The battle for the 2024 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship was blown wide open last weekend, with Max Verstappen’s seemingly unstoppable rise towards an unassailable points tally brought to a shuddering halt at the Albert Park Circuit in Australia.
Retiring with a brakes issue just three laps into the race, Verstappen’s early exit — along with Lewis Hamilton’s withdrawal after lap 15 — vacated the course of its outstanding car and left plenty of opportunity for the other contenders to seize the moment.
Ferrari, Red Bull’s closest challengers for the past few seasons, did just that, with Carlos Sainz storming to victory just a few seconds ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s McLaren weren’t far behind, with Sergio Perez finishing fifth on a day to forget for the Austrian team.
It was a race which has injected some much-needed drama into the early stages of this F1 season, cutting the gap between Verstappen and the rest to just four points as the fourth meeting of the season approaches. However, there’s another weekend off prior to the Japanese Grand Prix, which will take place from the famous Suzuka International Racing Course on Sunday, April 7.
If you’re keen to keep tabs on all the F1 action every single weekend — don’t fret, The Sporting News has all the info you’ll need about the each race of the season, and how to watch or catch up from across the world.
Unfortunately not! There was a two-week break preceding the Australian Grand Prix, and another follows prior to the 38th edition of the Japanese Grand Prix, which will take place on the first weekend of April.
The Suzuka International Racing Course is one of the most well-known circuits on the F1 calendar, and this race is by far the longest-running World Championship event to be held in Asia. First held at the Fuji Speedway in 1976 and 1977, a nine-year hiatus followed before the event returned in 1987, and aside from a brief return to Fuji in 2007 and 2008, Suzuka has ever since been the home of elite motorsport racing in the land of the rising sun.
Following a pulsating Australian Grand Prix which saw twists and turns aplenty in the World Drivers’ Championship, there’s a two-week break ahead of the next meeting, also held on the western coastline of the Pacific Ocean.
The 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, held much earlier in the season than its usual September/October slot, gets underway with the first practice session on Friday, April 5, leading into qualifying the following day before the race itself on Sunday, April 7 begins at 2 p.m. local time (JST).
Here’s how to watch the race across selected areas of the world’s major regions:
We’re three races down of a record-breaking 24 this season, with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia all ticked off the list. The 20 competing drivers in 2024 now head to the Suzuka International Racing Course for the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, April 7.