Max Verstappen admitted it was a “crazy 48 hours” to get his Red Bull RB21 in a winning position, acknowledging they “definitely overperformed” at Suzuka.

Verstappen upset the form book by narrowly taking pole position from the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, holding on in the race to take his first victory of the season.

Max Verstappen reveals ‘crazy 48 hours’ to ‘turn around’ Red Bull RB21

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo

Having ranked P5, P8 and P5 respectively in all three practice sessions, Verstappen was able to pip the McLarens to pole before a controlled drive secured a fourth victory in a row at Suzuka on Sunday.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed significant experimentation had taken place on Verstappen’s RB21 throughout the weekend, in order to put him in a position to challenge.

Horner said of Verstappen to reporters after the race: “We literally turned the car upside down setup-wise; he’s worked very hard with the engineering team.

“Finally, we were able to give him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday, with the most stunning lap, and then converted that today in a hard-fought victory in a straight fight, puts him one point behind in the in the Drivers’ Championship.

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“So, we leave Japan still with plenty of work to do, but huge motivation.

“Ride heights, weight distributions, wing levels, rollbars, almost every adjustment on the car. we’ve been through this weekend, and it just demonstrates, if you keep working hard and you never give up, anything is possible.

“Max has been been stunning this weekend, and demonstrated once again why I think he’s the best driver on the grid.”

Verstappen himself admitted there had been quite a turnaround compared to Red Bull’s practice form in the race on Sunday, and while the Japanese Grand Prix was a race where overtaking was at a premium, was full of praise for the result he was able to achieve.

“It’s been a crazy last 48 hours to turn the situation around compared to Friday,” Verstappen told DAZN.

“I’m super happy with what we achieved. We definitely overperformed. I think the colder conditions helped because we didn’t overheat the tyres, but I’m very pleased with the result. Winning here against the McLarens, I think we can be especially happy.

“We still have our problems, but with everything that happened in the race and the tyres not overheating…we still have work to do on the car’s balance, but we’re pushing to fix it.

“But what more can I say… I’m very happy with today’s result. Now it’s time to focus on next week.”

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