Max Verstappen secured pole position at the FIA Formula 1 World Championship’s Japanese Grand Prixbut that result is under scrutiny after an incident with Lando Norris on his final out-lap of the session.
Charles Leclerc was unable to stop the soon-to-be champion and Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team struggled to show any pace as they still look for their first win of the season.
Q1 – Surprise Exit For Gasly, Williams Out Again
It has been a morning of drama for Scuderia AlphaTauri even without a qualifying session, as we saw Pierre Gasly confirmed to join BWT Alpine F1 Team other Nyck de Vries become the driver for AlphaTauri for next season and beyond.
AlphaTauri were the center of attention at the start of the session with home favourite Yuki Tsunoda first on track, meaning he put the first lap on the leaderboard and went first with a 1:31.631. Mercedes were struggling throughout the session and fell behind Lando Norris. It was worrying times for Mercedes with George Russell fifteenth and Lewis Hamilton eighteenth as both drivers gambled on running the medium tires rather than the softs. Max Verstappen led Carlos Sainz after the first runs, with the champion-elect setting a 1:30.224.
The track started to become quicker, but AlphaTauri struggled to find the pace needed with a number of issues being reported. Gasly was in the ninth after the first run of laps but a brake issue saw him knocked out. However home favorite Tsunoda managed to pull his car through to the second session with a time of 1:31.130.
Sebastian Vettel managed to scrape through to Q2 during his final Japanese Grand Prix, while the Mercedes’ of Hamilton and Russell improved on the soft tires and got through to Q2.
The session saw both Williams Racing drivers knocked out of Alexander Albon other Nicholas Latifialong with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team‘s Lance Stroll other Hass F1 Team‘s Kevin Magussen.
Q2 – Unlucky Exit For Daniel Ricciardo, Tsunoda Out
The second qualifying session saw even more action than the first. Q2 got underway and both Scuderia Ferrari drivers were first on the track, Carlos Sainz set a banker lap time of 1:30.444, with Charles Leclerc just under a tenth behind. The battle continued behind McLaren F1 team and Alpine, with both Esteban Ocon other Daniel Ricciardo showing good pace, in fourth and fifth respectively after the first runs.
Once again, Verstappen set the pace ahead of the Ferraris as he looks to secure his World Championship this weekend. Both Mercedes drivers were in the top ten but they were both at risk of elimination with just less than 0.6s between first and eleventh. Sergio Perez also looked at risk, sitting in eighth position after the first runs and in severe need of pace.
Norris was in danger of an exit after the first runs but his final lap saw him get through and put pressure on Russell, who was satisfied in the final elimination spot. However, the pressure didn’t get to the British driver, as he managed to get himself through. Ricciardo showed very good pace throughout qualifying regularly beating his team-mate, which is a rare occurrence this season. He looked set to go through to Q3 but after no improvement on his final lap, he saw himself just 0.003s behind Sebastian Vettel in tenth.
The top three (Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc) all stayed in the pits as others went out to improve their times. It was almost an embarrassing moment for Leclerc, as he fell to the ninth in the order and only a few tenths ahead of Ricciardo. Pérez went fastest in the session as he improved his time with a 1:29.925, giving him much-needed confidence going into the final session.
Ricciardo was in an agonizing eleventh, meaning he was out of the session along with Valtteri BottasTsunoda, Zhou Guanyu other Mike Schumacher.
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd
Q3 – Max Verstappen Waiting To See If He Is On Pole, Advantage Alpine in McLaren Battle
Verstappen set the pace in his first run in the session, ahead of both his team-mate and the Ferrari drivers, but he appeared to have had an incident with Norris on his out-lap.
With Verstappen going slowly on his out-lap, Norris decided to try to get past the Red Bull on the track at 130R. The Dutchman unaware of the McLaren, Verstappen veered across the track and forced the Mclaren driver to go onto the grass. All things considered, it did appear to be pretty dangerous and required a quick reaction from Norris to avoid a shunt between the cars.
The session started to fire up as drivers began their final runs, Leclerc improved to 1:29.314s, but he missed his tenth pole position of the season by an agonizingly small margin of 0.010s. Sainz also improved but could only get with 0.057s of Verstappen, who didn’t need to improve on his final run but damaged his car on the kerbs at the exit of turn nine.
Ocon led the Alpine revenge weekend on McLaren, with the Frenchman starting fifth ahead of Hamilton, with Alonso in seventh ahead of Russell. It was a memorable moment for Vettel in his final Japanese Grand Prix as he managed to secure a ninth position start for tomorrow’s race ahead of Norris.
As it looks now, Verstappen will start on the front row along with Leclerc, but all eyes now look to the steward’s decision.
