Excitement at Suzuka
F1 is back after an entertaining race last time out in Singapore with similar levels of excitement hoping to be emulated this week in Japan.
Red Bull were sitting at the top of the timesheets with Max Verstappen during the practice sessions, but the two Mclarens were looking quick too.
It was both Piastri and Lawson’s first time at the Suzuka circuit as rookies in F1 but both looked more than comfortable in the practice sessions.
In other news Tsunoda and Riccardo have both been signed on by Alpha Tauri for the 2024 season, meaning that the aforementioned Lawson will return to his reserve duties for the season to come.
Q1 - Brings the action
Lawson was the first car out on the circuit, setting a time of a 1:31:729 in his Alpha Tauri. Lance Stroll was second on track, returning to racing action after his crash in Q1 in Singapore, with the Canadian setting a 1:32:246. After a few runs from other drivers it was Verstappen who set the standard with a 1:29:878, comfortably placing the Red Bull into P1, with his teammate a huge eight tenths behind him.With rain hitting the circuit last night track evolution was expected to play a factor, with the track heating and therefore gripping up with each passing lap.
Logan Sargent found himself in the barriers at the final corner. The American seemed to lose control of his Williams through a snap of oversteer, getting onto the grass and then the barrier. This brought out the red flag and delayed the session as everyone headed back to the pits.
The Ferraris took to the track first once the session resumed and the laps started flowing in. It was also said that Leclerc, Zhou and Bottas had been noted by the stewards for ‘not following Race Directors instructions’ with the three seemingly unable to slow down for the red flag. This would be investigated after the session but no further action was taken.
Traffic was an issue for the drivers during the final laps of the session with Hamilton complaining about this as almost everyone headed out at the end of the session. Only Verstappen, Norris and the two Ferrari cars stayed in the pitlane.
Verstappen finished P1 with a 1:29:878. Norris and Leclerc claimed P2 and P3 respectively. Liam Lawson finished the session strongly with his lap good enough for P4.
The drivers eliminated at the end of the session were:
Q2 And the track evolves
It was Max Verstappen that set the pace in this session, with the Dutch driver finding himself in his familiar P1 position, however the session was not going completely smoothly for the Dutchman who experienced problems on his steering wheel – with the device being unable to show his lap times and delta times, but this didn’t seem to cause him too many issues.
The two Mclarens were also showing good pace, Piastri and Norris coming in second and third.
Running continued without too much excitement. As the drivers setting more and more laps the track ramped up and times started improving. One thing that didn’t change was the man at the top of the session, Verstappen.
As all the drivers geared up for final flying laps in an attempt to get into the top 10 shootout Piastri started to make his way to the end of the pitlane, before receiving a late call from his team to stop and let his mechanics wheel him back to the garage. The team made the call that both Piastri and Norris had done enough already to see them through to Q3. Verstappen also stayed in his garage and missed the final few minutes, clearly comfortable with what he’d done already.
The top three was composed of Leclerc, Verstappen and Perez. The Monegasque and Mexican drivers improved on their times during the last runs. Those that fell into the bottom five were:
Q3 - The Final Shootout
There was reports of some wind picking up at the start of Q3, could this cause the drivers some problems as the session progressed?
It was Verstappen yet again setting the standards with a stunning lap time of 1:29:012 – an extremely impressive feat which left him 1.4 seconds ahead of his team mate who was in second position at that point.
For the final laps of the session it was the Red Bull of Verstappen who cemented his dominant performance, managing a sensational lap time of 1:28:877. This gave the Dutch driver his first pole since the Dutch Grand Prix and was his ninth of the season.
It was the rookie Piastri that came home in second, the first rookie to qualify on the front row in a decade. He was closely followed by his teammate Norris, making it a Mclaren 2-3.
Then came Leclerc, Perez and Sainz, the Red Bull splitting the two Ferraris but still being over seven tenths of a second off of his teammate.
The two Mercedes cars followed with Hamilton leading Russell but both of them may be disappointed with this performance after such a strong Singapore Grand Prix
Home favourite Yuki Tsunoda finished in P9 after announcing his renewal with Alpha Tauri
Alonso was last of all the drivers in Q3, however the Spaniard is still the only driver to have a 100% appearance rate in the final session of qualifying – so he will be happy to see this record continue.
