Max Verstappen won Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix for his first victory of the young season and just the third in 17 races but needed a drive that his Red Bull team engineer called “perfection” to get it done.

It was Verstappen’s fourth straight victory on the Suzuka circuit in central Japan and breaks the momentum of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who won the season’s first two races in Australia and China.

“We still have work to do,” Verstappen said. “But it does show if we nail everything we can be up there.”

He did just that.

The four-time defending Formula 1 champion, Verstappen started from pole position after setting a course-record time in qualifying, which he called “insane.” Norris placed second and Piastri was third. The track was dry despite rain earlier in the day to produce an incident-free race.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth followed by George Russell of Mercedes and teammate Kimi Antonelli in sixth. Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th in his first drive with Red Bull’s top team.

Baseball

Dodgers place Snell on IL >> The Los Angeles Dodgers placed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell on the 15-day injured list with left shoulder inflammation.

Snell went 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA in his first two starts for the Dodgers this season.

The World Series champion Dodgers signed the left-handed Snell to a $182 million, five-year contract in the offseason.

Brewers’ Cortes placed on IL >> The Milwaukee Brewers placed left-hander Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list with a flexor strain in his left elbow, further depleting the team’s starting pitching.

The loss of Cortes leaves the Brewers with Freddy Peralta as the only healthy pitcher among those projected to be in the five-man rotation this season.

Cortes’ elbow problem surfaced last weekend following a rough outing that saw him give up three home runs on consecutive pitches and five overall in a 20-9 loss to the New York Yankees.

Clemente’s family upset after Pirates removed sign honoring player >> The Pittsburgh Pirates have angered the family of the late Roberto Clemente by removing a sign honoring the franchise icon on the right-field wall at PNC Park.

The sign featured Clemente’s name and his No. 21. Replacing it is an advertisement for Surfside, an alcoholic drink.

The right-field wall at PNC Park stands 21 feet high in honor of Clemente.

The Pirates said in a statement that the sign, which had been on the wall since 2022, was meant to be a temporary adornment. However, Roberto Clemente Jr. expressed his unhappiness in a statement.

“This change was made without any communication or consultation with our family,” the statement said. “While we appreciate that the Pirates acknowledged their failure to inform us, it reveals a broader issue: a lack of meaningful collaboration between the organization and on matters that are deeply personal and historically significant to us and the fans.”

Tennis

Charleston open will pay Men and Women equal prize money >> The Charleston Open is keeping Credit One Bank as its title partner through 2031 along with the tennis tournament paying equal prize money to women and men starting in 2026.

Credit One Bank announced the rights extension on the final day of this year’s event. Prize money for the WTA-500 level event will be the same as the men’s ATP-500 level event. That will make the Charleston Open the first standalone WTA 500 tournament to hike prize money before the 2033 goal for all weeklong WTA 1000 and 500 events to pay the same prize money to women as for men.