#F1 #JapaneseGP #Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen stuns @LandoNorris to pole by 0.012s.
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB21, in Parc Ferme after taking his 42nd-career pole in Qualifying, Formula 1 Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix 2025, Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Image credit to Clive Rose/Getty Images. Verstappen Japanese GP Pole, 2025 Japanese GP Qualifying, F1 Japanese GP Qualifying, Japanese GP Qualifying Results, Formula 1 Japan Qualifying.
Verstappen Japanese GP Pole – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen stunned 2024 title rival Lando Norris to take pole position in a thrilling Japanese GP qualifying session at Suzuka. The other McLaren of Oscar Piastri qualified third.
This is the Dutchman’s 42nd-career pole position the first since the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix.
In Q3, the initial flyers saw Bearman the first to post his lap-time with a 1:28.090 and remained ahead of Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli who set a 1:28.222.
His Mercedes team-mate George Russell jumped to the top with a 1:27.318 then Verstappen shot to the head of the times with a 1:27.278 until McLaren’s Piastri set all purples take provisional pole on a 1:27.052 and sent Verstappen 0.226 seconds back.
Norris’s initial effort was only good enough for fifth and 0.467 seconds off his team-mate provisional pole time.
Ferrari’s Leclerc posted three personal bests to slot into third place behind Verstappen and dropping Russell to fourth.
The final hot-laps saw Russell made an error through sector one with two personal bests but could not improve on fourth.
Norris posted the quickest sector one and two personal bests to blast to P1 with a 1:26.995, then Verstappen stunned the McLaren driver with three personal bests to pip Norris for pole by a very narrow 0.012 seconds with his blistering 1:26.983 effort.
Piastri was unable to improve on his flying lap to line-up on the second row of the grid alongside Leclerc who qualified fourth.
The Mercedes pairing followed as Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli ended up fifth and sixth respectively as Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar took seventh and Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton who wounded up eighth.
Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten.
In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Norris, in a session where a red flag for a fire erupted with eight minutes and 26 second remaining, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly wounded up outside the top ten in 11th place and will start ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz who qualified 12th on the grid but the Spaniard is currently under investigation by the stewards for impeding Hamilton’s flyer through the opening corner.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso qualified 13th on the grid and ahead of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson who outqualified home favourite and the driver who replaced him in the senior team in Yuki Tsunoda who was promoted to the second Red Bull seat as both ended up the slowest of the Q2 runners in 15th and 16th respectively.
In the opening segment, which was topped by Piastri, a flurry of improvements saw Racing Bulls’ Lawson escape a Q1 exit by eliminating Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg by a slim 0.016 seconds with his 1:28.554 effort to put the German 16th on the grid for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The other Sauber C47 entry of Gabriel Bortoleto could only move up to 17th on his flyer and sent Haas’s Esteban Ocon to 18th whilst Alpine’s Jack Doohan and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll brought up the rear with the latter being caught out by the wind as it sent the Canadian off the track through the end of the Esses and taking an excursion into the gravel and thus could not get out of Q1.
You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix 2025 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1256/japan/qualifying
2025 Japanese GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2025 Japanese GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20 – 1:26.983:
“Yeah, I am [surprised]. Each session we kept making little improvements. Then the last lap was just flat out. In a Formula 1 car around here is insane. This is a proper highlight for us to be back on pole here.”
2nd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL39 – 1:26.995s:
“I’m happy, congrats to Max, he did a good job. You have to credit something when it is a lap that good that he must have done. I got everything out of the car today, the gaps are tiny. Good, but not enough. We were on the limit of what we had, we just didn’t have enough today.”
3rd Place – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL39 – 1:27.027s:
“I felt good through most of the qualifying, especially at the start of Q3, that was a good lap. The last lap didn’t come together how I wanted, with tight margins. More left on the table out there, so we try again tomorrow. I think we have good [race] pace, the others are not as far away as people think. I still think we have a great car for tomorrow and will be in the mix for the win.”
#F1 #JapaneseGP FP3: @LandoNorris heads @McLarenF1 1-2 in fire-interrupted session.
#F1 #JapaneseGP FP2: @OscarPiastri heads @McLarenF1 1-2 in red flag-affected session.
#F1 #JapaneseGP FP1: @LandoNorris edges @GeorgeRussell63 by 0.163s.
#F1 #Lenovo #JapaneseGP 2025 Preview. #Formula1 #JapaneseGrandPrix
