“Best episode of the Max Verstappen podcast”: Lando Norris after finishing P2 in the Japanese Grand Prix

McLaren driver Lando Norris posted a picture of himself alongside Max Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri during the cooldown after the 2023 Japanese GP on Sunday.

The Briton was overjoyed with his P2 finish, as he never really looked in trouble from anyone on the grid behind him and displayed calm and skill in Suzuka during the main race. However, while in the cooldown room, he was discussing and reacting to the highlights of the race being displayed on the screen.

Lando Norris took to social media to post the picture of the three drivers and cheekily called out Max Verstappen, as the Dutch driver is always the most talkative in the cooldown rooms while debriefing the race with his competitors.

He said:

"Best episode of the Max Verstappen podcast."

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Max Verstappen analyzes his Japanese GP win on Sunday

As promised by the two-time world champion ahead of the weekend, it was a dominant display from Max Verstappen as he cruised to his 13th race win of the season in Suzuka.

The Red Bull driver was ominous from Lap 1 and had no problems throughout the race.

During his post-race press conference, Verstappen said:

"Yeah, I think it was a good race. Of course, the start was a bit tight in the first two corners, but after that, yeah, the car was very nice to drive again. I could really look after the tires well, the degradation was quite in control. Of course, I knew that our strategy was going to be a little bit different with the Medium tires, compared to two times Hard for some others but it was still OK, I think."

He continued:

"The balance was still quite OK, traction and stuff for the whole stint. So, yeah, honestly, like no real issues throughout the race, and I think that just sums up the weekend as well. It’s been an incredible weekend to drive the car."

He claimed that it was difficult for him to assess whether his win in Japan was the most dominant of the season as he finished almost 20s ahead of Norris.

He added:

"Difficult to say. It’s been a really good weekend but I’ve had some other weekends I think also where the car has been really nice to drive. I mean, sometimes it’s not only your car but it also depends on the competition of course, how big of a gap it is."

It will be interesting to see if Max Verstappen can win his third straight world championship in Qatar in a couple of weeks.