Formula 1 News: Verstappen nips Perez for Japanese GP pole

World Champion Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m28.197s to win pole for the Japanese GP by just 0.066s over his Red Bull Honda teammate Sergio Perez.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen has won all four poles in this young 2024 Formula 1 season and both of his Q3 laps were good enough for pole, but not by much.

After initially setting the fastest time during the first runs of Q3 with a lap of 1m 28.240s, the Dutchman improved on his final effort to a 1m 28.197s.

The three-times world champion was quickest in all three phases of qualifying, improving on every run – topping Q1, Q2 and Q3 and both dry practice sessions.

“It was quite close at the end,” Verstappen said. “I think overall this track is very sensitive with the tires, with the tarmac being really aggressive, and when you really want to go to the limit it doesn’t always work out.

“But nevertheless, I think the most important [thing] is to be on pole. Of course, you want every lap to be perfect, but around a track like this that’s not always the case. Overall, a very good day, a good starting position for tomorrow, and of course, tomorrow is what counts.”

The Honda-powered cars will start 1-2 in front of their home crowd. The Japanese fans are very proud Honda’s performance.

“We have had a good weekend so far and made some really nice progress throughout qualifying today,” said a happy Perez.

“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.”

Lando Norris took third for McLaren, with Carlos Sainz Jr. once again showing the world he is the better of the two Ferrari drivers by taking 4th.

Fernando Alonso was the lead Aston Martin in fifth, ahead of the 2nd McLaren of Oscar Piastri in sixth, almost 7/10ths behind Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton will share the fourth row with future Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, ahead of George Russell in ninth – who is set to be investigated by the stewards for a pit lane incident in Q1 – while Yuki Tsunoda rounds out the top 10 at his home event.

Daniel Ricciardo was on form today and almost beat his RB Honda teammate but just missed out making it into Q3 and will start 11th while Nico Hulkenberg joins him on the sixth row in P12.

Valtteri Bottas was the lead Kick Sauber in P13, ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon, as Esteban Ocon claimed P15 in the Alpine.

Last year, Verstappen took pole with a 1m28.877s lap meaning his pole time this year was 0.68s faster. This increase in performance, using the same compounds as in 2023, was down to lower temperatures (track temperature 12 °C less yesterday afternoon) as well as the obvious improvement from this year’s cars over last year’s.

Max Verstappen regarding his race pace:

“I’m not too happy with my long runs (in FP3), we weren’t as fast as I would like, so that’s still a bit of a question mark heading into the race. Ferrari for example looked really comfortable, while they weren’t that fast over one lap today…”

“We will see how it turns out tomorrow. I am just not happy with myself, with how the long run looked.”

2024 Japanese GP Qualifying Results