Max Verstappen asserted his dominance over the Formula 1 field with an unmatched lap to take pole position in the Red Bull for the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, over half a second ahead of Oscar Piastri in the McLaren.
Lando Norris in the second McLaren was third, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez in the sister Red Bull. Carlos Sainz was sixth, almost a second back from Verstappen.
Both Mercedes were locked together, Lewis Hamilton just beating out George Russell to seventh place. Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10 in the Aston Martin.
Saturday started with Liam Lawson finding out he won’t be AlphaTauri driver next season, and just missed out on Q3 by 0.043s, but hometown hero Yuki Tsunoda made into the top 10 shootout for the first time in 10 races and eventually placed ninth.
Logan Sargeant brought out the red flag midway through Q1 after putting his Williams into the barrier on the final corner, just as he was about to start a flying lap.
F1 2023 Japanese GP – Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Q3 Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:28.877 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +0.581 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.616 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.665 |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +0.773 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.973 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +1.031 |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | +1.342 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +1.426 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +1.683 |
| 11 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 13 | Alexander Albon | Williams | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 14 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Eliminated in Q2 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 19 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | Eliminated in Q1 |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | Eliminated in Q1 |
