Charles Leclerc once again missed out on the podium, finishing 4th for the third consecutive year at Suzuka. However, this was Ferrari’s best result of the season (though Leclerc had finished 5th in China before his disqualification).
This was Leclerc’s 150th career race start.
The top four finished in the same order as last year’s Japan GP.
George Russell, in 5th, achieved his best Suzuka result.
Kimi Antonelli, in 6th, became the youngest driver in F1 history to lead a race, at just 18 years and 224 days. He also set the fastest lap, becoming the youngest driver to achieve this feat, beating Verstappen’s previous record from 2016 in Brazil.
In a unique occurrence, the top six finishers matched the top six positions from the grid for the first time on a permanent circuit. This had only happened previously in Monaco 2018, Singapore 2018, and Monaco 2024 on street circuits (excluding the famous 2021 Belgian GP).
Piastri, with his birthday on race day, could have become only the third driver to win on their birthday, but he still became the seventh to land on the podium on such a special day, following in the footsteps of Chris Amon, Carlos Pace, James Hunt (winner), Carlos Reutemann, Jean Alesi (winner), and Rubens Barrichello.
This marked the first time since 2013 that three drivers had won the opening three races of the season. In 2013, it was Räikkönen, Vettel, and Alonso.
Since 2013, there has always been a double podium for one team in Japan: Vettel-Webber (2013), Hamilton-Rosberg (2014, 2015, 2016), Verstappen-Ricciardo (2017), Hamilton-Bottas (2018, 2019), Verstappen-Pérez (2022, 2024), and Norris-Piastri (2023, 2025).
Lewis Hamilton finished 7th, his best result since joining Ferrari. He was also the only driver in the top 10 to gain a position during the race.
At Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar scored his first F1 points with a fantastic 8th-place finish, marking the team’s first points of the season. He became the 39th French driver to score in F1.
Alex Albon, finishing 9th, ended a run of three consecutive retirements at Suzuka. It was his first points at this circuit since 2019.
Oliver Bearman rounded off the top 10, giving Haas their first points in Japan since 2018. The young Brit scored points in two consecutive races.
Fernando Alonso, 11th, managed to finish a Grand Prix for the first time this season.
Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th, matching Liam Lawson’s result in the previous race.
All 20 cars crossed the finish line, marking only the fifth time since the start of last season that this has happened and the third time at Suzuka, following 2015 and 2016.
Since 2018, mechanical failure has only caused one retirement in Japan: Zhou Guanyu’s in 2024.
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Post-Japan Grand Prix: Verstappen and Antonelli Break Records Post-Japan Grand Prix: Verstappen and Antonelli Break Records