Month: April 2025

Oscar Piastri won his third Formula 1 race this season and becomes the new championship leader for McLaren as Max Verstappen had to settle for second place following a five-second time penalty for gaining track advantage.

Having qualified first, reigning world champion Verstappen was not as quick off the line as Piastri from second and drove his Red Bull wide into turn two, earning him a time penalty that seemingly cost him an opportunity for victory.

Charles Leclerc took third for Ferrari, holding off a late challenge from the recovering Lando Norris, who had started down in P10 after crashing out in qualifying. This was Leclerc’s first podium of the season for the Scuderia.

It was a great start from Piastri and he looked to pass Verstappen, who cut turn two to retain the lead just moments before the sister Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda was caught up in a crash with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

There had been a safety car in all four previous Formula 1 races in Jeddah and this time it was out by the end of the first lap.

Gasly retired immediately having lost the majority of the rear wing and Tsunoda’s race was also over despite making it back to the pits.

With the cars all falling into a designated pace, the radio back and forth began as Piastri called for Verstappen to hand back the lead, while Max insisted he had been run wide on purpose.

The race stewards sided with Piastri and Verstappen was duly handed a five-second time penalty just as the race got back under way.

Norris, having opted to start on the hard tyre, gaining from the Tsunoda/Gasly incident and made up two places to eighth, before passing Carlos Sainz at the start of lap seven to continue his recovery.

With Piastri keeping Verstappen within striking distance, Norris started to close on the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, passing but dropping back behind as the seven-time world champion got the benefit of DRS.

There was a repeat on the next lap, Norris again opting to pass at a time which gave Hamilton the DRS advantage into the final corner.

The next time around, Norris waited until the last corner himself before deploying DRS and passing Hamilton without fear of immediately losing the place back for a third time.

Norris was the man making moves through the pack and Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes was next up for the McLaren, who has up to fifth before the end of lap 19.

Meanwhile, Piastri was dropping back from Verstappen and pitted on lap 20, a slight delay costing the McLaren driver a second in his box as he returned on the hard compound.

Verstappen was told to push, aiming to avoid any undercut and knowing he still his penalty hanging over him as George Russell also opted to come in.

Piastri, though, would be three seconds further up the road after Vestappen’s own stop two laps later as he took net lead of the race with Leclerc and Norris having not come in for fresh tyre.

Norris was extending his stint with these hard tyres, no doubt hoping for a timely safety car to cut down the time lost in the pitlane – although he eventually discarded his original set of tyres with 15 laps to go.

The stop saw him drop back down to fifth but with much newer tyres than the quartet now ahead of him.

Piastri was now leading outright, Verstappen’s five-second penalty keeping him behind the McLaren, with Russell third and Leclerc closing him down in fourth.

The Ferrari driver squeezed through as Norris started setting the pace with the race entering the closing stages.

With Russell struggling, Norris also made his way past the Mercedes but was also placed under investigation by the stewards for crossing the white line on pit exit.

No further action was taken as Norris set about catching Leclerc to seal the last position on the podium, but he ultimately ran out of laps before he could make a proper fist of it, closing to just over a second before the flag.

Russell finished fifth despite being concerned about his tyre wear in the closing stages, with Antonelli sixth and Hamilton finishing seventh, where he had started.

Sainz was eighth and played the ultimate team game, allowing the second Williams of Alex Albon to piggyback his DRS and keep Isack Hadjar at bay, the Racing Bulls man having to settle for P10.

So an eventful race at Jeddah with the drama on the opening lap deciding this outcome of this Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Verstappen got a time penalty for going off track and felt he was pushed aside by Piastri. And yet Oscar won the opening corner and was on the racing line. By winning this race, Piastri is the new championship leader.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:21:06.758
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +2.843s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +8.104s
4 Lando Norris McLaren +9.196s
5 George Russell Mercedes +27.236s
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +34.688s
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +39.073s
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +64.630s
9 Alexander Albon Williams +66.515s
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +67.091s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +75.917s
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +78.451s
13 Oliver Bearman Haas +79.194s
14 Esteban Ocon Haas +99.723s
15 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +1 lap
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
17 Jack Doohan Alpine +1 lap
18 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +1 lap
Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull DNF
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF

After a tricky weekend at Bahrain and some crisis talk regarding his future with Red Bull, Max Verstappen drove a brilliant Q3 lap to take pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Lando Norris made a mistake and crashed out.

After the Red Bull hierarchy held urgent meetings following a poor showing last time out in the Bahrain Grand Prix and with speculation in Jeddah turning towards whether Verstappen’s future could walk away from the Milton Keynes outfit, the reigning world champion did his talking on the track.

The four-time champion sealed his forty-second career pole position in Formula 1 with an awesome lap time of one minute 27.294 seconds, beating Oscar Piastri’s McLaren by a tiny margin of 0.010 seconds.

George Russell will start third after another good showing for Mercedes, while Charles Leclerc starts alongside him on row two in the lead Ferrari.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz share row three, the latter clearly now settling into life at Williams with his best qualifying performance of the season.

Lewis Hamilton had said just making the top ten would be progress for him as he struggled for pace in his Ferrari, but he ultimately managed seventh position, with Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly also getting ahead of Norris after his crash.

Having spoken about having confidence issues on the eve on qualifying, Norris had been competing at the head of the field but was caught out around the tight Jeddah Corniche Circuit, hitting the wall at turn five during his opening Q3 run, labelling himself a “fucking idiot” over team radio.

It means, having started sixth in Bahrain last weekend, the championship leader is P10 on the grid on Sunday.

Alex Albon had looked strong throughout practice but narrowly missed out on the top ten shootout and is P11 on the grid, alongside Liam Lawson for Racing Bulls.

Fernando Alonso is P13 with Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman having also made it into Q2 before being eliminated.

Gasly survived pulling out of his garage with a tyre blanket still attached to the right front to get out of Q1, although his Alpine teammate Jack Doohan did not manage to escape the drop zone and will start P17, behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.

Sauber struggled with Nico Hulkenberg down in P18 and Gabriel Bortoleto last after spinning on his final attempt as the second Haas of Esteban Ocon splits the pair.

So an exciting end to Q3 with Oscar Piastri and George Russell fighting for the the top spot and yet it was inevitable that Max Verstappen took pole. So congratulations to the Red Bull driver in achieving P1.

As for Lando Norris, that mistake was costly and with Jeddah being a tricky track to overtake, it will be interesting how the McLaren driver can recover.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:27.294
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:27.304
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:27.407
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27.670
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:27.866
6 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:28.164
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.201
8 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:28.204
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:28.367
10 Lando Norris McLaren No time
11 Alex Albon Williams 1:28.109
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:28.191
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:28.303
14 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:28.418
15 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:28.648
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:28.645
17 Jack Doohan Alpine 1:28.739
18 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:28.782
19 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:29.092
20 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:29.462

Oscar Piastri drove a superb lights-to-flag at Bahrain to score his second victory of this season for McLaren. His teammate Lando Norris had a challenging race with a time penalty for the false start and yet recovered to finish third.

Piastri took the chequered flag by 15 seconds from George Russell, closing in the drivers’ championship to within three points of Norris while Max Verstappen could only manage sixth.

The cooler conditions invited most cars to start on soft tyres for an expected two-stopper, with Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton the most notable medium starters. Piastri made a good start from pole and led the early running while Russell passed Leclerc for second, reclaiming the position he lost with a grid penalty.

Norris made an even better start and blitzed from sixth to third, although it soon became apparent the McLaren driver had been outside his grid slot, which resulted him a five second time penalty. He attempted to pass Russell on the first stint but to no avail, with Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz and Andrea Kimi Antonelli slotting in behind.

From seventh Verstappen initially unable to make much progress, but he soon followed Antonelli past a struggling Sainz, as did Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda behind them.

With his five-second penalty in mind Norris boxed early on lap 11 to bolt on mediums, serving his penalty during the stop. The powerful undercut allowed him to stay in the hunt up front and he soon shot past Gasly once more.

Verstappen, meanwhile, did not have new sets of mediums available like his direct competitors and was forced to take the less performant hards on his lap 11 pitstop, with the Red Bull driver quickly reporting the compound had no grip. It was apparent on the timesheets too, with Verstappen dropped by Haas driver Esteban Ocon before being passed by Antonelli and Hamilton, falling to ninth.

By that stage Russell had pitted for mediums on lap 13, neatly covered off by leader Piastri on the following lap. All eyes were then on the Ferraris as they attempted to make their start on mediums count, but both Leclerc and Hamilton already curtailed their first stint after 17 laps, despite Leclerc protesting against it.

Leclerc did use his fresher tyres to put pressure on Norris ahead and passed the faster McLaren on lap 24, while teammate Hamilton also found some pace to pass Ocon for sixth. As they approached the halfway mark Piastri easily controlled the race with a six-second gap to Russell, Leclerc and Norris. Gasly held firm in fifth with Hamilton approaching.

After 27 laps – and just 16 laps on the hards – Verstappen had seen enough and stopped again for a used set of mediums, desperate to get off the harder compound that proved the wrong tyre due to the cooler track conditions. Verstappen was further troubled by two slow pitstops, with a slow front-right tyre change dropping him down the order.

On lap 33 the cards were reshuffled when the safety car came out for debris in Turn 3, caused by pieces of Sainz’s floor shearing off after contact with Tsunoda.

The convenient timing prompted most runners to make their second and last pitstop, with leader Piastri grabbing another fresh set of mediums that were to see him through to the finish. Ocon and Doohan, who had just pitted for hards, stayed out, as did Ocon and Verstappen. Mercedes bolted soft tyres on the cars of Russell and Antonelli, which the former called “audacious”.

At the restart Piastri led Russell, Leclerc, Norris, and Hamilton. Gasly was sixth with a slight tyre disadvantage, as was Ocon. Verstappen took the restart in eighth.

On the lap 34 restart Piastri held station ahead of Russell and Leclerc, while Hamilton passed Norris for fourth. Norris attacked but went off the track, deciding to give up the position to Hamilton to avoid another penalty.

Realising the job he had on his hands to bring the car home, Russell was forced into looking after his more brittle softs rather than using the grippier compound to put pressure on the imperious Piastri.

As Piastri disappeared into the distance, Russell instead came under threat from behind while he started suffering from electronic glitches, which affected his dashboard and DRS mechanism. Norris was on the front foot with his preferred mediums, passing Hamilton once more and then hounding Leclerc into the final 15 laps, finally getting the job done around the outside of Turn 4 on lap 52.

Lando’s move on George for second didn’t come off thanks to stout defending from the Mercedes driver, who denied McLaren a 1-2 finish.

Five seconds behind fourth-placed Leclerc Hamilton had a lonely end to the race to fifth, rallying from a tough qualifying session. Gasly bravely held off Verstappen until the Red Bull driver picked the Alpine off on the final lap, but Verstappen will still be reeling from his sixth place after a reality check for Red Bull.

Ocon did successfully keep a Red Bull at bay – driven by Tsunoda – to claim eighth, with the Haas teammate Oliver Bearman securing a double points finish after holding off Antonelli and Albon.

Sainz was the only retirement after a disastrous afternoon that spiralled out of control due to the damage the Williams man suffered for the Tsunoda contact, and also included a 10-second penalty for forcing Antonelli off the track.

In the drivers’ championship Norris safeguarded his lead, but saw Piastri close to within three points as he jumped Verstappen for second. Verstappen now trails Norris by 10 points, with Russell heading to next weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 14 points behind.

So a better race at Bahrain compared to Japan and yet it was McLaren who scored a double podium. Congratulations to Oscar Piastri with a strong drive to score his second victory in this year’s world championship.

Bahrain Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:35:39.435
2 George Russell Mercedes +15.499s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +16.273s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +19.679s
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +27.993s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +34.395s
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +36.002s
8 Esteban Ocon Haas +44.244s
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +45.061s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +47.594s
11 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +48.016s
12 Alexander Albon Williams +48.839s
13 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +53.472s
14 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +56.314s
15 Jack Doohan Alpine +57.806s
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +60.340s
17 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +64.435s
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +65.489s
19 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +66.872s
Carlos Sainz Williams DNF

Oscar Piastri achieved an important pole position at Bahrain over his McLaren teammate Lando Norris by qualifying at the top while the championship leader was down in P6 alongside Japanese race winner Max Verstappen.

Piastri looked the quicker of the two Papaya cars from Q2 and after being fastest on the first run of Q2, and he then confirm his pole on the deciding run on a rapidly improving Bahrain international Circuit.

George Russell produced a solid lap to take a front row slot for Mercedes, as Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari ahead of the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Pierre Gasly achieving a superb fifth position on the grid for Alpine.

Norris looked set to challenge Piastri and Russell for the front row, but a relatively poor final Q3 lap left him down in sixth. McLaren’s main challenger Red Bull suffered a disappointing qualifying session with Verstappen only in seventh.

Red Bull was under pressure from the start of qualifying as Verstappen went off the track on the final corner of his flyer, while teammate Tsunoda also lost his lap for track limits. Verstappen reported “there’s something really wrong with the car” but still managed to go through in third, two tenths behind session leader Norris, while Tsunoda also advanced.

Surprisingly, Alex Albon was out of Q1 for the first time this season, taking P16 in the Williams, as was Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson who suffered a DRS issue. They were joined in the drop zone by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Oliver Bearman, who lost a shot at Q2 with a poor second sector, reporting problems with locking the front tyres in the Haas.

Q2 was quickly red flagged for a crash by Haas driver Esteban Ocon coming out of Turn 2. Starting his flying lap, Ocon already started suffering oversteer coming out of the corner, and then lost control over his car as soon as his unsettled car crossed the exit kerbs, spinning into the left-hand side wall. Ocon reported he was okay, with the session resuming after an eight-minute delay.

After the interruption McLaren wasted no time going first and sector once more, this time Piastri leading Norris by a tenth. Alpine once again proved the surprise package with Gasly taking third ahead of both Mercedes cars. His teammate Doohan looked set to join him in Q3, but a weaker final sector left the Alpine driver in P11.

Behind Doohan Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar was knocked out in P12, with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso also eliminated, the latter slower on his compromised Q2 lap than he had been in Q1. The second qualifying phase again delivered a warning for the Red Bulls, with Verstappen and Tsunoda scraping through in ninth and tenth.

Verstappen also had a poor first lap in Q3 due to what he described as brake issues, while Piastri led the early part with a time of one minute, 30.233 seconds, a tenth ahead of Russell and Norris. The trio was a second clear of the rest, led by Ferrari’s Leclerc and Hamilton.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli and then Russell cycled through to take provisional pole on the final run, before Piastri restored McLaren’s advantage with his second pole position in his Formula 1 career.

However, post qualifying the race stewards have penalised both Mercedes drivers with an one-place grid penalty. This was due to the pair being sent into the fast lane of the pit lane before a session restart time – after Haas driver Esteban Ocon’s crash early in Q2 – was confirmed.

Leclerc managed to split the Mercedes cars in third, with Antonelli rallying from having his first lap deleted for track limits by grabbing his best Formula 1 qualifying result in fourth.

Gasly delighted Alpine with fifth on the grid, qualifying just 0.003 seconds behind Antonelli and ahead of a disappointed Norris and Verstappen. Carlos Sainz was eighth for Williams, with Hamilton failing to qualify higher than eighth after also seeing his first lap deleted for track limits.

Tsunoda rounded out the top ten due to not managing to put a clean lap together, but the Japanese driver’s Q3 berth signals some progress on his side of the Red Bull garage.

Congratulations to Oscar Piastri in taking pole position. This was expected as the MCL39 is a very fast car but shocking to see his McLaren teammate Lando Norris only P6. Mistakes in qualifying was costly and to be one place ahead of his championship challenger makes it interesting.

Bahrain Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:29.841
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.175
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:30.009*
4 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:30.216
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:30.213*
6 Lando Norris McLaren 1:30.267
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30.423
8 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:30.680
9 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:30.772
10 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:31.303
11 Jack Doohan Alpine 1:31.245
12 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:31.271
13 Nico Hulkenburg Sauber 1:31.783
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:31.886
15 Esteban Ocon Haas No time
16 Alex Albon Williams 1:32.040
17 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:32.165
18 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:32.186
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:32.283
20 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:32.373
*One-place grid penalty following qualifying rule breaches

Max Verstappen achieved his fourth consecutive victory at the Japanese Grand Prix with a solid lights-to-flag win at Suzuka. The Red Bull driver fending off the McLarens to score his first win of the 2025 season.

In the beautiful white Red Bull as a celebration from Honda, the defending world champion put together a controlled drive at the front of the order, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could not mount a challenge to pass Verstappen.

Verstappen pulled a two-plus-second gap over Norris in the opening laps to fend off any early threats under DRS, and did not respond to McLaren’s apparent dummy call for Norris to pit – as engineer Will Joseph suggested his driver could “box to overtake”, but Lando subsequently stayed out.

McLaren tried to force a response by stopping Piastri at the end of lap 20, and Verstappen did indeed pit – but Norris followed him into the pitlane. The McLaren pit crew found a second on its Red Bull rival in the box, putting Verstappen and Norris level at the exit, but Norris did not have space to go two-wide on the exit and ran across the grass.

His attempt to draw the race stewards’ attention on the radio did not come to pass as the incident was not serious, leaving his only opportunity of securing a second win of 2025 to come with an on-track overtake.

But, over the following 30 laps, Norris was unable to find a way to get within DRS range of Verstappen, and could only match the Red Bull driver for pace. This left McLaren with a problem, as Piastri was happily sitting within a second of Norris and trying to arrange a switch in positions.

McLaren did not elect to pull the trigger despite Piastri’s better pace, which left Verstappen untouched in front – the Papaya cars were left to finish behind the four-time champion.

Charles Leclerc clinched fourth place, preserving his grid position to beat the Mercedes duo; although the earlier-stopping George Russell got to within 1.2 seconds of the Ferrari driver by the end, he was unable to find any further ground on Charles despite offering early pressure. Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed sixth with a long medium-tyre stint, and finished a further 1.3 seconds behind his more experienced teammate.

At least Kimi Antonelli had the honour of leading a couple of laps for Mercedes and become the sport’s youngest leader.

Lewis Hamilton’s alternative strategy, starting on the hard tyres, paid off to some degree with seventh, having gained a position on rookie Isack Hadjar – who scored his first Formula 1 points with eighth.

An irascible Alex Albon claimed ninth despite his complaints on the radio to his Williams team about gearshifts and his pitstop timing, while Haas driver Oliver Bearman clinched the final point over Fernando Alonso and Red Bull debutant Yuki Tsunoda. Liam Lawson was P17 on his return to Racing Bulls.

So not the most exciting Japanese Grand Prix but in terms of drive and achievements, Max Verstappen delivered the result in the beautiful white Red Bull. That’s four straight wins at Suzuka and such a fitting tribute to sign off Honda by finishing in first position.

Japanese Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:22:06.983
2 Lando Norris McLaren +1.423s
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +2.129s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +16.097s
5 George Russell Mercedes +17.362s
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +18.671s
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +29.182s
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +37.134s
9 Alexander Albon Williams +40.367s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +54.529s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +57.333s
12 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +58.401s
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +62.122s
14 Carlos Sainz Williams +74.129s
15 Jack Doohan Alpine +81.314s
16 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +81.957s
17 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +82.734s
18 Esteban Ocon Haas +83.438s
19 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +83.897s
20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap

Max Verstappen takes a surprising pole position for Red Bull at Suzuka, beating the favourites McLaren in an exciting end to qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

A special white livery to celebrate Honda looks beautiful and it was pure Super Max to set a new lap record around the challenging Suzuka circuit. It was a shock to see Verstappen in P1 as the Red Bull RB21 is tricky to drive and not as quick as the McLaren MCL39.

Championship leader Lando Norris is second quickest and will join his good friend Max on the front row. The McLaren driver is ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri.

Norris and Piastri had been setting the pace during practice, but it was Verstappen who delivered when it mattered, putting in a new track record of one minute, 26.983 seconds to secure his fourth successive Suzuka pole.

Early championship leader Norris will start alongside the defending champion having been pipped by just 0.012 seconds, while Chinese Grand Prix winner Piastri is third alongside Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Before Verstappen’s fine effort, it was Mercedes that had been worrying the McLaren duo but George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli could only make the third row.

There had been plenty of talk about Red Bull’s decision to switch Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda heading to Japan but neither made it into Q3, instead it was the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar who impressed to go seventh fastest, despite reporting a cockpit issue during the opening session.

Lewis Hamilton will be disappointed to have only managed eighth, ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman, the Haas driver making it three rookies in the top ten.

Once again, the hour-long session descended into farce when a fifth red flag of the weekend for a trackside grass fire caused delays in Q2.

After the latest incident had been dealt with, there was plenty of improvement across the board, meaning both Lawson and Tsunoda were eliminated.

Lawson will start a place ahead of his Red Bull replacement having gone P14 on his return to Racing Bulls, while Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso also unable to make the top ten shootout.

Lawson eked out of Q1 in P15, just 0.016 seconds faster than the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, whose teammate Gabriel Bortoleto was also eliminated.

Esteban Ocon, having finished fifth last time out in China, had to settle for P18 on the grid this time around having been unable to match the pace of Bearman.

Lance Stroll suffered a miserable session, running off at Dunlop Curve when on a fast lap and will start at the back, with the rebuilt Alpine of Jack Doohan alongside him after his huge crash in FP2.

Post qualifying, the stewards handed a three-place grid penalty for Carlos Sainz as the Williams driver was found to impeding Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in Q2. Sainz initially was P12 after qualifying but will start the race in P15.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen by snatching pole positions from the McLarens. It was a thrilling lap to go quickest as the RB21 looks so tricky to drive over the MCL39. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are still the favourites and yet despite missing out on P1, the race pace is still solid. Bring on the Japanese Grand Prix racing action!

Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:26.983
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:26.995
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:27.027
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27.299
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:27.318
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:27.555
7 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:27.569
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:27.610
9 Alexander Albon Williams 1:27.615
10 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:27.867
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:27.822
12 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:27.897
13 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:27.906
14 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:28.000
15 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:27.836*
16 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:28.570
17 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:28.622
18 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:28.696
19 Jack Doohan Alpine 1:28.877
20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:29.271
*Three-place grid penalty for impeding Lewis Hamilton during Q2