Reigning champion Max Verstappen took a surprise pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix, beating the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri who had looked untouchable before the last qualifying segment.
Max Verstappen was struggling for outright pace across the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday morning, but he managed to turn his fortunes around for the all-important qualifying session.
Following Friday’s practice day, the reigning champion made a series of changes to his RB21, including tweaks to the weight distribution, aerodynamic balance, suspension setup, which has allowed him to take on the fight against the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
The Dutchman delivered a brilliant lap in the closing stages of qualifying, posting a record-breaking time of 1m26.983s tp beat Norris and Piastri by 12 and 44 thousands of a second.
The previous unofficial lap record belonged to four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel. The German took pole position with Ferrari in 2019, stopping the clock at 1m27.06s with his Ferrari SF-90. His team-mate Charles Leclerc set the second quickest lap time in that qualifying session which means that the Monegasque has held the second fastest lap time in Suzuka.
However, with the new asphalt in Sector 1, cars have become much quicker this year compared to last year. It enabled Max Verstappen to set a 1m26.98s to break Vettel’s previous all-time unofficial lap record.
Interestingly, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who finished just behind the reigning champion also broke the German’s previous record.
