“Perfection, just perfection, Max,” was the succinct summary of Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, a cool character not usually prone to such hyperbole. It spoke volumes of the result that Verstappen had delivered on Sunday.

McLaren remains the team to beat in Formula 1, but Max Verstappen’s victorious drive for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix Sunday proves only excellence is good enough. 2nd and 3rd placed Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri still have the fastest all-round car for McLaren on the F1 grid.