Oracle Red Bull Racing locked down the front row of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix with Max Verstappen edging teammate Sergio Perez by 0.066 seconds.
Verstappen’s time of 1:28.197 was laid down at the end of Q3.
“Overall, in qualifying the laps have been very nice and it was a great result for the team,” Verstappen said. “In the last lap I tried to push a bit more and I was gaining quite nicely in sector one, but ran out of tires at the end so lost a bit of time which was a shame. We have to work on our long runs as we have not been fully happy with these and still feel like we can work to control the balance of the car a bit more.
“It wasn’t perfect, but to still be on pole on a lap that I felt like could have been better, is great. We made some good changes within the car and I really enjoyed sector one; around here it is really fun to drive and the car is improving every year, especially in the high speed. All in all, the team has a front row start, which is a perfect start to the race tomorrow, but I expect it to be very competitive. It is great to be here, the support is always amazing and hopefully we can give the fans a good race.”
Lando Norris wheeled his McLaren to a third-place qualifying result, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz placing fourth after winning the series’ last event in Australia.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso starts fifth alongside second-year driver Oscar Piastri.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc make up row four, while George Russell qualified ninth.
Hometown hero Yuki Tsunoda starts 10th.