Out of the 72 Formula 1 world championships contested, the title was decided at the season finale on 30 occasions. In most seasons, the champion put the title out of reach with at least one round to spare.
Tomorrow, in Japan, Max Verstappen has his second opportunity in the space of eight days to put the drivers’ championship out of sight and become only the 17th driver in history to claim multiple world titles. And by securing pole position at Suzuka, the Red Bull driver has given himself the best possible chance of making that a reality on Sunday.
However, that pole position was secured by the slimmest margin of the season so far – just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari team mate, Carlos Sainz Jnr. It’s quite possible the margin could have been larger, had Verstappen improved on his second and final effort, but losing a piece of bodywork from the rear of his car on his last lap may have prevented him from realising his full potential over one lap.
“I am really happy to be on pole and in general – just super happy to be back here in Japan,” Verstappen said.
“During qualifying, I lost a part of the duct from the car in my final lap so that’s why I couldn’t really improve, nevertheless the first lap was good enough.”
Leclerc was audibly angry over team radio to have missed out on extending his already rich poles tally for the season – and he had every right to be. He had been almost a tenth up on Verstappen’s first lap before reaching the chicane, but after braking later than the Red Bull driver Leclerc couldn’t get back on the power as early as his rival. His advantage over the Red Bull whittled away, until Verstappen was finally ahead of him mere metres from the finish line.
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“The car was good, I was struggling more with the tyres to put everything together, first and last sector especially,” Leclerc explained. “The more I was pushing in the first sector, the more I was going slow in the last sector, losing a little bit the tyres. So, it was a tricky one but overall the car felt good.”
Aside from qualifying, Saturday’s hour-long practice session was the only dry running teams had in which to prepare their cars. Verstappen ran a seven-lap stint on four-lap old soft tyres, setting an average lap time of a 1’37.684. Ferrari appeared to be faster than…
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