Red Bull (1,4) and Ferrari (2,3) lock out front rows for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
SUZUKA, Japan—Max Verstappen inched closer to clinching his second consecutive world driving championship Saturday afternoon by recording a 1:29:304 fastest lap to take the pole ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez took the first two sessions, and Verstappen had no difficulties grabbing the last one. An incident with McLaren’s Lando Norris is being investigated as Verstappen blocked and swerved in front of the Briton at 130R while Norris was on a flying lap.
Perez took fourth overall, keeping Red Bull in the battle with the two Ferraris for the race. The weather, cloudy but dry, never gave drivers trouble. However, Sunday may be different, with showers possible late in the race.
Max Verstappen: I’m not thinking about it (the weather) too much. What was most important was we had a competitive car. We had that in qualifying, and I hope it will be the same in the race because we need a perfect race to win.
Alpine finished with two drivers qualifying in the top ten, with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso taking fifth and seventh, respectively. Mercedes achieved the same success, with Lewis Hamilton sixth and George Russell eighth. In his final Japanese Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel had one of the best qualifying runs this season, putting his Aston Martin into ninth, just ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who rounded up the top ten.
Both Williams entries of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi were knocked out of the opening round, along with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen, and a very disappointed Pierre Gasly, who will drive next season for Alpine, complained heavily about the loss of his brakes all afternoon. Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas from Alfa Romeo were done in the second session, along with Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
ESPN2 will televise Sunday’s race beginning at 1 AM US Eastern time.
