Red Bull lock out front row at Suzuka as Verstappen barely pips game Perez; McLaren’s Norris gets the better of Ferrari’s Sainz for P3
Two weeks removed from his shocking early race mechanical DNF in Melbourne, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen seemed determined to reimpose his usual air of inevitability during Saturday Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Making an unusually early appearance on the F1 calendar and amidst cool and cloudy conditions at the fabled Suzuka International Racing Course, the Red Bulls were clearly the class of the field throughout practice and then further hammered home that fact once quali began in earnest. And this time, Verstappen’s teammate Sergo Perez also came to play, putting pressure on Max to up his game in order to earn the pole. In the end, the flying Dutchman succeeded, but only by beating out Perez by a scant .006 seconds, one of their closest qualifying duals since they’ve been Red Bull stablemates. With the RB20s race pace dominance readily apparent so far in 2024, fans will be hoping that Perez can hound Verstappen in tomorrow’s race with just as much elan as the veteran Mexican displayed today in qualifying.
Below those top two standouts, it was a fascinating battle for positions three through ten on the grid, featuring large gaps between teammates in ostensibly identical equipment. This often happens at the highly technical, figure-eight Suzuka Circuit, where hooking up a constant lap through all three sectors is highly demanding even to talented Formula 1 drivers. Excelling the best in a car not named Red Bull was McLaren’s Lando Norris, who bettered last race’s winner, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, P3 to P4. Still flying high from his amazing Aussie GP victory a fortnight ago, Sainz did take it to his Scuderia teammate, Charles Leclerc, who was forced to burn an extra set of Soft Pirellis to secure his transfer out of Q1. Leclerc was thereby disadvantaged by a lack of extra fresh sets in Q3 and could only run one hot lap, which netted him a lowly P8 starting position when all the other times were counted in the final session. Norris’s McLaren teammate and birthday boy Oscar Piastri faced no such tire disadvantage but was only able to qualify P6 after running his full Q3 program.
Fernando Alonso was the lone Aston Martin in the top ten, wringing the neck of his car to will himself all the way up to P5. This put the veteran two-time champ not only ahead of Piastri but also both Mercedes. After a disastrous zero points outing in Melbourne a fortnight ago, the Silver Arrows are still chasing pace, with Lewis Hamilton only able to mange a P7 time but still well ahead of his bewildered teammate, George Russell, who ended up mired down in P9. RB Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda delighted his countrymen in the stands by slotting in at P10 for his home race.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Japanese GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:28.866 | 1:28.740 | 1:28.197 | |
| 2 | 1:29.303 | 1:28.752 | 1:28.263 | |
| 3 | 1:29.536 | 1:28.940 | 1:28.489 | |
| 4 | 1:29.513 | 1:29.099 | 1:28.682 | |
| 5 | 1:29.254 | 1:29.082 | 1:28.686 | |
| 6 | 1:29.425 | 1:29.148 | 1:28.760 | |
| 7 | 1:29.661 | 1:28.887 | 1:28.766 | |
| 8 | 1:29.338 | 1:29.196 | 1:28.786 | |
| 9 | 1:29.799 | 1:29.140 | 1:29.008 | |
| 10 | 1:29.775 | 1:29.417 | 1:29.413 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 1AM Eastern Sunday morning here in the States. With Suzuka looking uniquely suited to this year’s iteration of Red Bull, it should come down to an intra-team battle at Red Bull for the win. Can Perez finally make his mark on the 2024 campaign and get back to challenging Verstappen’s supremacy? Look forward to seeing you then to find out!