Mario Isola: We saw a tight fight in the race

      Mario Isola, head of Pirelli's racing division, commented on the results of the Japanese Grand Prix, which was won by Max Verstappen, and the effectiveness of the Hard and Medium trains.

      Mario Isola: "When the top six finishes in the same order as they started, it's easy to describe the race as boring. Although I wouldn't go too far and call the last race the most exciting show in the history of the sport, we still saw a close fight. In qualifying, the top three were separated by 0.044 seconds, and at the finish, the gaps in the top three were less than two seconds.

      After a very careful first leg and a particularly careful first sector, where the tires are under the most stress, in the second part of the race, the riders attacked all the way to the finish line. In fact, 14 of the 20 drivers scored their best lap on the final five laps. It is worth noting that Kimi Antonelli's best lap (1:30.965 s) was 2.741 s faster than Max Verstappen's best lap of last year's race. This shows how much the speeds have increased compared to 2024.

      On a track where thermal degradation has traditionally played an important role, today we have seen almost no drop in speed on Hard and Medium trains, even on long stretches. This is due to the air and asphalt temperatures, which were the lowest in Suzuka since 2011.

      Another contributing factor was the improvements made to the 2025 tire range to reduce tire wear. Another technical challenge we faced was to reduce tire granulation. Today, even in the low temperature conditions, we saw almost no signs of this problem throughout the peloton."