Matt Boldy contributed to all three goals for the Minnesota Wild, including potting his 26th goal of the season before assisting on Marco Rossi’s overtime winner as the Wild beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 and grab two massive points.
The slimmest of margins secured pole position for Max Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix, but that .012-second advantage was all the Red Bull driver needed for Sunday’s race.
Verstappen converted from pole position for the fourth consecutive time at the famed Suzuka circuit, edging McLaren’s Lando Norris and birthday boy Oscar Piastri, who finished second and third, respectively.
The four-time reigning world champion delivered a fantastic final flying lap in Q3 Saturday to pip this year’s points leader Norris for pole position.
The rivals on the track (and padel partners off) lined up on the front row next to each other with Verstappen on the outside pointing inward and Norris on the inside pointing outward, setting the tone for what could have been a collision course.
But that spicy start never came to be as Verstappen launched out of the chute and built enough of an advantage in the clean air to thwart any potential DRS threat from Norris through the opening stint of the 53-lap race.
Low temperatures and low tire degradation meant McLaren couldn’t take advantage of tire management, plus no rain, no red flags and no retirements meant they couldn’t count on luck either.
Nor could they fool Red Bull. McLaren told Norris to box on Lap 18, but it was a dummy call to see if Red Bull would counter and pit. Red Bull didn’t take the bait and kept Verstappen on track.
Norris’s best opportunity to close the gap (and also his best opportunity to throw it all away) came when both drivers finally pitted on Lap 22. Verstappen remained idle for 3.3 seconds, a full second slower than Norris, who exited right into the path of the Red Bull. Running out of real estate and unwilling to concede at the pit exit, Norris drove right into the grass.
“Quite an expensive lawn mower,” Verstappen quipped afterward in the cooldown room (aka The Max Verstappen podcast).
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