Max Verstappen was simply untouchable as he stormed to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The reigning champion delivered a qualifying masterclass at Suzuka, finishing almost six-tenths clear of the field in his Red Bull.
McLaren offered the only real competition throughout the session as Oscar Piastri beat teammate Lando Norris to claim his second front row start of the season.
Q1
Verstappen set the early pace ahead of the two McLarens before Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams entering the pit straight, causing a red flag.
The American lost the rear under traction exiting the final chicane and couldn’t power out of the slide in time to avoid the grass and the barriers.
Both Ferraris didn’t set a time before the red flag and headed straight out when the session resumed with Charles Leclerc going third and Carlos Sainz fifth.
The rest followed to do their final runs with Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly still without a time after exceeding track limits early on.
Both were able to get through as Valtteri Bottas was the unlucky driver knocked out in 16th, ahead of Lance Stroll in 17th.
Nico Hulkenberg sat 18th as a mistake at Degner 2 doomed Zhou Guanyu to 19th with Sargeant slowest after his crash.
Q2
Verstappen continued to set the pace on used tyres, ahead of Piastri and Norris on new softs.
Yuki Tsunoda impressed in fifth but the gaps were so close that only the top three were comfortable enough to not complete a second run.
Leclerc improved to finish Q2 fastest for Ferrari, ahead of Max and Perez moved upto third, 0.001s behind his teammate.
In the fight to avoid elimination, Liam Lawson missed out by just 0.043s in 11th with Pierre Gasly only 0.001s slower in 12th.
Albon rued track evolution as he dropped to 13th as Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 15.
Q3
Verstappen stretched the legs of his Red Bull on his first run, setting an incredible 1m29.0s to lead the two McLarens by four-tenths.
Ferrari waited to do a single run on fresh tyres but couldn’t upset the top three as Leclerc went fourth and Sainz sixth.
On his final run, Verstappen delivered three more purple sectors to knock a further tenth-and-a-half off his initial lap, setting a 1m28.877s.
The McLarens couldn’t improve as Piastri held onto second and Norris third but six-tenths behind the rampant Red Bull.
Perez split the two Ferraris in fifth, with Lewis Hamilton seventh, a full second slower than Verstappen.
George Russell was eighth as Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.
At the front, however, Verstappen claimed only his ninth pole of the season and first since Zandvoort.
And after Red Bull suffered their first loss of 2023 in Singapore, there appears to be very little chance of anyone stopping them returning to the winner’s circle on Sunday.
