Q1

After more grass fires during final practice, the marshals had been out with water and even traffic cones to try and stop any more from happening. Now, it was time to see if their efforts had worked as qualifying began at Suzuka.

Ferrari and McLaren were among the first teams to set lap times, with Lando Norris going quickest early on with a 1 minute 28.2 lap. Lewis Hamilton tried a different tactic by using medium tyres instead of softs, but he was six tenths slower than Charles Leclerc, so it didn’t look like the plan was working.

Max Verstappen went just behind Norris, before Oscar Piastri jumped ahead of both, continuing the close fight between the McLaren drivers. Verstappen was not happy on the radio, saying the front tyres weren’t working well, while George Russell slotted between the two McLarens and looked fast in the Mercedes.

It wasn’t going smoothly for Isack Hadjar either, who was struggling with a loose seatbelt in his car and said he couldn’t focus as he was obviously suffering a lot of pain. He came back to the garage for a fix, but the issue still wasn’t solved. Despite that, Hadjar managed to pull out a lap good enough to get through to Q2, apologising to his team just in case it didn’t work out.

Fernando Alonso managed to avoid dropping into the bottom five, but his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll saw his chances ruined after he ran wide through the Esses and ended up in the gravel.

At the end of Q1, Oscar Piastri was the fastest, while Lance Stroll, Jack Doohan, Esteban Ocon, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Nico Hulkenberg were knocked out. Liam Lawson made it through to Q2 for the first time since returning to Racing Bulls, which was a positive surprise.

Q2

The second part of qualifying got off to a strong start for Norris, who was top again, ahead of Russell and Verstappen. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda had work to do if he wanted to reach the final session on his first try as a Red Bull driver.

Then, we had another delay. A grass fire broke out at the inside of the high-speed 130R corner, and the red flag came out once again. Unlike in practice, the clock was stopped this time, leaving just over eight minutes to go when it resumed.

When the session restarted, most drivers went out for one more push, except Norris, who stayed in the garage. His earlier lap was good enough to keep him at the top. In the end, Tsunoda, Lawson, Alonso, Carlos Sainz, and Pierre Gasly were all knocked out. For Tsunoda, it was a tough blow in front of his home fans, especially since he qualified behind Lawson, the very driver he had replaced at Red Bull.

There was also a bit of drama between Hamilton and Sainz, as the Briton had to avoid the slow-moving Williams through Turn 1. The stewards announced they would look into the incident after the session. Still, Hamilton made it into Q3, while Sainz did not.

Q3

The battle for pole position was now on, and on the first runs it was Oscar Piastri who looked set to take it. He was two tenths quicker than Verstappen and even broke the lap record at Suzuka with a 1:27.052 lap, beating the old time set by Sebastian Vettel in 2019. 

But the session wasn’t over yet. Norris, who had a poor first attempt, put in a strong final lap and went fastest but only for a moment. Then came Verstappen, who suddenly went even quicker, taking pole position by just 0.012 seconds and breaking the lap record again with a 1 minute 26.983.

Piastri could not improve, meaning Verstappen snatched pole position right at the end. Norris would start second and Piastri third, locking in another close fight at the front for Sunday’s race.

Behind the top three, Leclerc took fourth place, just ahead of Russell in fifth. Kimi Antonelli impressed again by taking sixth in the second Mercedes. Isack Hadjar qualified seventh for Racing Bulls, followed by Hamilton in eighth. Alex Albon took ninth for Williams and Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten with a good result for Haas.