Even McLaren must have admitted that there was something special about Max Verstappen’s knees for pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix.
One or the other of their drivers could have taken pole position. Together, they could have locked the first row of the grid. But minor errors have given the most thin of opportunities, and he seized it brilliantly.
Sector time
One day when travel conditions made more difficult than usual for drivers to chain their best sectoral times, Verstappen was the only driver to reach Q3 to remove it.
It was not the fastest in none of the three individual sectors – McLaren drivers were. Each of them has produced sectoral times which, taken together, could have put them before Verstappen.
But they did not succeed when it counted. “We seemed that we were on the way to pole position when Max managed to achieve what looks like an almost perfect turn,” admitted the director of the McLaren team, Andrea Stella, “therefore the credit to Max.”
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 30.514 (5) | 39.197 (1) | 17.205 (1) | 1’26.916 (+0.111) |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | 30.358 (1) | 39.301 (2) | 5.30 p.m. (6) | 1’26.966 (+0.029) |
| 3 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 30,387 (3) | 39.355 (4) | 17.241 (2) | 1’26.983 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 30.535 (6) | 39.352 (3) | 17.292 (4) | 1’27.179 (+0.120) |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | 30,376 (2) | 39,560 (8) | 17.281 (3) | 1’27.217 (+0.101) |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 30.506 (4) | 39.454 (5) | 17.406 (12) | 1’27.366 (+0.244) |
| 7 | 12 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 30,669 (12) | 39.503 (7) | 17.295 (5) | 1’27.467 (+0.088) |
| 8 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | 30,663 (11) | 39.471 (6) | 17.401 (10) | 1’27.535 (+0.034) |
| 9 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 30.604 (8) | 39.581 (10) | 17.399 (9) | 1’27.584 (+0.031) |
| 10 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | 30,646 (10) | 39.639 (12) | 17.403 (11) | 1’27.688 (+0.023) |
| 11 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 30,760 (14) | 39,579 (9) | 17.408 (13) | 1’27.747 (+0.089) |
| 12 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 30.593 (7) | 39.840 (15) | 17.389 (7) | 1’27.822 |
| 13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 30,707 (13) | 39.672 (13) | 17,449 (14) | 1’27.828 (+0.139) |
| 14 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 30,633 (9) | 39.705 (14) | 17,559 (18) | 1’27.897 |
| 15 | 30 | Liam Lawson | 30,879 (15) | 39.634 (11) | 17.393 (8) | 1’27.906 |
| 16 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 30.974 (17) | 40,000 (17) | 17.542 (17) | 1’28.516 (+0.106) |
| 17 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 31.082 (20) | 39.984 (16) | 17.504 (15) | 1’28.570 |
| 18 | 31 | ESTEBAN OCON | 31.012 (18) | 40.137 (18) | 17.518 (16) | 1’28.667 (+0.029) |
| 19 | 7 | Jack Doohan | 30,949 (16) | 40.186 (19) | 17.608 (19) | 1’28.743 (+0.134) |
| 20 | 18 | Lance walk | 31.034 (19) | 40.483 (20) | 17,754 (20) | 1’29.271 |
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Team performance
McLaren and Red Bull had about three tenths of a second on Ferrari and Mercedes. George Russell was disappointed with his knees for the fifth on the grid, having always been higher than that of practice, blaming the low tire temperatures for a bad start of his last lap.
The racing bulls threatened to enter among the runners before during training, but were one of the many teams that seemed to be taken by the wind change during the night.
“Somewhere along the way, I think that with the wind change, we fought more,” admitted Liam Lawson after his return to the team. “It’s a shame because the potential of the car was very, very good this weekend.”
Sauber was the only team to lose the two pilots in the first quarter, which exaggerates their deficit somewhat from the competition, while the track conditions continued to improve in T2.
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Williams has obtained the highest improvement in annual shift in any team. In addition, Carlos Sainz JNR finally seems to adapt to the car, receiving only five hundredths of a second off Alexander Albon in the second quarter.
Field performance
Thanks in part to resurfacing at the start of the knees, Suzuka saw record times during the qualifications. Verstappen reduced the former record, owned by Sebastian Vettel since 2019, by 0.081 seconds.
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2025 Grand Prix of Japan
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