In the 16th race of the season, the two-time champion was well ahead of his rivals, setting his best lap in 1.28.877 minutes and leaving second place, Australian Óscar Piastri (McLaren), more than half a second behind at 0.581. , with Britain’s Lando Norris (McLaren) in third place, at 0.616.
After being excluded from the final stages of qualifying (Q3) in Singapore a week ago, Verstappen today showed the dominance he has exerted this season, having already won twelve of the fifteen contested races.
The two-time world champion created a bigger gap to second place than the gap that separated the second from the seventh, namely the Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), at 1.031 seconds.
This was Verstappen’s ninth pole position of the season and 29th of his career and showed that the regulatory change, which tightened the criteria for wing flexibility, had no impact on the performance of the championship team’s cars.
“We had a bad weekend [em Singapura]. Naturally, people started saying that this was because of the new technical standard. I think they can start sucking an egg,” the Dutchman said after the session.
The Red Bull driver equaled Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio’s 29 pole positions and was only one behind German Nico Rosberg.
This time, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc was the best of the Ferraris, in fourth place, beating the second Red Bull, driven by the Mexican Sérgio Pérez.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) starts from sixth position.
Qualifying was marked by the accident of North American Logan Sargeant (Williams), exactly in the first stage (Q1), which destroyed the single-seater and prevented him from pushing off at any time.
Sargeant is the only driver without a contract for 2024, after Alpha Tauri confirmed this morning the continuity of the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (he finished ninth) and the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (still absent in Japan due to injury).
The Japanese GP is the 17th race on the calendar, but in fact the 16th race, due to the cancellation in May of the Emilia Romagna GP due to the floods that hit that region of Italy.
This race could also dictate Red Bull’s seventh constructors’ title, if they score one point more than Mercedes and lose no more than 24 points to Ferrari.
The team of Max Verstappen and Sérgio Pérez currently leads with 597 points, against Mercedes’ 289 and Ferrari’s 265.
Red Bull became champion in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2022 and 2023.
Source: DN
