Max Verstappen took what is surely one of the greatest of his 41 pole positions to date, with a fantastic final run to set a best time of 1’26”983, a record for this circuit. F1Technical’s senior writer writer Balazs Szabo reveals what turned out to be the decisive factor in the nail-biting qualifying session at Suzuka.
The Suzuka track is one of the most spectacular and demanding on the calendar, as well as being the only circuit of the season with a figure-of-eight layout. Located in the Mie Prefecture, the venue is owned by Honda whose Suzuka factory, built in 1960 is one of its main sites in Japan.
The track is regarded as being demanding for both car and driver. 5.807 kilometres in length, it is made up of 18 corners, some of which are part of motor racing history, such as the Esses in the first sector and the legendary 130R and it has remained pretty much unchanged over the years.
Apart from the new surface in the opening sector, there are other minor modifications compared to last year, with kerbs and grass run-off areas having been changed. The most significant of these is at turn 9, where the single kerb has been replaced by a higher double kerb, while the synthetic grass on the outside of turns 2,7,9,14 and 17 has been replaced with gravel.
Interestingly, all top teams – McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull – have elected to bring a lower-downforce aerodynamic configuration for this weekend compared to last season despite the weather forecast that predicts rain for Sunday.
McLaren and Ferrari have equipped their MCL39 and the SF-25 respectively with a spoon-shaped rear wing, albeit the Woking-based outfit’s design features a more loaded mainplane. Friday’s practice sessions saw McLaren achieve the lowest top speed, with Williams and Haas having followed a similar direction.
Things have slightly changed for Satuday, albeit McLaren and Haas carried over the aerodynamic configuration from Friday, and achieved the lowest top speed in qualifying with a maximum of 320kph.
Aston Martin and Sauber were slightly quicker through the main straight, but they were also in the lower end of the spectrum.
Ferrari and Mercedes achieved the highest top speed of 326kph through the speed trap, but Red Bull, Williams, Alpine and Racing Bulls were close to what the Maranello and Brackley-based outfits managed.
The difference in aerodynamic configuration between McLaren and Red Bull was most prominent in Sector 1. In that very part of the daunting Suzuka circuit, Norris set a 30.358s while Verstappen was fractionally (0.019s) behind on their quickest lap in qualifying. The Dutchman achieved higher top speed (325kph) down the main straight compared Norris (319kph) which was down to McLaren’s decision to run a slightly more loaded rear wing.
In Turn 2, Norris’ minimum speed was 6 kph faster than what Verstappen achieved, and the Briton was quicker through the daunting esses of Turns 3, 4 and 5 due to his more loaded rear wing and greater aerodynamic downforce.
