After taking the lead in the first three races of the season, Max Verstappen was the man with the greatest expectation for Suzuka qualifying. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton wanted to be Red Bull’s main competitors rather than Ferrari.
Max Verstappen blasted to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, leaving Lewis Hamilton scratching his head as to how he was so far behind the Red Bull driver.
When his Mercedes race engineer told the seven-time Formula One champion over the radio that his best effort was still half a second slower than what his rival had managed, the champion was not happy. “Where’s that half-a-second, man?” he exclaimed, and Charles Leclerc seemed equally taken aback at how far away Verstappen and Ferrari were.
In the end, it was easy for the Dutchman, who never seemed to be in serious contention for pole at Suzuka. Despite his best efforts, teammate Sergio Perez was unable to overcome Verstappen, who persisted in his dominant qualifying form.
On a strong day for McLaren, Lando Norris finished third fastest, with teammate Oscar Piastri in sixth place and the Spaniards Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso separating them. With George Russell two places behind Leclerc and Hamilton in seventh, a long way off the battle for pole, Hamilton was forced to make do. Back home, Yuki Tsunoda completed the top ten.
In his Formula 1 career, Lance Stroll has never advanced past Q1 at Suzuka, and he continued that miserable run this time. Aston Martin, who had only given the Canadian driver their upgrade package this weekend and left Alonso with the older specification car, was concerned about his performance as he was only 16th fastest. Overnight, they broke curfew to install them in the Spaniard’s vehicle as well.
Pierre Gasly finished only 17th fastest, continuing his dismal qualifying performance. This season, he hasn’t advanced past Q1, and teammate Esteban Ocon has now outqualified him four times in a row. The latter, with the Alpine cars still painfully slow, avoided elimination from the first qualifying round.
The other three eliminated in Q1 were Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, and Kevin Magnussen; the latter was the slowest for the third straight race. There is a chance that Sauber will make its Q3 debut this year thanks to his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished the first part of the session with the eighth fastest lap, half a second faster than the leader.
GET MORE NEWS HERE
Isaac Isaac 
AONDONA BARTHELOMEW 
abe Aondoyila