Max Verstappen took what is surely one of the greatest of his 41 pole positions to date, with a fantastic final run to set a best time of 1’26”983, a record for this circuit. F1Technical’s senior writer writer Balazs Szabo delivers teams’ and drivers reaction after the nail-biting qualifying day at Suzuka.
Max Verstappen, 1st, 1;26.983
“It’s been an incredible qualifying for us even though the weekend has been quite tough so far. We kept working and the changes that we made going into qualifying helped as we were lacking a bit of pace before. The car got a little better and we could attack the corners a bit more.
“During qualifying we kept trying to find little gains and drive to the limit meaning that we improved nicely, which made the difference today. Every lap that we did we built on and learned from. We maximised what we had, didn’t make any mistakes in the lap and it was a great result in the end.
“Pole was a surprise for everyone as so far this year we have not been the best on race pace, so I am very happy for the Team. Tomorrow the rain might make it a bit more of an interesting race and we will do our best to get the best possible result.”
Yuki Tsunoda, 15th, 1:28.000
“There’s some frustration today. I think the warmup didn’t go as I wanted for that final lap and it was pretty messy, especially in the first sector. We are still learning, and I thought the warmup was ok and we would maybe be a little compromised, but the penalty was pretty big.
“I thought we would be able to build from Q1 but that wasn’t the case. At least my confidence in the car feels good now, I just wasn’t able to put it together today and that is a shame. I think the positive is I have started to understand the car well.
“FP1 and FP3 felt good and I started well today, it was just that final lap, the car is quite sensitive on its tyres, and I started to feel that in Q2, the pace was there to get to Q3 and I need to be able to maximise it.
“My mindset all weekend has been to just enjoy the situation, the car, being with the Team, being at Suzuka, and I felt more calm than usual but at the same time I felt responsible to perform. It’s my home grand prix, so I will stay focussed tomorrow and try my best, a bit of rain could help us move through the field.”
Lando Norris, 2nd, 1:26.995
“We can be happy with that. The team have done a great job this weekend and I feel that I got everything out of the car today. The final lap felt strong because I was on the limit. It’s going to be an exciting race, we’re both starting up at the front and the weather conditions are looking mixed. Max is going to put up a good fight, but we’ve been here before and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Oscar Piastri, 3rd, 1:27.027
“It’s good to get both cars up there in the top three today. I felt good through much of Qualifying, and especially at the start of Q3 but that last lap didn’t quite come together as I wanted, so there was a little bit left on the table. We said coming into the season that there were going to be incredibly tight margins and today proved that.
“It’s all to play for tomorrow and we’ve got a great car. We don’t know what the weather’s going to do, but we’ve been quick on both dry and wet tracks already this year, so we should be up there fighting for the win. Let’s see what we can do.”
Lewis Hamilton, 8th, 1:27.610
“It was a challenging Saturday for us. We made some changes to the car ahead of qualifying which, unfortunately, didn’t deliver the improvements we were aiming for. The car felt more balanced in the earlier stages, but I experienced significant understeer in Q3 which led to a couple of small mistakes that cost us.
“This result isn’t a true reflection of the car’s potential. There’s performance to be found and the team has been working incredibly hard behind the scenes. We’ll analyse the data overnight and do everything we can to come back stronger in the race.”
Charles Leclerc, 4th, 1:27.299
“I put everything into my best lap in Q3 and there was nothing more we could have got out of the car today. P4 is not a satisfying result and we have to keep working to close the gap to McLaren and Red Bull, with the target of getting back to winning races. As a whole however, it has been a positive weekend so far.
“I feel a lot more comfortable in the car after the changes we made to the set-up yesterday, which also gave me confidence behind the wheel going into Qualifying. I’m looking forward to seeing how it will feel in the race tomorrow, and depending on the weather conditions, to test this approach over a race distance.”
George Russell, 5th, 1:27.318
“Finishing P5 definitely feels like an underachievement for us today. We have looked strong all weekend and I believe we had a car that could have been in the fight for the front row. Unfortunately, we just didn’t bring the lap together at the critical moment. As the session progressed, the track was getting cooler. For our final effort, the tyres were a little too cold starting the lap and I had a big moment at turn two. That cost me a couple of tenths and I was unable to improve on my first effort.
“Whilst we are naturally disappointed, P5 is not a terrible place to start. We’ve had good pace all weekend and I am feeling confident in the car. Let’s see what the weather conditions bring tomorrow but, wet or dry, I think we can be in contention for a podium. If it is wet, this is an even more challenging circuit. We saw in Melbourne just how chaotic a race can get so, whatever the circumstances, we will be looking to take advantage.”
Kimi Antonelli, 6th, 1:27.555
“I am happy with how my session went. I wasn’t putting the lap together as I knew I needed to throughout practice. I didn’t have a huge amount of confidence therefore going into Qualifying, but we kept working hard at it. Bono has been a great support, along with Valtteri who has been giving me plenty of advice.
“I managed to make progress lap-by-lap and P6 is not a bad result in the end. There was definitely more performance to find in the car; I was still struggling a little with sector one. If I had improved that, then maybe we could have started slightly further ahead. Nevertheless, I am still pleased with what we were able to extract from the car. There are a lot of positives to take away, along with the learnings of where I can improve.
“I am looking forward to tomorrow. With the forecast, it could be an interesting race ahead. I certainly wouldn’t mind a little bit of rain! I have a lot of data to look through tonight to see where we can make further improvements. I will continue to build my confidence around the track and hopefully we can bring home some good points tomorrow.”
George clarifies his ‘feeling donkey’ radio message from yesterday 😅 pic.twitter.com/o2egyhAOoD
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 5, 2025
Isack Hadjar, 7th, 1:27.569
“Yesterday we had a great start to the weekend as I felt comfortable straight away in the car with quite a lot of pace. I wasn’t too happy this morning during FP3, but the team did a fantastic job making the right adjustments to the car, even throughout the session. In the afternoon during Q1, unfortunately, I felt some discomfort in the cockpit due to an issue with the seat belt, but at the end of that session, I jumped out of the car and the team were able to fix it, allowing me to have a smooth Q2 and Q3.
“This definitely helped me a lot as I was able to be fully focused on my driving. Overall, I’m really happy about my performance and lap time until the last chicane, as sadly, I lost one tenth there.
“Tomorrow might be raining, so in this case, obviously, it would be a very different situation compared to today, especially starting in P7 with the big boys ahead of me. It will be a challenge, but it’s a good place to kick off the race from, and if we have a clean start, I think points may be on the table.”
Liam Lawson, 14th, 1:27.906
“It’s been a tricky day, especially after yesterday we had pretty good pace, and good balance. Somewhere along the way, I think with the wind change, we struggled more. It’s a shame because the potential of the car has been very very good this weekend, I felt really good in the car but for whatever reason it got away from us at the end of Q2.
“You’re always chasing balance through Quali as the track evolves, everybody’s getting faster, so you’re chasing a balance to try and keep in a good window. I feel like we were fine tuning through the run but it just got to a point that we couldn’t really tune it much more, we kind of hit a wall a bit.
“Tomorrow looks like it’s probably going to be wet, which is going to be a challenge for everybody, but also it opens opportunities for us to try and move forward. The new surface will be quite different to drive, it’ll probably hold a bit more water. Let’s see what happens, I’m sure it’ll be an eventful race.”
Alex Albon, 9th, 1:27.615
“That wasn’t bad! I’m happy with another Q3; we have a pretty consistent car! My best lap felt very different to the other laps though. We need to go through it all and understand why it changed, but that lap felt how I wanted it to feel. The balance that I’d been chasing was there. There are a couple of corners on the track that we’ve struggled with so if we can improve on those, we’ll be even more competitive. Tomorrow looks like it’s going to start off wet and then get drier and drier, so the call to switch will be important. It should be a good race.”
Carlos Sainz, 12th, 1:27.836
“Mixed feelings today. We’ve made some good progress this weekend and I felt a lot more comfortable with the car; there are still a few things to adjust here and there of course, but this track requires a lot of confidence and I do feel we’ve taken a step forward.
“On the other hand, I lost around a tenth on S3 on my last lap, so Q3 was reachable and I’m obviously not happy I missed it. However, I prefer to take the positives from today and focus on tomorrow’s race, where we’ll try to do everything to gain some positions and have a positive Sunday.”
Esteban Ocon, 18th, 1:28.696
“It didn’t really work on our side unfortunately – we tried a lot of things across the two cars and unfortunately something was missing for us. Here and there, we’re lacking pace much more than we should be, but it’s good to see that it’s working well for Ollie. We’ll put it together and learn for the future, and anything can happen with the weather, so we’ll give it our all.”
Oliver Bearman, 10th, 1:27.867
“I made a mistake on my last lap and lost a bit of time, so maybe we could’ve been a bit further up, but it’s really tight. Just to make it into Q2 was a relief and a surprise – a welcome one – so I’m happy with today. I’m not sure about the forecast for tomorrow and how it will impact things, but it’s going to be fun that’s for sure. This track and the fans are amazing, and getting into Q3 with this team is incredible.”
Pierre Gasly, 11th, 1:27.822
“I have mixed feelings after Qualifying today. It was so close out there – as we expected – with small gaps in lap time separating a handful of cars. The car felt good, I was happy with the balance and I was really able to push in the corners, especially in Sectors 1 and 3, where we were competitive.
“We knew we were going to miss out a little bit in Sector 2, given the direction we took with the car. Overall, it’s a strong job by everyone at the team as the car feels much improved. I’m feeling confident and we are in a good starting spot for tomorrow. There is a chance of rain, which I would welcome, as it always makes things more interesting for everyone and gives more opportunity for a good result. Let’s see what happens.”
Jack Doohan, 19th, 1:28.877
“Thanks to the team for their hard work overnight to get the car ready for today. It was a big effort so for that I’m very appreciative. Going into Free Practice 3, we were a bit on the backfoot from yesterday, which meant we needed to make big steps each time we went out on track.
“The car felt reasonably good but we’re still struggling a bit with stability, which is something we need to analyse. Maybe Q2 could have been possible with the speed we had. However, I made a small mistake on the exit of Spoon Curve on my final lap where the car understeered a bit and I had to get out the throttle, which cost us time for the rest of the straight.
“The weather forecast looks mixed for tomorrow and that could give us an opportunity to move forward in the race. We have not run in wet conditions this weekend, but it will be the same for everyone and we will look to make progress from our current starting position whatever the conditions.”
A look inside our world during FP3. #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/OJrLyc4Fpg
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) April 5, 2025
Fernando Alonso, 13th, 1:27.897
“I was feeling competitive yesterday but I think with the wind direction change we weren’t quite as fast today. I was happy with all of my laps in Qualifying and we finished P14 in Q1 and P13 in Q2, so I think that was our pace. We need to improve our car performance to be able to reach Q3. We’ll try fight for the points scoring positions tomorrow.”
Lance Stroll, 20th, 1:29.271
“Today’s Qualifying session was challenging. The red flags in FP2 and FP3 prevented us from running Soft tyres, making it hard to get an accurate read on the car. Unfortunately, a strong gust of wind caught me during my final push lap, causing the car to lose balance and forcing me wide at Turn 6. As a result, we didn’t make it into Q2. With rain likely tomorrow, we will look for any opportunities to capitalise on in the race.”
Nico Hulkenberg, 16th, 1:28.570
“The car has been a bit tricky all weekend long, today even more with the wind change in Sector 1 which has turned 180 degrees compared to yesterday. It’s just a bit difficult to find the right balance and we knew it was going to be tight in the midfield and it really was. I had a bit of a wobble at the exit of Turn 9 and lost some time there.
“Unfortunately, that happens when you’re on the edge and that’s where we are now. I was not able to bring my tyres up to the perfect temperature on my warmup lap due to traffic with cars on their fast lap. This was not perfect too. For tomorrow it looks like there might be different weather on the way, which could create an opportunity that we are willing to use.”
Gabriel Bortoleto, 17th, 1:28.622
“I missed Q2 by just one tenth today, and all my laps felt good, without any mistakes. I ended up quite close to my team-mate, which is encouraging considering how fast and experienced he is. Now, we can compare the data and understand where we can improve as a team.
“We could have possibly done a small step further to improve the car for the last set of tyres, but we decided to stay safe and not do any major changes. In all fairness, I am happy with my laps, and fine with what we brought home today – I think that’s the position we could aim for. Overall, I am happy with the work the team has done all weekend so far, and I’m ready for the race tomorrow.”
