Max Verstappen will start the first Japanese Grand Prix since 2019 from pole position after besting Charles Leclerc in Saturday’s (Oct. 8) qualifying session at the Suzuka Circuit.
From pole position, the 18th of his career, Verstappen has a chance to wrap up his second consecutive Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship should the results fall his way on Sunday (Oct. 9).
“It was really incredible to drive here again,” Verstappen told three-time F1 winner Johnny Herbert after the session.
“Very happy to be on pole but in general just super happy to be back here … I am quite confident we have a good car, so yeah, excited for tomorrow.”
Full results from Saturday’s qualifying sessions can be found here.
The only drop of rain on Verstappen’s parade is an investigation to be conducted after qualifying to determine whether Verstappen impeded Lando Norris after catching a snap of oversteer in front of the McLaren driver – causing the Briton to run off track. Norris later told motorsport.com that he expects Verstappen to be penalized as a result of the incident.
That was close! 🙈
Lando Norris just avoids Max Verstappen, who gets a huge kick of oversteer coming into the final chicane
No contact is made and they both continue#JapaneseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/L0sztfX65N
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2022
Q3
Verstappen paced Leclerc and Carlos Sainz home in Q3 with Sergio Perez trailing in fourth to complete the now normal sweep of the top two rows of the grid by Red Bull and Ferrari.
Capping off three (major) incident free sessions of qualifying, Sebastian Vettel advanced to Q3 after a string of poor qualifying performances in recent months, doing so at a track the German is extremely fond of. Vettel will start his last Japanese Grand Prix before retirement from ninth on the grid.
Q2
Handling issues that had plagued Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly throughout Q1 continued to heckle the Japanese driver into the second session of the day. “Brakes are so bad,” Tsunoda reminded his team barely five minutes into Q2.
The action continued to follow the hometown hero throughout Q2 as his final flying run was nearly derailed entirely before it even began. While making his way out of the pit lane for his final run, Tsunoda was nearly clipped by the Haas of Mick Schumacher as the German overtook the AlphaTauri at pit exit.
Moments later Schumacher was nearly rear ended by Tsunoda as the pair approached the famous 130-R corner. With…
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