McLaren made an “operational error” in their defeat to Red Bull’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix, it has bee🔯n claimed.

Verstappen fended off a challenge from the McLarens of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lando Norris and168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Oscar Piastri to claim his fi♈rst victory of the 2025 season in Sunday’s race at ❀Suzuka.

Despite having what is regarded as being only the fourth-fastest car, Verstappen produc💯ed a truly astonishing lap to take pole position, which he masterfully converted into the win despite race-long pressure from the quicker McLarens behind.

McLaren’s strategy came un🍸der fire, as did their decision not to swap their drivers and enable Piastri - who appeared faster in the closing stages - t🧸o try and put pressure on Verstappen.

"This is what happens when you are dealing with the Dutch lion that is Verstapꦍpen. If you get outqualified by him, you lose the race,” Sky Sports F1 pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz said.

"This has got to be the first operational error by McLar🍬en this year - but what a drive by Max.”

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve said: “McLaren don’t seem overly disappointed which is strange as they should have been first ꦑand second.

"The🔯y w🍬ere not slow but beaten by a team and driver who were better than them and that should hurt.”

Th💫e result strengthened McLaren’s position at the top of the construc෴tors’ world championship.

McLaren are 36 points clear of Mercedes andඣ 50 ahead of Red Bull🏅.

However, Verstappen’s first win of 2025 has moved hi❀m to within a point of early championship leader Norris.

Piastri has moved up to third in the drivers’ standings, 13 points behind his McLaren ꦏteammate.

McLaren explain strategy

“Certainly the race was mostly decided yesterday when Verstappe🐲n managed to score the pole position,” team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports.

“There wasn't much action going on in the race. I think the pit stop timing was pretty much set by thꦛe other people pitting, not too much to play with, and we ended up with the same result as qualifying.

“A good result still for us. We got a lot of points and so it was encouraging again for our ca𒅌r but we see the others are not far behind and sometime🧸s ahead.

"We saw that staying out would not have🦹 ♉been faster than pitting. We saw that from [Mercedes'] George Russell, who was fast on the hard tyres after pitting.

“Clearly there wasn’t the possibility like there is sometimes to go for the overc🥀ut. You stay out and you try to go faster than the car that pitted. But today it was not possible.”

Asked 🍎why McဣLaren did not let Piastri have a go at attacking Verstappen, Stella replied: "It takes about eight tenths of a second to attack the car ahead.

“As soon as🅠 you get within one second you have dirty air and performance drops. It’s fair that Oscar makes the comment but I think that today it was not possible to overtake.”