Verstappen seals Red Bull Constructors' title with 13th win of season

Max Verstappen sealed his 13th victory of the season and a second Constructors' Championship in a row for Red Bull, after winning the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver comfortably led from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, after the latter pitted during an early Virtual Safety Car.

This meant Norris had a tyre advantage later on in the stint, which McLaren decided to use to their advantage and swap both the cars to protect from George Russell who was on a one-stop.

The undercut was expected to be powerful at this race due to the high tyre degradation, which is why McLaren went for Hard tyres for both their drivers after their first pit stops.

Ferrari elected to go on the alternate strategy with both their drivers by putting them on the Medium's, however this left them vulnerable in the final stint when McLaren pitted earlier and emerged ahead.

Charles Leclerc emerged behind the Mercedes of George Russell in the battle for fourth, but pulled off a great move at the first corner after a stern defence from the Briton.

Both Alpine's utilised their extra sets of Hard tyres to get back into the points, with Esteban Ocon fighting back after an earlier collision in the race.

Perez crashes out as field reduced to 15 cars

Sergio Pérez suffered Red Bull's first DNF of the season when he made contact with Kevin Magnussen fighting to get back into the points.

The Red Bull driver made an optimistic move at the hairpin and damaged his front wing, causing the stewards to issue a five-second time penalty.

It was the second penalty of the race for Perez, following an earlier time penalty for passing cars under Safety Car. Red Bull later elected to retire his car due to the amount of damage sustained, capping off a difficult weekend for the Mexican.

The Safety Car was out after a first-lap collision involving Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, and Alex Albon.

Bottas crossed over to Albon and caused damage to the Williams, with both having to pit for repairs on the opening lap. Zhou Guanyu also picked up damage as a result of the collision, and had to change his front wing.

Yet more headache would hit Bottas when Logan Sargeant collided with him at the hairpin, which eventually ended both their races.

Lance Stroll would later become the next retiree due to rear wing damage sustained earlier in the race.