Courtesy: F1
Max Verstappen, the reigning four-time F1 world champion, has secured the pole position for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix, piping Lando Norris of McLaren by 0.012 seconds on Saturday, April 5. At the Suzuka Circuit, Red Bull were behind McLaren in the free practice sessions, but in the qualifying session, Max Verstappen brought his absolute best level, which proved to be enough for him to start tomorrow’s main race in first place.
In the early phase of the qualifying session, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was ahead of Max Verstappen in the first laps of the session by 0.226 seconds, but eventually, he finished in third place ahead of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. The fifth and sixth place in the Sunday’s race will go to the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who found a bit of consistency with their pace in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time F1 world champion, who is racing in a Ferrari for the first-time this season, qualified in eight place behind Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls.
This is insane: Red Bull race engineer on Max Verstappen's pole lap
After Max Verstappen clinched pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix, his Red Bull race engineer Giampiero Lambiase said to him over the radio about his excellent performance, “This is insane.” His championship rival Lando Norris of McLaren also had a rare reaction of appreciating him for his work by saying, “Max did an amazing lap”.
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Moreover, Lando Norris further spoke about his performance in the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying, “I'm happy because I feel like I got everything out of the car today. My lap was very good. We were on the limit of what we had but we just didn't have enough today.” As far as Max Verstappen’s new teammate at Red Bull is concerned, Japan’s own Yuki Tsunoda could only end up in 15th place in his home race after getting knocked out in the second session of qualifying.
