Verstappen pips Leclerc to F1 pole by 0.010s

Despite failing to improve on his final run in Q3, Verstappen’s banker lap was quick enough to land the top spot in qualifying as Leclerc just dropped a hundredth in the final sector.

That comes as victory and a bonus point for fastest lap will cement Verstappen’s second title.

In the climax to qualifying, Leclerc was the first of the pole contenders to begin his flying lap and duly improved on his personal best in the first sector before going quickest of anyone in S2.

But the Monegasque ran 0.01s down through the closing part of the lap to miss out by 0.009s, as Verstappen failed to improve in S1 and S3 after running wide and shedding some carbon.

Carlos Sainz, who had the legs on Leclerc earlier in the day, ran to third and was 0.06s down as Sergio Perez will complete the second row, four tenths down on his teammate.

The Mexican had gone comfortably fastest in Q2 when Verstappen did not opt for a second lap but then complained of understeer to fall out of the fight for pole position.

Esteban Ocon ran to a strong fifth for Alpine as Lewis Hamilton led the subdued Mercedes attack in sixth over Fernando Alonso.

George Russell set the eighth-fastest time over Sebastian Vettel on his final F1 appearance at Suzuka, while Lando Norris rounded out the top 10.

But there is a question mark hanging over the provisional polesitter.

Verstappen, who set the pace in Q1, led the opening salvo in the final part of qualifying as he toured round in 1m29.304s to find an imperious quarter of a second over Leclerc and Sainz.

But Norris notably had to take evasive action early into Q3 as he had to take to the grass as Verstappen seemed to attempt to warm the tyres out of 130R and the RB18 stepped wide.

The Red Bull driver did repass Norris and appeared to raise his hand by way of an apology.

The incident took place when both were on an out-lap. It will be investigated post-session.

Vettel ran out of sequence in the 15-minute Q2 to ensure clean air but he did leave himself at risk of being caught out by track position, but he initially climbed as high as fifth place.

While he was shuffled down to 10th to still make it into the shootout for pole as the improvements came, he kept ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who was eliminated in 11th.

The McLaren driver had looked strong on Saturday but missed the cut-off by a tiny 0.003s after failing to improve on his crucial lap, as largely determined by an iffy final sector.

Valtteri Bottas dropped time in the…