Formula 1 ®
Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix in his bid to return to winning ways from a recent rare hiccup.
Red Bull’s Verstappen clocked 1 minute 28.197 seconds to claim his third straight pole on the 5,807-kilometres Suzuka International Racing Course, maintain his 100% season record in qualifying and take a 36th career pole.
Team-mate Sergio Perez put up a fight and trailed by only .066 of a second. McLaren’s Lando Norris was third, .292 back.
Red Bull aim to return to the podium after Verstappen led one-two finishes from Perez at the first two races before he had to retire with a brakes issue two weeks ago in Australia and Perez had to settle for fifth.
Triple champion Verstappen tops the standings four points ahead of Ferrari’s Leclerc with Perez another point back. Leclerc came eighth in qualifying.
MAX
“Overall, in qualifying the laps have been very nice and it was a great result for the Team. In the last lap I tried to push a bit more and I was gaining quite nicely in sector one, but ran out of tyres at the end so lost a bit of time which was a shame. We have to work on our long runs as we have not been fully happy with these and still feel like we can work to control the balance of the car a bit more. It wasn’t perfect, but to still be on pole on a lap that I felt like could have been better, is great. We made some good changes within the car and I really enjoyed sector one; around here it is really fun to drive and the car is improving every year, especially in the high speed. All in all, the Team has a front row start which is a perfect start to the race tomorrow, but I expect it to be very competitive. It is great to be here, the support is always amazing and hopefully we can give the fans a good race.”
CHECO
“We have had a good weekend so far and made some really nice progress throughout qualifying today. Unfortunately, in the end we couldn’t get totally hooked in for the final lap, I didn’t get a nice exit into my lap and that was probably enough to miss pole today. I think generally we are a lot better placed with the car, if you remember last year here, we were seven tenths off Max and it was probably the hardest circuit in terms of balance, this season things are looking a lot different and the confidence is coming back. Having a nice balance around Suzuka doesn’t compare to anything else in the world, today was very enjoyable. Max and I have been on par all weekend, I think we will be close tomorrow and we have everything to fight for.”
Fernando
QUALIFYING P5
“I am very happy with fifth position today. It’s always a very special experience Qualifying in Suzuka, with the low fuel loads and fresh tyres and everything felt good in the car today. Perhaps it’s a little unexpected to be as competitive as we were. Looking back at last year, we were over one-second from pole position in Suzuka and now we are only four tenths away, so it seems we are going in the right direction. It’s too soon to say whether our updates have made a significant difference, but we’ll look at all the data we have. We have usually been faster in Qualifying compared to the Race, so let’s see what happens on Sunday.”
YUKI
QUALIFYING P10
“I felt a little pressure coming into this weekend after our strong performance in Australia, but I’d say it’s good pressure and I’m very happy I was able to get into Q3 in front of my family, friends and home crowd. The qualifying itself wasn’t as easy as we expected, but overall, as a team we did a fantastic job. I’m continuing to learn how to maximise the car and its setup to extract the best out of it, and without everyone, the engineers and mechanics, on track and at the factory, supporting me, I wouldn’t have achieved this result and I’m very appreciative of them all. Daniel also did a great job which means there’s definitely potential to score points, maybe even more than one, so we’ll do our best. The first step is done, and the second one is top 10 in the race tomorrow, which I haven’t achieved here yet, but we’ll put it together and try to have a perfect race!”