“Fired up” Verstappen told me he would win F1 Japanese GP by 20 seconds

Verstappen crushed the opposition in Suzuka by taking his 13th victory of the season from pole by 19.3 seconds over McLaren’s Lando Norris.

The result secured Red Bull’s sixth constructors’ title on the home circuit of its power unit partner Honda and also moved Verstappen to the brink of a third straight drivers’ championship.

The win came one week after Red Bull’s first defeat of 2023 in an off-kilter Singapore Grand Prix,…