SUZUKA, Japan —
Max Verstappen gave himself a great chance to retain his Formula One
world title at Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix after grabbing pole in Suzuka.
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The Red Bull driver
topped the timesheets in qualifying with a time of 1min 29.304sec, just
0.010sec ahead of Ferrari’s
Charles Leclerc, his nearest championship rival.
Carlos Sainz was third in the other Ferrari.
Verstappen then
faced a nervous wait after stewards said they would investigate a scary
on-track incident involving the Dutchman and McLaren’s Lando Norris. Verstappen
was given a reprimand but will remain in pole.
He can clinch the
title on Sunday if he wins the race with the fastest lap, no matter what his
rivals do.
He will also retain
his crown if he wins and Leclerc is third or lower.
“I’m not thinking
about it too much, just taking it day by day,” said the 25-year-old Verstappen,
who has won 11 of 17 races this season.
“I think what was
more important is that we’ve had a competitive car and clearly we had today in
qualifying.
“I hope it’s going
to be the same tomorrow in the race because we do need a perfect race to be
able to win it tomorrow.”
Verstappen and
Norris had a close call in qualifying when the Dutchman nearly lost control of
his car while on a slow lap at the final chicane as Norris raced up behind him.
The McLaren driver
was forced onto the grass to avoid hitting the
Red Bull, with the championship
leader muttering “unbelievable” over his team radio.
Red Bull team
principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports that there was “a gentleman’s
agreement” that drivers would file through the chicane one by one.
Norris disagreed,
telling the broadcaster that he thought Verstappen should have been penalized
“for sure”.
“There’s no rule on
what you can do, but doing what he did is something that you cannot do,” said
the British driver.
Verstappen pinned
the blame on Norris, saying he should have been “more respectful”.
“I don’t think
anyone is trying to pass into that last chicane, so basically by trying to pass
me you create that kind of problem,” said Verstappen.
Verstappen’s car
lost a chunk of bodywork on his last lap after he ran wide on a section of the
track and onto a kerb.
Fed-up, furious
Leclerc was just a whisker away from claiming his third straight pole.
“It was a tricky
one but overall the car felt good,” said the Monaco driver, who trails
Verstappen by 104 points in the championship standings, having had the upper
hand at the start of the season.
“The first sector
feels crazy. There’s so much grip and in Q3 once you go for that last lap it
really feels special. It was a fun qualifying.”
Sainz was close
behind his teammate with a time of 1min 29.361sec and said he was “fed up” of
missing out on pole.
“It was a good lap,
clean all the way into the last chicane but it overcooked a bit heading into
the last chicane and it cost me quite a bit of lap time,” said the Spaniard.
Sergio Perez, in
the other Red Bull, was fourth.
Alpine’s Esteban
Ocon was fifth, followed by Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell,
Sebastian Vettel and Norris to round out the fastest 10.
Seven-time world
champion Hamilton is looking to maintain his proud record of winning at least
one race in every season since his Formula One debut in 2007.
But he said the Red
Bull and Ferrari cars were “in a different league” in Suzuka from his Mercedes.
“It feels good to
drive and it was a clean session for me, but we are just a long way off in
terms of the ultimate pace,” he said.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre
Gasly failed to make it past Q1 after an issue with his brakes.
The Frenchman, who
announced earlier in the day that he will replace two-time world champion
Alonso at Alpine next season, was furious.
“I feel we could
have managed this situation a bit better,” Gasly told TV reporters.
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