Following a turbulent outing in Shanghai, Formula 1 headed over the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan to the legendary Suzuka International Racing Circuit in Japan for Round 3 of the 2025 season. It would be the final stop of the early-season tour to the far side of the world and also the first leg of the first triple-header of the season, with the Japanese Grand Prix leading onto races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia over the subsequent 2 weekends. The drivers really appreciate this circuit and it’s one of their favourites. Since the last F1 race here in April 2024, the entire first sector had been resurfaced and it was reportedly ‘grippier’ which they were looking forward to testing. The drivers also like the Japanese fans, who are notoriously polite and respectful.
For Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team the main aim was to ensure that Alonso would be able to get to the finish of the race and for both drivers to hopefully score some points. The race weekend began with some encouraging signs, despite a persistent tailwind that was howling across the circuit. In FP1, Alonso looked composed and confident after the brakes issues that he had in China, ending up P7. Stroll was further down the order in P16. As the team assessed the pace of the AMR25 and worked to understand how the tyres reacted to Sector One's resurfacing, Lance and Fernando ran a combination of shorter and longer stints throughout the day in preparation for Qualifying and Sunday's Grand Prix. FP2 however, turned out to be quite chaotic and not very useful. Only a few minutes into the session, Doohan crashed his Alpine at speed, bringing out the first red flag. Having gone out straight away, to gather information on the medium compound tyres, both Alonso and Stroll had managed 3 flying laps by the time of Doohan’s crashed and placed themselves in P3 (Alonso) and P8 (Stroll). Just after the session restarted, Alonso on his first lap put a wheel over a kerb going into a turn at high speed, wasn't in control going into the next turn and headed off track and beached his car in the gravel. Fortunately, he didn’t crash and the car didn’t incur any damage, but the session had to be stopped again as the marshals recovered his stricken AMR25. There was more to come — with 13 minutes remaining, one of the strangest incidents in recent F1 memory occurred: the dry grass at the track edge spontaneously ignited, likely caused by sparks emitted from the cars undertray. This necessitated another red flag. But that wasn’t the end of it! Although the session restarted with 5 minutes left, just before the session ended the red flags had to come out again, for the same reason & the clock ticked down to 0. Only 20 minutes of actual running was achieved during the FP2 hour. Despite his untimely stop, Alonso still managed to finish P17, with Stroll P19. There was no respite from the wind the following day, which had managed to change 180-degrees overnight and it stoked the sparks again and ignited the grass next to the track — twice, in fact — causing two further red flags. Alonso was unable to get a clean lap in on soft tyres, and it showed on the leaderboard: he finished P15, with Stroll down in P19.
The Qualifying hour began under clear skies, but gusty conditions, with the wind continuing to affect stability — especially through the tricky “Esses” section. In Q1, both AMR25s joined the initial queue as the green light lit up. After everyone had completed their first runs & with 10 minutes to go, Alonso was in P10 and Stroll in P14, both over a second off Norris in P1. Five minutes later, both had tumbled down the order and were in the drop zone — Alonso 17th, Stroll 20th. On their final runs, Alonso improved to P11 and was able to proceed through to Q2. Stroll, unfortunately, stayed P20 — a fourth consecutive year without progressing to Q2 at Suzuka. It later emerged that the wind caught him out in sector 1, which compromised his lap while he was trying to recover from the episode. Q2 brought further difficulties. Alonso only managed P12 on his initial run before the session was red-flagged again — another fire had broken out in the grass. Once the session restarted, Alonso placed his car in P10 on his final run and looked as if he might go through, but then Gasly, Bearman and Sainz all improved their times and he ended up P13 and thus eliminated. Later analysis showed that he took too much kerb at turn 2 which subsequently pushed the car wide for the next turns and disrupted his lap. At the front though, surprisingly, Verstappen took pole position from Norris and Piastri. There was a silver lining for Alonso though. Later in the day the stewards handed Sainz a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Hamilton during Q2. As a result, Alonso was promoted to start Sunday’s Grand Prix from P12.
Sunday dawned grey, with earlier rain soaking the track and grass. With damp patches still scattered around, conditions were expected to be tricky, but less disruptive than the previous days and hopefully, no fires! When the lights went out, both AMR25s got away cleanly, as did all the cars. Alonso held his line into turn 1 and gained a place, running P11 by the end of lap 1. He had Bearman less than a second ahead and Gasly right on his rear wing, but the car looked balanced in the greasy conditions. Stroll, starting on soft compound tyres, quickly passed Bortoleto, who had a poor start. By lap 5 Bearman had managed to pull out of DRS range from Alonso and by lap 8 Alonso had shaken off the threat from Gasly. Stroll then had to pit on lap 9, as the soft tyres were already degrading and he was switched to hard tyres — rejoining at the very back of the field. The initial decision was to aim to undercut some rivals or profit from a potential Safety Car, but sadly, it never materialised. By lap 10, the field was very evenly, but tightly, spaced with the gaps between most cars hovering between one to two and a half seconds. Except for Stroll, who was a distant 20+ seconds adrift from the field after his stop and finding himself racing very alone. Up ahead, on lap 19, Russell pitted and Alonso moved into the top 10. On Lap 21, Piastri pitted and rejoined just ahead of Alonso, who was now P9. Norris and Verstappen both came in on the same lap. The McLaren team serviced Norris’s car a second quicker than Red Bull and there was a tussle at the end of the pit lane as both drivers jockeyed for position, but Verstappen won out. Leclerc, also pitted and slotted well behind Alonso. Russell, however, was going faster with his new tyres and emerged on Alonso’s rear wing. Sensing the threat Alonso dived into the pits on lap 25 for his tyre change. It wasn’t a smooth one — lasting 4.7-seconds, due to a sticky rear jack and he rejoined in P15. There still remained 4 cars ahead of Alonso that hadn’t yet pitted so there was still a chance to move up the order. Alonso gradually began to pick them off as they filtered in. First Bortoleto, then Ocon and finally Lawson and Sainz came into the pits, so that by lap 36 Alonso was back in P11. But it was now his turn to feel threatened as Tsunoda, in the (theoretically) much faster 2nd Red Bull was only 1.3 seconds behind Alonso. Over the next ten laps, the gap remained stubbornly close but never small enough for Tsunoda to engage DRS and attempt a pass. Stroll meanwhile, had come into the pits at the halfway stage and was put onto the medium tyres, presumably to collect some data on them and came out further behind in 20th. With less than 10 laps to go, he briefly got some company, when he was lapped by the leaders, Verstappen, Norris & Piastri, the Canadian moving aside dutifully — a bitter symbol of the weekend’s struggle. With five laps to go, the Alonso–Tsunoda gap remained at around 1.2 seconds and as they headed towards the final laps Alonso was able to stretch out a couple of tenths further away. At the finish, Verstappen took the chequered flag — his fourth consecutive win in Japan, Norris followed him closely in P2, with Piastri rounding out the podium positions. Alonso crossed the line in P11 — just one place away from a point. Stroll finished last in P20.
All in all, it was a weekend of mixed fortunes for the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team. Alonso showed grit and racecraft but ultimately finished just outside the points. Stroll, meanwhile, endured another difficult weekend and brought his AMR25 home in 20th place, having attempted a strategy gamble that hadn’t paid off and struggling for pace and balance throughout.
After the race, Alonso was philosophical but frustrated and commented, “It was a difficult race today at Suzuka and despite our best efforts we missed out on the points. Suzuka is a great circuit, and I really enjoy racing here, but it's very hard to overtake on this track. We need to improve our car performance going forward and I'm looking forward to that development.” Stroll was more subdued, “Ultimately there wasn't much we could do today – we tried to make up some positions at the start, but it wasn't possible. It was just one of those days and we will see what we can do next weekend.” Team Principal, Andy Cowell, summed it up: “Today’s race had its challenges. We gave our best effort with Fernando — our strategy was solid — but we ultimately finished in eleventh, just outside the points. That was the maximum we could achieve.”
After three rounds, Aston Martin sits on a modest points tally — all courtesy of Stroll in Melbourne and the post-race disqualifications in China. The AMR25 appears consistent but lacks the edge in qualifying and straight-line pace to challenge for regular points. Reliability has improved, but performance remains a question. The Suzuka circuit tested every team, but for Aston Martin, it once again highlighted just how tight the margins are — and how relentless the fight for points has become in 2025. As the team now heads to Bahrain for next weekend race, development and setup refinement are high on the agenda.