F1: Max Verstappen Steals Pole At Suzuka As He Prepares For 2nd World Title At Honda’s Home Race

Max Verstappen has seemed quick all weekend and was basically the fastest in Q1 and for a large part of Q2, so a pole was largely on the cards. But the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr had been progressively getting quicker through the qualifying session at Suzuka. This iconic track has been the home of the Japanese GP for decades.  But they couldn’t complete the job failing short by just 0.010 seconds. Suzuka which is also owned by Honda, Red Bull’s engine partner has seen many a world champion being coronated including Sebastian Vettel who is retiring at the end of the season and Verstappen has set himself up nicely to emulate the likes of Senna, Schumacher, Prost to win a world title at Suzuka if he manages to win the race and get the fastest lap even if his closest title rival Charles Leclerc finishes in P2.

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This would also underline the Dutchman’s dominance in the title fight as winning and fastest lap will mean he wins the title with four races in hand. That being said, the Ferraris do look quick and Leclerc is in P2 and Sainz is in P3 who looked set for a faster time than his teammate only to botch it up on the last corner of Q3 which meant he managed P3. This also means that they are ahead of Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s trusty sidekick for the last two years who also won the last race in Singapore when Verstappen just managed P7.

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It's not all milk and honey for the world champion as his pole position could be snatched pending a review by the stewards after an incident at the high-speed 130R corner where Verstappen during his in-lap weaved and lost control of the car which resulted in almost a collision with McLaren’s Lando Norris who was charging down 130R at high speed.

Esteban Ocon managed P5 in the rapid Alpine as underlined by Alonso’s pace through the session and weekend. The Spaniard himself managed P7 as he was pipped by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton for P6. Hamilton’s teammate Russell managed P8 ahead of Sebastian Vettel who muscled the underperforming Aston Martin to Q3 at his favourite track for one last time. Norris in the McLaren managed P10 and was just ahead of his outgoing teammate Ricciardo who for once looked faster through the session, but for a lock-up on his final lap in Q2.

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Valtteri Bottas was P12 for the Alfa Romeo Sauber ahead of Guanyu Zhou who managed P14 for the team. The pair were split by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was in his first Japanese GP. His teammate Pierre Gasly who announced today that he was moving to Alpine to replace Fernando Alonso struggled his way to P17. Mick Schumacher who is fighting to save his F1 career at Haas again impressed with P15 out qualifying his experienced teammate Kevin Magnussen who just managed P18.

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Alex Albon was the lead Williams in P16 while his outgoing teammate Nicholas Latifi came in P20 and had a 5-place grid penalty for the crash he was responsible for in Singapore. Lance Stroll managed P19 for Aston Martin underlying how well Vettel did to get the car to P9.