The Saturday in F1 Japanese GP saw a surprise at the top from couple of other front-running teams, as grass fire continued to create stoppages.
The stoppages continued on Saturday in F1 Japanese GP at Suzuka as well with the grass catching fire. In the end, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen surprised with his performance by taking pole, even if the margin was only 0.012s over McLaren’s Lando Norris and 0.044s over Oscar Piastri.
He eked out something on his final attempt after feeling much better with the car, even though the issues hasn’t been fixed. It was fitting in Honda’s home event as well. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda did well to get through Q1, but tyre warm-up issues caught him out in Q2 to get knocked out.
It will be a battle to get through into the points, leaving Verstappen alone to fend off the McLaren and Mercedes pair. Both Norris and Piastri were fine despite losing out on pole. They fell they have enough pace at hand to push for a win, while admitting that the Dutchman will be a threat.
Mercedes’ George Russell rued his warm-up lap where his tyres were too cold due to lower track temperature to find himself only fifth. Teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli made a rare admission of having no confidence from FP1. A safe set-up choice helped him gain time, which earned him sixth place.
But it also cost a chance to be further ahead. Considering how his Friday was, he welcomed a Top 6 result after he finished ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who was eighth. The Brit admitted to not performing well, while noting about opting for different set-up to Charles Leclerc in fourth.
Verstappen: “A lot of happiness when I crossed the line. The whole qualifying, we just kept on trying to improve the situation a bit. And the final lap, honestly, it was very good. I had a lot of fun out there, being fully committed everywhere. Some places, not sure if I was actually going to keep it or not, but yeah, it was really nice. And also great for the team as well. I mean, I’ve had some really nice ones also in other places. But I think if you look at how our season started, even during this weekend… yeah, it’s very unexpected, I would say. And I think that makes it probably a very special one. In terms of car, I mean actually it was a bit better. I think that issue was a lot better today. But at the same time, the through corner balance is still what we need to work on. But yeah, I think on low fuel over one lap, some bits you can mask a little bit. But it’s still not like I go into the lap fully confident and comfortable. So the last lap I was like, well, I’m just going to not try and feel uncomfortable – just send it in and see what we get. It’s very rare, of course, that a lap like that then can stick, but this time it worked well. We know that we have some issues that we want to solve, but it’s clearly not easy to solve them at the moment. For the race, it will be very hard, but that’s fine. I’ll try to do my best. So far this season we have not been able to fight them. But it’s not like we just sit there and accept it. We try to do the very best and we’ll give it a good fight tomorrow if we can. But at the end of the day, it’s a very long championship and you need to keep on scoring points whenever you can in the best way possible. At least we’re starting from the front – then we’ll see where we go.”
Norris: “I didn’t go that much. I mean, I went two tenths quicker than the Q2 lap, so not enough, but just a little bit. It’s a track where you just kind of chip away in different areas. And like Max says, commit a bit more in those high-speed corners. But I was pretty happy with my lap, honestly. I tried pushing on a good amount more in Q3 Run 1 and it didn’t work out clearly, so I just had to kind of peg it back a lot. I was happy with the balance and happy with the car at the end. The margin is so small – I think it was a hundredth in it – and you’d probably say yes, but yeah, just not enough for pole. I am much happier than China [with the car]. Yeah, the car’s a lot more back to my liking. I’ve got some front end in the car and I’m much, much happier with that. I’ve been feeling confident all weekend.
“If quali was in FP1 and it was a Sprint race, I feel like I’d be much further ahead, but everyone’s good enough that by the time you get to quali, they kind of catch up a bit. I’ve been feeling good, the car’s been feeling good from the off as well. We’ve been chipping away. I think between both of us we’ve been quickest in every session bar this one, so it’s the little frustrating one. The corners I still struggle with, the corners I’m still not happy with, are the corners I still just don’t have the front end and I don’t have the grip in the car when I need it from the front. It’s clear what suits me and what doesn’t, or just what allows me to be quick and what doesn’t. China was one of those weaker tracks, and we come here and the car’s a lot more how I want it. Much better again.”
Piastri: “It wasn’t my best, Sector 1. I think I lost a little bit of time compared to the first lap of Q3. And yeah, when the gap’s four hundredths from 1st to 3rd, you think about it quite a bit. I’ve been pretty comfortable through qualifying. I think the first lap of Q3 was a good one, the second one just a little bit off the mark in a couple of places. But yeah, I’ve had to dial myself in a bit more this weekend than I did last race and it’s taken a bit longer to get there. But looking at the margins and how it performed, I’ve been pretty happy. Just those little margins – when it’s so tight – make all the difference, clearly.”
Hamilton: “Not the greatest, but tomorrow we have another day. I felt pretty good in the car this weekend, it is the first weekend where Charles and I are in different directions in set-up, we will see how it goes. I am hoping the race will be better strategy wise, it will be interesting. Charles did a great lap in qualifying, really-really well done, he maybe out-performed the car little bit but great lap. On my side, we didn’t get everything needed from the car. I think for single lap, Charles was probably better. Whether I am good tomorrow, I don’t know, we will find out. I am generally happy with the decision and direction I have taken, as I said, I just struggled with the front-end, that’s why I had a snap in Q3.”
Antonelli: “Happy with how the session went but on the other side disappointed because I had to make such a step in driving from free practice. I was very lost in practice. I really had no confidence to push more and to progress, and I was kind of like stuck from where I finished in FP1. So I headed into qualifying with very little confidence and having to make a really big step in driving. Overall, I was getting there, step by step. But definitely, it’s a good lesson ahead of the next race. With the set-up, we started safe because I didn’t have confidence. so I needed to get confidence. As the track was improving and cooling down, I didn’t really have the courage as well to push the set-up even further. So also, that is something that I learned for the next qualifying. But overall, I’m happy with it because I feel like I maximised the result. How I made the step?
“Mentally, it was really tough, because when you’re kind of stuck there, you see that you really struggle to make steps. Mentally, it’s difficult, especially because you see that you have to make such a step in all the sectors. Almost every corner, you have to make massive step in driving. So, I really had to dig deep and really tried to focus on what I had to do. Eventually, it was a decent lap, far from perfect, but cannot complain about it either. It was a mix of everything to rectify, what I really like to do is rewatch my lap because I can see where maybe I do a wrong line or where I could have done better. I was getting there step by step. Also, I think using two sets in Q1 didn’t really help. But that’s on me because I didn’t do a good enough lap at the start. Because I think with two sets in Q3, it definitely could have helped me as well to make a further step. The set-up definitely for quali it was a bit too safe.
“But that’s not on the team, it was my decision, because I was feeling good with it in getting the confidence back. On that last lap, I had decent confidence – and I probably could have asked the team to push the set-up a bit more on the edge. Melbourne was a really big test, the race. But on the mental side, this was a good test as well. When you’re starting so far off in free practices – and not one free practice, all of them – it’s really hard mentally. And especially you go into qualifying and you’re uncertain of what you can achieve as a result. So it was really good test mentally, and I was happy with how I reacted to it.”
Tsunoda: “Q1 as well felt pretty good. I just missed the window, I guess. I think the window that this car can operate in is very narrow and the warm-up, probably most of the things have to be almost perfect, especially the warm-up. In Q2, I couldn’t do the warm-up I wanted like previous one, so that makes a big difference again. So, something I learned, kind of recognised in Q2, but it was a bit too late. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to put it all together when it’s the right time. [It’s the] same for everyone, the red flag. I think it’s not that [the issue], it’s just a warm-up I guess. I don’t know, I had a big gust in Turn 2, quite a big moment I had which was unexpected, so it’s hard to say what happened there but at least I showed good pace in Q1 and I feel like I have a bit good confidence in the car. I’m sure it’s still learning in the process I’m learning, but it’s a shame.
“To be honest I didn’t expect this result. In Suzuka, it is always tricky because normally the set-up is more high-speed, there it felt pretty good, I feel like this car is on the edge with the rear. At least for now I feel pretty OK with the stability, I would say, in terms of rear sliding. I’m feeling it! But I feel at the same time this kind of direction is the setup I have to drive to perform well in the car, so… at least I recognised it throughout FP1 and the practices, and just wasn’t enough in the end to put it all together I guess. Yeah, I’ll be patient. I was expecting a little bit more today, so that definitely makes a bit of disappointment now. But it’s not impossible. I felt last two days that if I’m able to sync with the car much more, I know I can extract much more consistently, which is important. It is will be interesting race with the rain or whatever, I’ll do my best.”
The Top 10 featured Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar in seventh as best of the rest. The Frenchman struggled in Q1 with the seatbelt which was tight around his groin area. It was fixed by Q2 and he could focus more on extracting pace, as teammate Liam Lawson felt he could have done more than 13th.
Haas’ Oliver Bearman was a surprise in 10th despite the struggles that the team has faced in high-speed section. The Brit felt comfortable in the car when Esteban Ocon did not by his own admission, to be out in Q1. The former also took an iRacing line in the final corner to extract as much.
The duo had Williams’ Alexander Albon in company after the Thai made it in the Top 10 despite not looking like at one stage. The two corners where the car wasn’t top notch, was hurting them, but he made it through still. Teammate Carlos Sainz felt he had enough to get through as well.
He felt much better after struggles in China and a mistake on his final lap left him outside of Q3. He has Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso around him, with both managing to find some pace after practice troubles. Teammate Jack Doohan had confidence issues after FP2 crash.
But still felt he had Q2 pace, while Lance Stroll made a mistake on his final lap due to wind gust. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were knocked out in Q1 itself, with the German making small mistake and the Brazilian just not having enough legs to get the better of him.
Hadjar: “It’s a bit tight around the groin. I was just playing with the belt, and in Q1, of course, you don’t have time to jump back out, so I had to deal with it and pull through to Q2. But yes, when I came back in the car, with the belt back on, it was all good. This [seat belt fix] definitely helped me a lot as I was able to be fully focused on my driving. Overall, I’m really happy about my performance and lap time until the last chicane, as sadly, I lost one tenth there. The car is quite predictable.
“It’s fast as well, it’s efficient, so I just need to do a good lap and it puts me quite high in the rankings. I have to be calm, this is Formula 1. I can’t get as excited as in F2. As for the race, I don’t think there’s tricky white lines on track. It should be easier. I just know sector one with this tarmac, it’s going to be quite tricky. It’s fast in dry conditions, but in the wet, for sure it’s going to be slippery. But, still, in the wet, I feel like I don’t have much experience. But we’ll see how it goes. I’m really excited.”
Bearman: “I didn’t expect to go into Q2, so I was pretty happy to be in Q3 in the end. I don’t think anyone expected it after everything happened so far this weekend. It has been quite difficult, very interrupted sessions, I didn’t have a lap on the board on softs since FP1. So, to get out there and put it up and have a good qualifying, I am really proud of the team and myself. I felt like I was hiding my rhythm slightly, I managed to find it but I never completed a whole lap, it was the case in FP2 and FP3 but my soft lap never finished.
“Generally, I had rhythm all weekend and felt confident with the car, this is what I have been telling the team that they don’t have anything to back it up yet, and in Q1, I started pushing the car and finally after giving 100% everywhere, that’s when I realised that maybe we have a chance here to sneak into Q2. I was going as tight as I could to the wall. I don’t know why not everyone is doing that. I was doing it since FP1. I thought that’s the real iRacing line there.”
Albon: “It was not bad, another Q3 and another track we can tick off the list that we have got a fairly consistent car, so I am happy. Maybe there’s couple of corners this weekend that we have been relatively poor at and just losing in two places and then gain everywhere else around the lap. In Q3, my final lap felt different to all my other laps, we need to go around it and figure out what changed. The car felt good and it felt more like I wanted it to feel like, the balance I have been chasing pretty much the whole weekend for, but because it was only one lap, I had to adjust a bit my driving style. When you go into a corner with different balance, you aren’t always on top of the car, obviously, I am sure if you ask anyone about P9, they will say that they could have been P5 but it felt like I was half a tenth off but still it was well done.”
Doohan: “It was not easiest to bounce back in FP3, obviously, confidence…you take it to be honest, on Friday I was quite in a good way, just re-building in FP3 by taking it easy. I had just the three laps with red flags, so not much time to tune the car and also myself. It is just unfortunate that I have to such big steps to get back to pace around here, similar to a street track where in FP1, FP2 and FP3, you continue to make steps forward, you build up your stones and you start from there. I was having to jump a bit more.
“In Q1, there was potential of making in Q2 in the car which would have been a great effort, I had to just take big steps forward and on my final lap, I asked a bit too much through Turn 14, I was going to run wide and so I had to get out of it, if I didn’t do it, I would still be here in the media pen. I had to give it a go, unfortunately, I would love to have done it in practice sessions. In terms of the DRS story, it is something that we discussed internally and we have gone over, yeah, I am just trying to maximise.
Alonso: “I was feeling competitive yesterday but I think with the wind direction change we weren’t quite as fast today. I was happy with all of my laps in Qualifying and we finished P14 in Q1 and P13 in Q2, so I think that was our pace. We need to improve our car performance to be able to reach Q3. We’ll try fight for the points scoring positions tomorrow.”
Hulkenberg: “The car has been a bit tricky all weekend long, today even more with the wind change in Sector 1 which has turned 180 degrees compared to yesterday. It’s just a bit difficult to find the right balance and we knew it was going to be tight in the midfield and it really was. I had a bit of a wobble at the exit of Turn 9 and lost some time there. Unfortunately, that happens when you’re on the edge and that’s where we are now. I was not able to bring my tyres up to the perfect temperature on my warmup lap due to traffic with cars on their fast lap. This was not perfect too. For tomorrow it looks like there might be different weather on the way, which could create an opportunity that we are willing to use.”
Here’s how F1 Japanese GP qualifying panned out
