Verstappen erupts over team radio as Red Bull’s Japan frustration boils over

The four-time world champion, who had witnessed his season follow a similar theme – frustrating – did not hold back after failing to make any significant improvement on his push lap at the Suzuka Circuit.

Verstappen, who was largely hovering between second and third among the front-runners, soon took to his radio to air his frustrations. The Red Bull Racing driver, in his interaction with his race engineer, Gian Piero Lambiase, also had some colourful words to describe his frustrations.

"What is going on with these shifts again over one lap? It's just horrendous, the downshifts," Verstappen asked over the radio.

"Give me the corner, please, Max," Lambiase responded.

"Everywhere. Everywhere is just ****," the Dutch driver replied.

The struggles of Verstappen also stretched to his teammate Isack Hadjar, who was further back in 11th place, over a tenth of a second slower than Verstappen.

While the Red Bulls continued to struggle at Suzuka, it proved to be a largely flawless outing for the Mercedes outfit, with Kimi Antonelli leading the field ahead of teammate George Russell.

The Mercedes pair were over six-tenths clear of Charles Leclerc, who clocked the third-fastest time of the FP3 session.

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