Max Verstappen secured pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, only just beating Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez at the end of qualifying.
The world champion took his fourth consecutive pole over the first four rounds of the 2024 season by just over half a tenth from his team mate. McLaren’s Lando Norris will start behind the Red Bulls in third, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr in fourth.
Q1
Conditions were overcast but dry as the first section of qualifying began. Kevin Magnussen was the only driver to head out in the early minutes of the session, setting the first time of qualifying with a 1’31.203.Soon after, a train of cars left the pit lane for the first time. Mercedes released both their drivers at the same time and George Russell joined the queue directly in front of Oscar Piastri. The stewards confirmed that they would investigate the incident after qualifying.
All drivers opted for new soft tyres for the start of qualifying, with Max Verstappen setting the early pace with a 1’28.866 – easily the fastest time of the weekend – almost four tenths quicker than Fernando Alonso in second and Sergio Perez third.
That came at the expense of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who failed to make the cut by five hundredths of a second. He took 16th place while Fernando Alonso reached Q2 in the other Aston Martin.
Four other drivers also failed to join their team mates in Q2: Pierre Gasly was eliminated while Esteban Ocon reached Q2, and Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu also went no further.
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Q1 result
| P. | # | Driver | Team | Model | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’28.866 | |
| 2 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR24 | 1’29.254 | 0.388 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’29.303 | 0.437 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’29.338 | 0.472 |
| 5 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’29.425 | 0.559 |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’29.513 | 0.647 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’29.536 | 0.670 |
| 8 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber-Ferrari | C44 | 1’29.602 | 0.736 |
| 9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W15 | 1’29.661 | 0.795 |
| 10 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’29.727 | 0.861 |
| 11 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’29.775 | 0.909 |
| 12 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W15 | 1’29.799 | 0.933 |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | A524 | 1’29.811 | 0.945 |
| 14 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas-Ferrari | VF-24 | 1’29.821 | 0.955 |
| 15 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | FW46 | 1’29.963 | 1.097 |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR24 | 1’30.024 | 1.158 |
| 17 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine-Renault | A524 | 1’30.119 | 1.253 |
| 18 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | VF-24 | 1’30.131 | 1.265 |
| 19 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams-Mercedes | FW46 | 1’30.139 | 1.273 |
| 20 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber-Ferrari | C44 | 1’30.143 | 1.277 |
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Q2
As has become their habit, Red Bull sent both Verstappen and Perez out at the very start of Q2 to make the most of a clear track for their first runs. Verstappen used the empty track to set a 1’28.740 to go quickest out of all drivers in the opening minutes, but Perez almost matched his team mate’s time to go second, just a hundredth of a second slower.
Lando Norriswas exactly two tenths slower than Verstappen in third, while Alonso was again inside the top four with his first effort. Ferrari could manage only fifth and seventh for Carlos Sainz Jnr and Leclerc, who complained that his tyres were letting go out of the final chicane, while Mercedes were eighth and ninth having carried out their first runs on used softs.
As the cars returned to the garage with around five minutes remaining, the drop zone consisted of Yuki Tsunoda, Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, with Nico Hulkenberg and Alexander Albon the only drivers yet to set a time – Hulkenberg having lost his first effort due to exceeding track limits through the first part of the Spoon Curve.
When the chequered flag flew, Tsunoda managed to thrill the Japanese fans by just squeezing into Q3 by a few hundredths, coming at the expense of RB team mate Ricciardo, who was eliminated in 11th place. Hulkenberg managed to set a legitimate time but was also out in 12th, with Bottas going no further in 13th.
Albon’s sole flying lap of Q2 was only good enough for 14th, the Williams driver appearing to lose time with a moment of oversteer at the exit of Spoon, while Ocon was the slowest driver in the session, knocked out a tenth slower than Albon in 15th.
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Q2 result
| P. | # | Driver | Team | Model | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’28.740 | |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’28.752 | 0.012 |
| 3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W15 | 1’28.887 | 0.147 |
| 4 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’28.940 | 0.200 |
| 5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR24 | 1’29.082 | 0.342 |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’29.099 | 0.359 |
| 7 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W15 | 1’29.140 | 0.400 |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’29.148 | 0.408 |
| 9 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’29.196 | 0.456 |
| 10 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’29.417 | 0.677 |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’29.472 | 0.732 |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas-Ferrari | VF-24 | 1’29.494 | 0.754 |
| 13 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber-Ferrari | C44 | 1’29.593 | 0.853 |
| 14 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | FW46 | 1’29.714 | 0.974 |
| 15 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | A524 | 1’29.816 | 1.076 |
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Q3
Red Bull looked to be the team to beat as the shootout for pole position began. Once again, Leclerc was the only driver of the top contenders not to follow the rest of the field out early for an initial run.Verstappen set the provisional pole time with his first effort, posting a 1’28.240. Neither team mate Perez nor Sainz in the Ferrari could match that time, with Perez second over three tenths off from his team mate. But Norris was able to get closer to Verstappen than anyone, moving onto a provisional front row position with a lap a quarter of a second off Verstappen’s.
Leclerc headed out for a single run as the rest of the field returned to the garage. With a clear track, he set the quickest middle sector but ended the lap down in seventh place, reporting over the radio that was “the best I could do”.
As the final minutes ticked down, all bar Leclerc headed out for a final run. Perez was the first over the line and improved to second only two hundredths of a second behind his team mate, before Verstappen shaved four hundredths off his own best time to go even quicker with a 1’28.197.
That proved good enough to secure the world champion his fourth consecutive pole to start the 2024 season, with Perez taking a front row start alongside his team mate in second. Norris failed to improve on his final run but still took third on the grid, with Sainz the highest placed Ferrari in fourth, also having not improved with his last run.
Alonso took fifth on the grid ahead of Piastri in the second McLaren, while Hamilton out-qualified Mercedes team mate Russell for the first time in 2024 with seventh on the grid as Leclerc split the two Mercedes in eighth. Tsunoda will start his home grand prix from 10th having been the slowest of the Q3 runners.
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Q3 result
| P. | # | Driver | Team | Model | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’28.197 | |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’28.263 | 0.066 |
| 3 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’28.489 | 0.292 |
| 4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’28.682 | 0.485 |
| 5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR24 | 1’28.686 | 0.489 |
| 6 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’28.760 | 0.563 |
| 7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W15 | 1’28.766 | 0.569 |
| 8 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’28.786 | 0.589 |
| 9 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W15 | 1’29.008 | 0.811 |
| 10 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’29.413 | 1.216 |
2024 Japanese Grand Prix
- “Am I in a race here or what?”: How Ferrari aced their Suzuka strategies
- Suzuka showed Mercedes “have a more stable platform” now
- Ferrari’s strategy gains in 2024 are “purely down to the car” – Sainz
- Tsunoda ‘at Verstappen and Alonso’s level’ with Suzuka performance – Marko
- Japan was first race where Red Bull’s winning margin was bigger than last year
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th April 2024, 8:45
This season really should be Lance’s last. With so many good drivers available, it’s about time Lawrence realizes Lance is not going to improve any more…
Mayrton
6th April 2024, 13:42
I don’t think that is an unknown for Lawrence. It’s a family thing, they have 2 cars anyway (would be a totally different case if there was just one). Why not let junior enjoy himself.
AlanD
6th April 2024, 15:09
Because it is an elite sport. There should be a point where the governing body steps in and says that the team owners have a duty to the fans, the sport, and the heritage to field drivers because they are aongst the best in the world, and not there just because daddy has a lot of money.
nicktalbot@me.com
6th April 2024, 16:32
What do they do with the likes of future Mazespins? In his defense, it’s only his first bad quali of the year. Checo was kept around last season because of his huge sponsorship too.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 16:51
Also, Alonso’s Aston would be around 10th place in most other drivers hands. So, it exaggerated the gap. However, I would also like to see Lance gone. He’s always been lazy and demotivated. I just find the fury funny since F1 is and has always been full of rich kids and sponsored drivers though due to the recent budget cap we’re finally seeing less Strolls. But the rich kids are also 95% of the field in junior formula.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th April 2024, 18:31
Because he’s the owner but he doesn’t run the tram by himself. There are sponsors, director boards, future engine partners. Lance did nothing to help Aston, even last year when the car was at it’s best. He only scored a single top five. That’s not good enough.
Sure Alonso is good but the gap can’t be this big. They need someone better, more consistent, reliable. And also there’s the Alonso factor. He’s not going to stay forever. Heck he might not even stay for next year. Who’s gonna lead the team then? They need to prepare a good driver to keep the team doing well. Why not give a youngster an opportunity?
Whatever they do it won’t be worse than Lance in the long run.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 19:40
If Fred leaves, we could get the most explosive lineup in F1 history. Lance ‘n Logan. …$120m in damage repairs later explosive.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th April 2024, 21:36
There’s a thing I’m afraid about: let’s say something big happens, like newey going to aston and the honda engines work well with the car and it becomes dominant in 2026, at that point stroll would only have his team mate to beat, and what stops his father from firing his team mate mid season and hiring someone who didn’t drive (so that he starts from 0 points)?
Hopefully a verstappen on a weaker team can still beat stroll on a dominant team, but I was also thinking that IF they get the best car a weak driver that stroll could beat could be in their interest.
Nick T.
7th April 2024, 9:42
LMAO, that’d be literally hilarious if he did that. He’d never have the nerve to fire a driver mid-season to enable Lance to win.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th April 2024, 8:51
More or less as expected for the qualifying, with Lando a positive surprise & Lance oppositely the biggest disappointment.
Riker (@corsair)
6th April 2024, 9:07
Pretty good by RIC to be that close to TSU considering he only had one practice session to find the limits and get it in a good window.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
6th April 2024, 9:12
Yes. It was very close between them. Their car looks better here and they were evenly matched.
notagrumpyfan
6th April 2024, 13:14
Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between sarcasm and genuine opinions ;)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th April 2024, 21:41
Can assure you there’s no sarcasm here, if you check the general opinion many people were saying ricciardo should be replaced, so him matching tsunoda in a quali is a good thing, relatively.
It will mean he might stay at toro rosso, but he still won’t be able to go to red bull since that’s his level now.
SteveP
6th April 2024, 14:34
This is the same RIC that most people here were predicting to wipe the floor with Tsunoda last season?
Was de Vries really a no hoper that had to be ditched rapidly?
The jury is still out methinks.
AlanD
6th April 2024, 15:17
Steve, Ricciardo not performing doesn’t mean they were wrong to ditch de Vries. If another driver coming in had done much better than Tsunoda then yes, we’d be sure it was the right decision. It might also be that Ricciardo is doing much better than de Vries would have done, but Tsunoda has stepped up and is driving out of his skin. I don’t think we’ll really know one way or the other unless they put someone like Sainz in the car, someone where we have a proper benchmark of talent to compare with Tsunoda. That’s always the problem with F1, we never have any real way of comparing drivers in isolation. So as you say, the jury is still out, and might be out for a very long time.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 16:43
He was also generally on part or beating Yuki last season as well. He also wasn’t crash happy in a sport with a budget cap. Finally, while him being McLaren was and is a potential risk, his potential upside was vastly greater. Whether DR fails or succeeds in the coming day, I’m going to laugh when Lawson, who was mediocre in F2, outqualified 4-1 by Yuki (the 1 loss was when he was impeded by Max and had been faster all weekend) and had one flashy result that would have been a 15th had 6 cars in front of him not had mechanical DNFs or been punted, comes into F1 and is absolutely average at best.
F1 TV and Sky seem to pour outlandish levels of praise on rookies who sub for not being completely off the pace despite the fact that every start has always been super fast off the bat. It creates unrealistic and undeserved hype.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 19:42
on par*
while him being McLaren Daniel is a risk*
MichaelN
6th April 2024, 11:23
Hamilton will be pleased with a decent gap to Russell. Leclerc has less to be pleased about. It’s starting to look like 2022 was the outlier, rather than the standard.
Poor lap by Verstappen with Pérez so close, but still good enough for pole. Yay for modern F1, I guess.
Ricciardo can be somewhat content with his effort, although ‘being right behind Tsunoda’ is not exactly the level expected.
For Stroll to go from outpacing Alonso in Australia to going out in Q1 is not the way to do it. Poor result for him.
The pecking order within teams at the back of the field seems quite set: Hülkenberg, Albon, Bottas and Ocon all have the upper hand over their teammates.
Sainz vs. Norris for the 3rd spot, and Leclerc vs. Mercedes might make for some good highlights. Doesn’t look like it’ll be anything other than a boring Red Bull walkover where even Pérez can finish 2nd.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th April 2024, 21:43
Yes, no rain and no competition = I won’t waste my time watching it fully, I will give a look and see if something happens, else 5 mins, done.
Asd
6th April 2024, 11:25
I was surprised to see how many drivers drove very close to the pit wall on the main straight.
Every IndyCar driver could expain to them that it’s not the way to go, as the turbulence of the air crushing into the wall and bouncing back slows the car down.
What a disappointing lack of knowledge.
Ian Stephens
6th April 2024, 11:40
Yes, that’s why some wind tunnels have contoured walls. They adjust the tunnel width next to the model dynamically to accept the displaced air.
AlanD
6th April 2024, 15:19
Ian, I’d never heard of that or even considered it, fascinating insight, thank you.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 16:55
I noticed Alonso got nowhere closer while Sainz and Norris were the other extremes. Palmer thought .005 between Sainz and Alonso could have been down to that alone. F1 drivers are also generally awful at rolling restarts. Montoya always crushed others during them not surprisingly.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
6th April 2024, 22:48
Doesn’t this only apply to wheel to wheel racing in a pack?
When on their on on qualifying it should not be a factor. Otherwise all the clever engineers would have advised them to stay away from the wall.
RR
6th April 2024, 12:31
Also impressive is Norris. Maximising potential and targeting his effort to deliver at the right moment, that is, second run in Q3. I do wish Piastri can realise his own potential in a similar way.
Aquila_GD
6th April 2024, 13:27
Perez to Aston Martin. Sainz to Red Bull please
AlanD
6th April 2024, 15:21
I know Hamilton is signed up for Ferrari next year and Sainz is on the market, but I started wondering if LeClerc’s contract was nailed down tight, and if Ferrari could end up with Sainz and Hamilton in the cars in 2025.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 16:34
People want to keep Checo around now just because he’s not awful for a few races in a row?
RR
6th April 2024, 16:56
It tells us that the RB is a rocket machine if Perez can do so well in it.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 19:50
And easy to drive this drive this year. However, has the gap to the competition decreased because they made it easier to drive is something one must wonder or is that just natural convergence? My guess is both.
Fans and media like to decide who deserves what based on sample sizes as small as one practice session. Let’s see if Perez keeps this up if the car evolves to be faster, but less friendly. For me, it doesn’t matter though. The best drivers never have multiple seasons in a row where they’re struggling massively and nowhere close to their teammates, which is exactly what Perez has had.
Nick T.
6th April 2024, 16:57
Alonso and Max would be much more exciting than Sainz and Max. Did you want Alonso retire to make room for the scintillating Checo?
Honda
6th April 2024, 17:45
Perez doing better than expected. I think he will continue in RBR next year as well. Leclerc again disappointing but P4-P8 there is not much in it. P10-P13 in Q2 as well very close. Great track but it is narrow and there is not going to much overtaking here.
earthling (@34rthl1ng)
6th April 2024, 21:10
Checo was awful last season after Miami, but if this season he can be consistently second while avoiding competition with Max, what else can RBR ask for?