Runaway championship leader Max Verstappen took pole position on Saturday for the Japanese Grand Prix as he looks to take a giant stride towards a third-straight title this weekend.
The Red Bull driver topped the timesheets in dry conditions in Suzuka with a fastest time of 1min 28.877sec -- 0.581sec ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri.
Piastri's teammate Lando Norris was third. Verstappen, who leads teammate and nearest rival Sergio Perez by 151 points in the championship standings, cannot clinch the title on Sunday but a favourable result can set him up to seal the deal at the Qatar Grand Prix next month.
He is looking to bounce back from a disappointing fifth-place finish at last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix that ended his record streak of 10-straight wins. "Incredible weekend so far, especially in qualifying when you can really push it -- it felt really, really nice," said Verstappen. "I already felt from the preparation that we had that this was going to be a good track. "You never really know how good it's going to be but from lap one it's been really nice." Verstappen has looked back to his dominant best this week in Suzuka, finishing fastest in all three practice sessions.