Verstappen in strong position to wrap up title after taking Japanese F1 GP pole

Max Verstappen took pole for the Japanese Grand Prix with a superb lap of Suzuka. The Red Bull driver beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc into second with his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz in third. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were in sixth and eighth for Mercedes, with Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez in fourth and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in fifth.

Ferrari and Red Bull had looked evenly matched over the weekend and it was Leclerc who was quickest on the first hot runs in Q3 only for Verstappen to put in an immense final sector and lead the timesheets by a full two-tenths.

On their final laps, Leclerc went quicker in the middle sector but dropped time on the final third and failed to match Verstappen’s time by just one-hundredth of a second. The Dutchman pushed hard on his final lap but lost a piece of bodywork from the rear of his car and could not improve, yet he had already done enough with his mighty first run.

Verstappen however did move across the track on his out-lap before his first run in Q3, unaware that Lando Norris was approaching from behind at pace. The British driver had to dive across the grass to avoid hitting Verstappen. The incident is under investigation by the stewards. Verstappen then gestured his apologies from his car to Norris and was upset his team had not warned him Norris was so close on track.

Verstappen is in an enormously strong position to wrap up the championship in Japan. He leads Leclerc by 104 points and Pérez by 106. He will seal his second title if if he wins here and Leclerc finishes below second. If he wins and takes the fastest lap, the championship will be his regardless.

If he does so here he will be only the fourth driver to have secured the championship with four or more races