Max Verstappen will start first tomorrow at the Suzuka Grand Prix, as he went 0.066s faster than his teammate. Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz will start on the second row.
Q1
Kevin Magnussen was the first driver to take the track and set the time of 1.31.203s.
The Williams of Sargeant and Albon were the second to come out of the pit lane.
13 minutes before the end of the first part of this qualifying session, most of the drivers left the pit lane to make their first fast lap.
An incident in the pit lane took place between Oscar Piastri and Georges Russel, the commissioners indicated that it would be investigated after the session.
Max Verstappen set a time of 1.28.866 allowing him to dominate the standings. This time beat its pole position time of last year. He was closely followed by Fernando Alonso and his teammate Sergio Perez, but Fernando Alonso was quick to intercede between the two Red Bull drivers.
5 minutes before the end of this first game the 2 Haas found themselves threatened in the elimination zone accompanied by Pierre Gasly, Guanyu Zhou, and Logan Sargeant.
The 5 leading drivers did not come out for a second attempt, they had, according to them, a fast enough time to pass in Q2. The top 5 was: Verstappen, Alonso, Perez, Piastri and Sainz.
On his second attempt, Charles Leclerc was able to climb back to fourth position. Nico Hülkenberg went back to the 11th position.
Very nice performance of Ricciardo who ran away and went back to 10th place. Great performance also from Valtteri Bottas who placed in 8th position as well as for Esteban Ocon who placed in 13th position. His teammate missed qualifying in Q2 for a few thousandths of a second.
Stroll was eliminated in the first part of the qualifying session, while his teammate managed to set the second time.
Finally, the 2 Mercedes of Hamilton and Russel placed themselves in 9th and 12th position, recall that just like the first 5 they made only one attempt.
Q1 knockouts: Guanyu Zhou (20th), Logan Sargeant (19th), Kevin Magnussen (18th), Pierre Gasly (17th) and Lance Stroll (16th).
Q2
The Red Bull drivers were the first two to take the track in this second part of the qualifying session. The McLaren of Norris and Piastri as well as the Mercedes followed them closely.
Sergio Perez took the lead on the time grid, but Max Verstappen recovered the first place despite being a little below his teammate in the first two sectors.
Oscar Piastri took the third position, quickly beaten by Fernando Alonso. His teammate Lando Norris came in between Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso.
After their first attempt, the two Ferraris were only in 5th and 7th position behind the two Red Bulls and the two McLarens.
Halfway through this second part of the session, Nico Hülkenberg, who saw his time erased due to non-compliance with the limits of the track, and Alex Albon were the two drivers to have set no time.
The 7 leading drivers of this Q2 composed of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, and Fernando Alonso did not take the track to make a second attempt.
2 minutes before the end of Q2, Mercedes started on the track taking 3rd and 7th place, allowing them to validate their passage in Q3.
For 0.055s thousandths Yuki Tsunoda, the national hero, was in 10th position in front of his teammate, he then qualified in Q3 for the third time this season.
Q2 knockouts: Esteban Ocon (15th), Alex Albon (14th), Valtteri Bottas (13th), Nico Hülkenberg (12th) and Daniel Ricciardo (11th).
Q3
Lewis Hamilton was the first to take the track in this last part of the session.
All the drivers quickly left the pit lane except Charles Leclerc, who had only one new set of tires for the end of the session. He only had one chance to make a quick turn.
Lewis Hamilton defeated his teammate for the first time this season. He led the grid of times before Max Verstappen made the best time in 1:28.240s, followed closely by his teammate Perez.
Fernando Alonso was only 7th, followed by Georges Russel and Yuki Tsunoda.
At the end of this first part of Q3, Lando Norris got in between the two Red Bulls and snatched the 2nd provisional position.
When all the drivers returned to the pits, Charles Leclerc set off on the track to make his final attempt. But he was only 20 thousandths behind Lewis Hamilton and took 7th place.
Last attempt for all drivers. Sergio Perez improved his first sector but was quickly beaten by his teammate. He then kept his second place and was only 0.066 thousandths from Verstappen.
Yuki Tsunoda’s last attempt did not allow him to climb higher than 10th position.
Despite a good time, Fernando Alonso was only in 5th position.
Georges Russel, meanwhile, did not improve his time and took 9th place. His teammate did the same and came home in 7th position. Carlos Sainz beat Leclerc by grabbing 4th place.
Let’s also note the excellent performance of Lando Norris, allowing him to grab P3. His teammate was 6th, just behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.
Despite his only attempt, Charles Leclerc managed to raise his car to 8th position on the starting grid.