Even McLaren had to admit there was something special about Max Verstappen’s lap for pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Either of their drivers could have taken pole position. Together they could have locked out the front row of the grid. But minor errors handed Verstappen the slimmest of opportunities, and he seized it brilliantly.
Sector times
On a day when shifting conditions made it harder than usual for drivers to string together their best sector times, Verstappen was the only driver who reached Q3 to pull it off.
He wasn’t fastest in any of the three individual sectors – the McLaren drivers were. Each of them produced sector times which, taken together, could have put them in front of Verstappen.
But they didn’t manage it when it mattered. “We looked like we were on the way to pole position when Max managed to pull off what looks like a near-perfect lap,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted, “so credit to Max.”
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 30.514 (5) | 39.197 (1) | 17.205 (1) | 1’26.916 (+0.111) |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | 30.358 (1) | 39.301 (2) | 17.307 (6) | 1’26.966 (+0.029) |
| 3 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 30.387 (3) | 39.355 (4) | 17.241 (2) | 1’26.983 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 30.535 (6) | 39.352 (3) | 17.292 (4) | 1’27.179 (+0.120) |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | 30.376 (2) | 39.560 (8) | 17.281 (3) | 1’27.217 (+0.101) |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 30.506 (4) | 39.454 (5) | 17.406 (12) | 1’27.366 (+0.244) |
| 7 | 12 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 30.669 (12) | 39.503 (7) | 17.295 (5) | 1’27.467 (+0.088) |
| 8 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | 30.663 (11) | 39.471 (6) | 17.401 (10) | 1’27.535 (+0.034) |
| 9 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 30.604 (8) | 39.581 (10) | 17.399 (9) | 1’27.584 (+0.031) |
| 10 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | 30.646 (10) | 39.639 (12) | 17.403 (11) | 1’27.688 (+0.023) |
| 11 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 30.760 (14) | 39.579 (9) | 17.408 (13) | 1’27.747 (+0.089) |
| 12 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 30.593 (7) | 39.840 (15) | 17.389 (7) | 1’27.822 |
| 13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 30.707 (13) | 39.672 (13) | 17.449 (14) | 1’27.828 (+0.139) |
| 14 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 30.633 (9) | 39.705 (14) | 17.559 (18) | 1’27.897 |
| 15 | 30 | Liam Lawson | 30.879 (15) | 39.634 (11) | 17.393 (8) | 1’27.906 |
| 16 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 30.974 (17) | 40.000 (17) | 17.542 (17) | 1’28.516 (+0.106) |
| 17 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 31.082 (20) | 39.984 (16) | 17.504 (15) | 1’28.570 |
| 18 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 31.012 (18) | 40.137 (18) | 17.518 (16) | 1’28.667 (+0.029) |
| 19 | 7 | Jack Doohan | 30.949 (16) | 40.186 (19) | 17.608 (19) | 1’28.743 (+0.134) |
| 20 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 31.034 (19) | 40.483 (20) | 17.754 (20) | 1’29.271 |
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Teams’ performance
McLaren and Red Bull had around three tenths of a second over Ferrari and Mercedes. George Russell was disappointed with his lap for fifth on the grid, having been consistently higher than that in practice, blaming low tyre temperatures for a poor start to his final lap.
Racing Bulls threatened to get in among the front runners during practice, but were one of several teams which appeared to be caught out by the shift in wind conditions overnight.
“Somewhere along the way, I think with the wind change, we struggled more,” admitted Liam Lawson following his return to the team. “It’s a shame because the potential of the car has been very, very good this weekend.”
Sauber was the only team to lose both drivers in Q1, which somewhat exaggerates their deficit to the competition, as the track conditions continued to improve in Q2.
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Williams chalked up the biggest year-on-year improvement of any team. Moreover, Carlos Sainz Jnr finally seems to be getting to grips with the car, lapping just five hundredths of a second off Alexander Albon in Q2.
Field performance
Thanks partly to the resurfacing at the start of the lap, Suzuka saw record-breaking times during qualifying. Verstappen trimmed the former record, held by Sebastian Vettel since 2019, by 0.081 seconds.
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2025 Japanese Grand Prix
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- Norris says McLaren’s car is “a lot more back to my liking” in Suzuka
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