World champion Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing are back on form following qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
Verstappen edged out his nearest competitor of Oscar Piastri by over half a second. His initial Q3 run was a time of one minute, 29.012 seconds – which would have been good enough for pole on its own – and yet the Red Bull driver went even quicker on the second lap to further extend his advantage with a lap time of one minute, 28.877 seconds.
The Red Bull driver’s final lap was 0.581 seconds clear of Piastri’s opening effort, which the McLaren driver unable to improve on the second time around, but nonetheless it was enough for him to secure a first front-row start having shaded teammate Lando Norris by just 0.035 seconds.
Norris could not improve on his second effort either, but lost moments of time compared to his younger teammate in the second and third sectors to be beaten to the front row at Suzuka.
Charles Leclerc only did a single lap in Q3, but gained fourth position as Ferrari appeared to lose pace compared to McLaren overnight having headed the Woking-based squad in Friday’s practice sessions.
The Scuderia Ferraris were split by Sergio Perez, who was 0.773 seconds adrift to teammate Verstappen, but the Red Bull driver found enough to move ahead of Carlos Sainz by two tenths on his final run.
Lewis Hamilton was a second off the pace but beat Mercedes teammate George Russell by 0.3 seconds, responding George’s improvement among the final runs to reclaim his place ahead.
Home hero Yuki Tsunoda made his way into Q3 and grabbed ninth, beating Fernando Alonso, who just managed to get into Q3 to ensure his season-long streak of making the final qualifying session continued.
Liam Lawson could not repeat his Q1 heroics, where he jumped up to fourth, and was knocked out Q2 by just 0.043 seconds as George Russell broke into the top ten at the end of the second segment of qualifying.
Lawson shaded the tenth position Alonso by that tiny margin to claim P11 on Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix grid, as Pierre Gasly was just 0.001 seconds behind the AlphaTauri driver in a tight session.
Alex Albon was first to set a lap in the second set of runs and initially got up to seventh, but fell down the order as the later laps showed greater improvement. He was half a tenth ahead of Esteban Ocon, the Alpine’s squad losing both cars in Q2, while Kevin Magnussen nudged into Q2, but could get no further than P15 for Haas.
Logan Sargeant lost control of his Williams on the exit of the Casio Triangle while attempting to complete his first flying lap, dipping a wheel on the grass and straight into the barrier. This shunt produced a red flag – the second Q1 stoppage in as many races.
This interrupted the laps of Sainz and Leclerc and, with nine minutes remained on the clock when the session resumed, the Ferrari pair were first to go again on new softs in their bid to secure access to the second part of qualifying.
An end-of-session series of laps followed as the bottom half of the field aimed to break away from the top five, where both Gasly and Albon, who had laps deleted following the first runs, managed to get through to Q2.
Albon was last to set a time, and his effort was enough to dump Valtteri Bottas into the drop zone. Lance Stroll dropped out in P17, as his teammate Alonso managed to get his way out of the bottom five despite only modest improvements to his initial time.
Nico Hulkenberg also had a lap deleted but could not progress beyond P18, while Zhou Guanyu lost a lap to minimal effect as he had only made it to P19 anyway, having run slightly wide at the second Degner corner. Sargeant did not get a time on the board and will start last.
So normal service is resumed with Max Verstappen and Red Bull back on top following a dip in form at Singapore’s Marina Bay last weekend. The RB19 looks well balanced with great grip and speed, so it seems the Japanese Grand Prix could see the team winning the constructors’ title. That would be incredible achievement if Verstappen score victory at epic Suzuka on race day.
Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:28.877
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:29.458
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:29.493
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:29.542
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:29.650
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:29.850
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.908
8 George Russell Mercedes 1:30.219
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:30.303
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:30.560
11 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri 1:30.508
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:30.509
13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:30.537
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:30.586
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:30.665
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:31.049
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:31.181
18 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:31.299
19 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:31.398
20 Logan Sargeant William No time
Japanese Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team brushed off a challenging weekend in Singapore by storming to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, getting the better of McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris during Saturday’s qualifying session at Suzuka.
Verstappen clocked a time of 1m 29.012s in the early minutes of Q3 and improved to a 1m 28.877s on his second run, a dominant performance that put him more than half a second clear of Piastri and Norris – who could not better their initial laps – as the chequered flag dropped.
Charles Leclerc pipped the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez to fourth position, with team mate Carlos Sainz rounding out the top six positions, the two Ferrari drivers only completing one lap apiece in the pole shootout after using up more soft tyres earlier on.
Following their tricky first day of practice, Mercedes had to settle for seventh and eighth in qualifying, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell, who was another to be limited to just one attempt in Q3.
Home favourite Yuki Tsunoda, fresh from being announced at AlphaTauri alongside Daniel Ricciardo for the 2024 season, put in a fine drive to ninth position, with Fernando Alonso the last of the Q3 runners – also sticking to one lap – and landing 10th on the grid.
F1 newcomer Liam Lawson came agonisingly close to another Q3 outing but had to settle for 11th position, followed by the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who were split by Alex Albon’s Williams, and the lead Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
Alfa Romeo lost both cars at the Q1 hurdle, with Valtteri Bottas just missing the cut in 16th position and Zhou Guanyu placing 19th, the Chinese racer having been seen running wildly wide and losing his final lap for exceeding track limits, while also reporting traffic.
Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg followed in the other Aston Martin and Haas machines, with Williams rookie Logan Sargeant bringing up the rear behind the aforementioned Zhou after crashing out of proceedings midway through the opening phase.
Sargeant entered the weekend with more questions being asked about his F1 future and, having vowed to cut out mistakes, he dramatically lost control of his Williams at the final corner, took a trip through the gravel and slammed into the barriers, bringing out a red flag.
There could yet be a twist in the tale before Sunday’s race, however, with Leclerc, Zhou and Bottas all under investigation post-session for allegedly failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions regarding maximum lap time.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-and-red-bull-return-to-form-as-they-charge-to-pole-ahead-of-the.hO0o0HqmH7UR09UtmMuDl.html
Max Verstappen reckons that Red Bull’s detractors following Formula 1’s Singapore round can “suck on an egg” after his crushing pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The championship leader set a first lap in the final stage of qualifying that was more than good enough for pole, but proved his quality further by beating his own benchmark by over a tenth to beat second-placed Oscar Piastri by 0.581s.
Red Bull’s renewed vigour followed a disappointing Singapore weekend in which the team struggled to find pace and lost both cars in Q2 as Verstappen was knocked out at the end by Liam Lawson.
The team’s drop-off in performance raised suspicions that it had been affected by recent technical directives, namely TD18 pertaining to flexi-wings and a revised TD39 that related to flexing floors, although the team pointed out that there was no correlation.
Verstappen reckoned that this had put those rumblings to bed and that he was “fired up” to atone from the previous weekend’s struggles.
“We had a bad weekend. Of course, then people start talking about “ah, it’s all because of the technical directives”. I think they can go suck on an egg,” Verstappen replied to a question from Motorsport.com asking if his pole underlined a statement of intent.
“From my side, I was just very fired up to have a good weekend here and make sure that we were strong.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-red-bull-detractors-can-suck-on-an-egg-after-f1-japanese-gp-pole/10524174/
Lando Norris joked McLaren has little chance of beating Japanese Grand Prix polesitter Max Verstappen unless Oscar Piastri reenacts Ayrton Senna’s Formula 1 clash with Alain Prost into Turn 1.
The Briton was beaten to the front row of the grid by rookie team-mate Piastri by a scant 0.035s, although Max Verstappen’s advantage over the Australian spanned over half a second en route to pole position.
Norris explained that McLaren would “try” to take the fight to Verstappen, but deadpanned that there was not a lot that the team could do unless Piastri resorted to more nefarious tactics to open the path ahead.
He cited the infamous 1990 clash between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the same venue, in which Senna refused to yield the inside line while behind Prost at the start which caused a first-corner collision that secured the Brazilian the world title.
“We’re going to try [to beat Verstappen], but if he’s leading by Turn 2, there’s not a lot you can really do,” Norris said.
“If you want to emulate Senna [‘s move on Prost], Oscar, into Turn 1 and do that happily, it would be lovely for me!
“We’ll try, I think our race pace is decent, it’s definitely not going to be as good as the Red Bull, but we’ll do our best.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-hard-to-beat-verstappen-unless-piastri-emulates-senna-prost-in-japan-f1-race/10524251/
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc admitted to being shocked by Max Verstappen’s “crazy” lap that netted him a dominant pole for Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Verstappen looked to have the measure of the field throughout qualifying, bouncing back from a Q2 elimination in Singapore to take pole by around six tenths from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
But while the McLarens were delighted by their top three result, Ferrari was more puzzled by the chasm to Verstappen after Carlos Sainz won last week’s Singapore Grand Prix from pole.
Leclerc was fourth almost seven tenths in arrears, with Sainz nearly a second down in sixth behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Afterwards, Leclerc’s eyes lit up when asked by Motorsport.com how surprised he was by the gap to Verstappen’s spectacular pole lap, which was hailed by the Dutchman’s team boss Christian Horner as “mind-blowing”.
“It’s crazy, they’ve been really on it straight from FP1,” Leclerc replied.
“We understood that there was quite a bit of work to do, especially in sector one for some reason, because there we are losing most of the time we are losing around the lap.”
Leclerc’s deficit to Verstappen spoiled what he felt had actually been a nearly optimal Q3 lap.
“Happy is a big word but I’m happy with my own performance, because I think it was a really, really good lap and I don’t think there was much left in that lap.
“That was great, but I mean, it’s only P4, so that’s a bit of a shame. [Suzuka] feels amazing but it’s a bit disappointing when you finish such a great lap and then you’re P4, and seven tenths off too.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-stunned-by-crazy-verstappen-f1-pole-lap-at-suzuka/10524223/