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The Guardian - AU
Sport
Joey Lynch

Max Verstappen on pole after blistering final lap in F1 Japanese GP qualifying – as it happened

F1 Max Verstappen Lando Norris Japan Joey Lynch Oscar Piastri Haas McLaren Red Bull Charles Leclerc
Max Verstappen celebrates after taking pole position ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen celebrates after taking pole position ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris at the Japanese Grand Prix. Photograph: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images

Giles Richards's qualifying report from Suzuka

A fourth straight pole position in Suzuka by Max Verstappen and a reminder sent to the rest of the field that, for all the pace of the McLarens this season, he’s still the four-time defending world champion.

Fitted out with a livery paying tribute to Honda, it will be Red Bull that starts from pole tomorrow, with the papaya of Lando Norris’ McLaren alongside. Oscar Piastri will have to make do with starting next to Charles Leclerc on the second row and two rookies in Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar will line up next to George Russell and Lewis Hamilton on the third and fourth rows respectively.

Further back, in his home grand prix and first race for Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda will be looking to storm up the grid from his starting position in 15th but before he can do any of that, he’s going to have to get past the man he replaced in 14th-placed Liam Lawson.

Add to all the chance of a bit of rain – hopefully enough to prevent any more fires breaking out – and it looks like the stage has been set for a cracking GP.

I’ll be back then to take you through all that action and Giles Richards’ report from qualifying will be with you soon but, for now, I’ve been Joey Lynch and it’s goodbye.

For much of Q3, it looked like Piastri was set for back-to-back pole positions and a pole position on his birthday. Instead, he’ll start form third.

“I felt good through most of the qualifying, especially at the start of Q3 -- that was a good lap. The last lap didn’t come together how I wanted, with tight margins. More left on the table out there, so we try again tomorrow.

“I think we have good pace, the others aren’t as far away as people think. I still think we have a great car for tomorrow and will be in the mix for the win.”

How they qualified in Japan

1. Max Verstappen - Red Bull

2. Lando Norris - McLaren

3. Oscar Piastri - McLaren

4. Charles Leclerc - Ferrari

5. George Russell - Mercedes

6. Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes

7. Isack Hadjar - Racing Bulls

8. Lewis Hamilton - Ferrari

9. Alexander Albon - Williams

10. Oliver Bearman - Haas

11. Pierre Gasly - Alpine

12. Carlos Sainz - Williams

13. Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin

14. Liam Lawson - Racing Bulls

15. Yuki Tsunoda - Red Bull

16. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

17. Gabriel Bortoleto - Sauber

18. Esteban Ocon - Haas

19. Jack Doohan - Alpine

20. Lance Stroll - Aston Martin

Immediate reaction from Max Verstappen on the Sky Sports coverage.

“I am [surprised]. Each session we kept making little improvements. Then the last lap was just flat out.

In an F1 car around here is insane. This is a proper highlight for us to be back on pole here.”

The microphone then goes to Lando Norris, who will start next to Verstappen on the front row.

“I’m happy. Congrats to Max, he did a good job. You have to credit something when it’s a lap that’s as good that he must have done.

I got everything out of the car today, the gaps are tiny. Good, but not enough.

“We were on the limit of what we had, we just didn’t have enough today.”

Updated

End of Q3 - Max Verstappen goes pole

Verstappen goes pole! For the fourth year in a row Max Verstappen will lead them out in Suzuka; the World Champion wiling his Red Bull to a flying final sector that takes him past the McLarens. “Pure class,” says the Red Bull garage.

Norris has pipped Piastri for the other spot on the front row, with Leclerc going fourth, Russell in fifth, and Antonelli in sixth. Hadjar, discomfort and all, has taken seventh in front of Hamilton, Albon, and Bearman.

What a twist to end qualifying.

Updated

For those concerned for Hadjar’s comfort, the coverage has shared that the Racing Bulls garage has found a fix at the “interface between the belt buckle and the upper leg area” to ease his pain.

So as it stands, Piastri will be starting from pole. He’ll then be followed by Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Hamilton, Hadjar, Bearman, Albon, and Antonelli.

Just under four minutes in Q3 remaining, the drivers will get one final chance to improve their positioning.

Norris comes through to set himself a time but can’t challenge the leaders, only going fourth fastest. He’s then pushed back down into fifth place by Leclerc, who flies through to set the third fastest time. His Ferrari teammate, meanwhile, has gone sixth fastest.

George Russell is the first of the leading pack to complete a flying lap, completing it in 1:27.318.

He’s promptly outdone by Verstappen, who goes 1:27.278. And then it’s Piastri who goes top, setting a new mark of 1:27.052.

Q3 Begins

The lights are green, the 12 minutes are counting down, and our ten remaining cars are searching for pole position in Japan.

Jacques Villeneuve is on expert commentary on the Sky Sports coverage and is unflinching in his analysis of Tsunoda being half a second slower than Verstappen in qualifying. “That’s not good enough”.

Lawson qualifies in 14th and Tsunoda goes 15th. We do love a bit of drama and intrigue, don’t we folks?

Updated

End of Q2

Gasly, Sainz, Alonso, Lawson, and Tsunoda finish in the bottom five and are now out.

Up the other end, the McLaren of Norris was quickest in that session.

Updated

Bearman has set a flying lap to go eighth quickest and he’s going to progress through to Q3!

Lawson was briefly out of the drop zone only to be sent straight back in there. The narrative beast will be fed, though, as the Kiwi has gone quicker than Tsunoda.

Tsunoda completes a lap… but he’s eleventh fastest! It looks like the new Red Bull driver will have his qualifying end in Q2.

Updated

Norris is still the quickest in Q2, ahead of Russell, Verstappen, Leclerc, and Hamilton.

Sainz, Alonso, Bearman, Tsunoda, and Lawson remain in the drop zone. Gasly is sitting tenth.

Updated

The fire has been doused and Q2 has resumed, Sainz, Alonso, Bearman, Tsunoda, and Lawson all lacking to extract themselves from the drop zone in the remaining time.

Jack Doohan speaking to Sky Sports coverage, asked if his big crash yesterday had an impact on his qualifying efforts.

“I don’t want to use any excuses. That’s why we train and keep out heads in a good place.

“Maybe Q2 could have been on the cards. I knew had to make big steps on ever lap. I made a small mistake on the exit of the spoon curve. If I didn’t do it I wouldn’t have made Q2 and if it worked I would have. So I can’t really be too mad.”

With the red flags coming out, the clock has stopped with 8:26 remaining in Q2.

Red Flag! Fire! Danger, Will Robinson!

A patch of grass has started smoking on the track and the red flags have come out, sending the cars back to pit lane.

Every driver has now set an initial time of Q2 and it’s Sainz, ALonso, Bearman, Tsunoda, and Lawson in the bottom five.

Drivers all starting to log times in this Q2 session and once again it’s the McLarens making the early running, Norris going fastest and Piastri fourth, sandwiching Russell and Verstappen.

So not the way that Lance Stroll would have wanted Q1 to go, eliminated at the first hurdle and running wide and going off the track towards the end.

Updated

Q2 Begins

We are underway once more in qualifying, with the 15 remaining drivers given 15 minutes to book a place in Q3.

End of Q1

Q1 is in the books and we’ll be saying goodbye to Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Ocon, Doohan, and Stroll. For the first time this season, Lawson has made it through to Q2 after taking the chequered flag with the 15th fastest time. Hadjar, meanwhile, has driven through the pain and gone 13th fastest.

Up the other end, Piastri was quickest with a time of 1:27.687.

Piastri looks set to record the quickest lap of Q1, we’re now waiting to see who will survive the cut-off.

Antonelli is out for one last flying lap with less than a minute of Q1 remaining… and he’s gone seventh fastest! He’ll be back for Q2.

Tsunoda’s front and rear wing have undergone some alterations for this weekend, sacrificing some level of speed in return for control.

Hadjar, meanwhile, is heading back out there for one last attempt to stay alive in qualifying. He’s clearly having issues with his seat belt and is on the radio apologising to his garage if this issue is what torpedoes their qualifying.

Lawson, Alonso, Antonelli, Hadjar, and Stroll are out bottom five with just over five minutes of Q1 remaining.

Hadjar is in the pits and is looking very uncomfortable in the cockpit.

With his new softs on, Hamilton sets the sixth fastest time, he should be safe for Q2 now.

Updated

Everyone has now logged a time and as it stands it’s Lawson, Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar, and Stroll that are the five slowest.

Hamilton has already shed his mediums for some softs.

Isack Hadjar completes his first lap, going 12th fastest, and then gets on the radio complaining about the same problem in the cockpit that he had earlier today. Coverage suggesting that he’s having some issues with his seat belt.

George Russell comes around for his first flying lap and he’s split the McLaren’s, going second behind Piastri and ahead of Norris.

Verstappen logs his first time of Q1 and he’s gone second fastest, just 0.127 behind Norris.

It’s not long, however, until he’s moved down to third as Oscar Piastri sets a new fastest time with 1:28.143.

Updated

Some of the leading teams now starting to set initial times now and it’s Norris that has gone to the front of the pack with a 1:28.233. He’s followed by Leclerc and Tsunoda.

Hamilton has come out for Q1 on a set of medium tyres, it seems. Looking like they’re going to try and keep a set of soft tyres in reserve for later.

Drivers starting to log some times now, Bearman quickest followed by Hulkenberg, Sainz, Ocon, and Doohan.

Jack Doohan being very particular about making sure that his DRS is closed as he hits the corners – the Australian left it on as he attempted to go around turn one in P2 and it was behind is major bingle.

Q1 Starts

The cars are making their way onto the track, the 18 minutes are counting down, and the first qualifying session of the Japanese Grand Prix is underway!

The start of qualification is imminent and if you need a reminder, here’s how it works.

All 20 cars will hit the circuit in a first qualifying session – Q1 – and will have 18 minutes to record a lap time. The five slowest cars at the end of that will drop out, with the remaining 15 drivers hitting the circuit once more for Q2 and given a further 15 minutes to set a time.

A further five cars will be culled at that point, with the last ten left standing provided with 12 minutes – maybe just enough time for two laps – to set a fastest time in Q3.

Ooooh, they’ve already updated the intro to show Lawson in his Racing Bulls gear and Tsunoda in his Red Bull apparel. No mucking about in the production team.

One of the most striking features of the Suzuka Circuit are the cherry blossoms that can be found around the track, blooms which Haas have paid tribute to with a special livery for this weekend.

We’re just under 20 minutes away from the start of qualifying and given that Verstappen has won from pole in the last three races at Suzuka, it could prove decisive.

One of the major things to watch in qualifying is the potential for fires to break out on the course. There’s plenty of dry grass around the track and it’s ignited three times across the various practice sessions staged thus far.

The coverage has shown marshals serving as make-shift gardeners as they attempt to water any potential flashpoints and mitigate the risks of further blazes and, hopefully, that prevents any future flashpoints.

Rain is forecast overnight which should hopefully lessen the risk of any interruptions to the main event, as well.

Updated

After a heavy crash in FP2, one of the biggest questions heading into today was if the Alpine of Jack Doohan would be repaired in time to hit the track. Those concerns were quickly addressed, though, when the Australian hit the track with all his parts bar a power united replaced.

How has Max Verstappen reacted to Liam Lawson’s demotion? If his Instagram activity was anything to go by, he wasn’t impressed.

Of course, social media isn’t real life, right? Maybe it was a slip of the finger?

“Well, I liked the comment, the text, so I guess that speaks for itself; it [the like] was not a mistake.” Welp.

Updated

The Team Standings, meanwhile, reflect the speed that Norris and Piastri have shown throughout the season so far.

McLaren - 78
Mercedes - 57
Red Bull - 36
Williams - 17
Ferrari - 17
Haas - 14
Aston Martin - 10
Sauber - 6
Racing Bulls - 3

Yep, two races in and Ocon and his Haas are ahead of both Hamilton and Leclerc in their Ferraris. Not exactly what we were all expecting heading into the season, with this the worst start to a campaign for the Italian team since 2010.

With races in Australia and China already in the books, here’s everyone who has logged points in the Drivers’ Standings heading into the Japanese GP.

Lando Norris, McLaren - 44
Max Verstappen, Red Bull - 36
George Russell, Mercedes - 35
Oscar Piastri, McLaren - 34
Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes - 22
Alex Albon, Williams - 16
Esteban Ocon, Haas - 10
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin - 10
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari - 9
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari - 8
Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber - 6
Ollie Bearman, Haas - 4
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull (Pointes earned with Racing Bulls) – 3
Carlos Sainz, Williams - 1

Updated

Preamble

Afternoon all and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of qualifying at the legendary Suzuka Circuit, as the 2025 Formula One World Championship season hits Japan.

My name is Joey Lynch and after missing out on Shanghai because I was an hour’s bullet train ride away watching Australia beat China in World Cup qualifying in Hangzhou, I’m back to take you through qualifying as well as tomorrow’s race.

All eyes, undoubtedly, are set to be on Yuki Tsunoda this weekend. Not only is it the Japanese driver’s home race but it’s his first since he was promoted to sit in the (maybe cursed?) number two seat at Red Bull following the unceremonious dumping of Liam Lawson after just two races.

The 24-year-old showed promise in the chaos that was yesterday’s practice sessions and landed in the top 10 in today’s final hit out before qualifying. No prize for guessing who has shown the most pace, however, with the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri again going fastest in the earlier session.

Qualifying starts at 3pm JST/11pm PST/6am GMT/5pm AEDT.

Updated

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