The Latest Breaking News on Formula 1

A surge in competitiveness by McLaren since a mid-season upgrade has left the Woking-based squad just 49 points behind Aston Martin in the fight for fourth place in the constructors' championship.

The Dutchman was announced on Wednesday as having returned to the all-electric championship with Mahindra on a multi-year deal after been sacked by the AlphaTauri F1 team earlier this year.

The announcement means DS Penske will remain as the only team on the grid to run two former champions, with Vergne a two-time title winner in FE (2017-18 and 2018-19) and Vandoorne the last driver to win the championship in the series’ previous Gen2 era.

Since the sprint race at the Barcelona round earlier this month, Bagnaia has seen his championship lead whittled down from 66 points to just 13 ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.

Reigning world champion Bagnaia has bled points since the Catalan Grand Prix, having started that race with a 66-point lead over Pramac’s Martin.

Martin endured an eventful grand prix at the Buddh International Circuit on his way to second, as his leathers opened during the race before he started to suffer from severe dehydration.

Not for the first time this year, Perez struggled to get going in Japan after having issues to get the RB19 balanced to his liking in Friday practice.

As expected, normal service was resumed at Suzuka, with Verstappen scoring his 13th win of the season and clinching Red Bull’s second consecutive constructors’ crown, putting it just one behind Lotus in the all-time list. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for enjoying the performance of a great driver…

In the four races held since the summer break, Ferrari has passed Aston Martin for third place in the constructors’ championship, and cut the deficit to Mercedes in second from 56 points to 20, while Carlos Sainz became the first non-Red Bull winner of the season in Singapore.