Red Bull and Max Verstappen Bounce Back Claiming Pole in Japan

September 23, 2023Ramon Jones
Featured ArticleFormula 1

After a disappointing outing in Singapore last weekend. Verstappen bounced back in true championship leading form when he secured Pole Position at Suzuka. The McLarens and Verstappen have traded fastest laps all weekend through qualifying. However it was the Dutchman Verstappen who set the time to beat 6 tenths fastest than P2 finisher Oscar Piastri. Verstappen had the following words after the qualifying sessions.

“It’s been an incredible weekend so far, especially in qualifying, where you can really push it to the limit, it felt really, really nice. We had a bad weekend in Singapore. I already felt from the preparation we had that this was going to be a good track, but you never really know how good it’s going to be. From lap one it’s been really, really nice. Of course, you try to find little improvements here and there, and I think we did that. To be on pole here is fantastic.”

Charles Leclerc prevented a McLaren/Red Bull cluster at the front finishing P4 in the session ahead of Sergio Perez. Elsewhere on the grid was mostly uneventful. In Q1 Logan Sargeant crashed out again and leave his mechanics a major overhaul to get the car ready for racing day. Liam Lawson almost made it into Q3 but fell just short having to settle for 11th.

Full Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying Results

PositionDriver Car / Engine  Time  Delta (s) 
Max VerstappenRed Bull/Honda RBPT1’28.877 
Oscar PiastriMcLaren/Mercedes1’29.4580.581
Lando NorrisMcLaren/Mercedes1’29.4930.616
Charles LeclercFerrari1’29.5420.665
Sergio PérezRed Bull/Honda RBPT1’29.6500.773
Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1’29.8500.973
Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’29.9081.031
George RussellMercedes1’30.2191.342
Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri/Honda RBPT1’30.3031.426
10 Fernando AlonsoAston Martin/Mercedes1’30.5601.683
11 Liam LawsonAlphaTauri/Honda RBPT1’30.5081.631
12 Pierre GaslyAlpine/Renault1’30.5091.632
13 Alexander AlbonWilliams/Mercedes1’30.5371.660
14 Esteban OconAlpine/Renault1’30.5861.709
15 Kevin MagnussenHaas/Ferrari1’30.6651.788
16 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo/Ferrari1’31.0492.172
17 Lance StrollAston Martin/Mercedes1’31.1812.304
18 Nico HülkenbergHaas/Ferrari1’31.2992.422
19 Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo/Ferrari1’31.3982.521
20 Logan SargeantWilliams/Mercedes