Event: Japanese Grand Prix
Track: Suzuka Circuit
Warm-up lap starts at: 14:00 Local | 07:00 CET | 06:00 UK | 22:00 LA | 14:00 Tokio
Max Verstappen has done what was expected from him today by scoring his 18th F1 pole position at Suzuka. The Red Bull Racing driver will start from P1 tomorrow for the first time on the Japanese track.
Both Ferrari drivers got very close to the Dutch driver who can score his second F1 drivers' title tomorrow. Leclerc only came 0.01s short for pole, while Sainz who will start from P3 was only 0.06s behind.
Best of the rest today was Alpine driver Esteban Ocon. The French driver improved a full second on his second run in Q3 and will start in front of his teammate Fernando Alonso for the 8th time this season.
Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel also was over the moon by finally getting into Q3 for the first time since the Azerbaijan GP this season. The normally good race pace of the Aston Martin will certainly give him a good opportunity for scoring points in Japan.
Verstappen will clinch his second F1 title for sure, when he wins and scores fastest lap tomorrow. It doesn't matter what Leclerc's result will be then. If Verstappen doesn't score fastest lap, it will matter where Leclerc ends up.
Lando Norris and Max Verstappen did had a harsh moment during the out lap in Q3 when they nearly collided. This incident was investigated after qualifying and Verstappen got a reprimand from the stewards afterwards.
Pole position is on the left side of the track at Suzuka.
F1 Starting Grid 2022 Japanese GP
Pos | No | Driver | Team | Lap Time | Pole gap |
1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:29,304 | |
2 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:29,314 | +0,010s |
3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:29,361 | +0,057s |
4 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 1:29,709 | +0,405s |
5 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:30,165 | +0,861s |
6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:30,261 | +0,957s |
7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:30,322 | +1,018s |
8 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:30,389 | +1,085s |
9 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:30,554 | +1,250s |
10 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:31,003 | +1,699s |
11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1:30,659 | +1,355s |
12 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1:30,709 | +1,405s |
13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:30,808 | +1,504s |
14 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 1:30,953 | +1,649s |
15 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:31,439 | +2,135s |
16 | 23 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:31,311 | +2,007s |
17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:31,352 | +2,048s |
18 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:31,419 | +2,115s |
19 | 6 | *Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:31,511 | -2,207s |
PL | 10 | *Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:31,322 | +2,018s |
*Notes:
- Nicholas Latifi, Williams #6 penalised five grid places for causing a collision at the previous round
- Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri #10 required to start from the pit lane for modifying car under Parc Fermé conditions
Possible 2022 Japanese F1 Grand Prix race strategies
With just one hour of free practice this morning, the teams are lacking dry data for the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix. The fastest strategy on paper is a two-stopper using the soft and medium tyres: probably with the medium used once during the middle stint. Soft followed by two medium stints is another viable two-stopper, for those with two mediums left.
A one-stopper could be possible as well, depending on degradation rates. This could be soft to P Zero White hard, or medium to hard – which is slightly slower on paper but requires less management. What’s clear is that all three compounds have a valid role to play tomorrow and a wide variety of strategies are theoretically possible.
The weather and track conditions on Sunday will ultimately decide the way to go. Track temperatures are expected to be a bit cooler than today and there’s a still a chance of rain. This might favour the softer compounds – while the wet running yesterday could turn out to be extremely useful as well.
✅ Also check out our 2022 Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix preview.
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I predict championship-clinching tomorrow unless something unusual happens like last time in Singapore.
How can you predict max will win the championship on one hand and then say maybe if something happens he won't that's what they used to call a double headed penny,, you can't lose.
Don, it's pretty obvious to me. Anyway he was right, Leclerc got a penalty for running off a wet track and got a 5 second penalty within minutes after the race. Something UNUSAL
Yes just the other way around, Jere "predicted a win unless something unusual happened so he wouldn't have won unless something unusual happened in this case it did & fortunately a good win for Max + the championship.
The way in which the British broadcasters fawn over Charles (like the do certain others) is uncomfortably pathetic. I like Charles, but he's not even the best driver on his team. If F1 truly wants to broaden and expand its appeal, it needs a new international broadcast team.
Who dyo suggest Sky UK employ to relay things to probably the most knowledgable fan base of f1? An Italian ,a German ? I dont deny they Kiss Lucys A once to often , but hes been , sorry(has been... ) a good draw for Sky, So who dyo suggest?
Unless my memory is playing tricks again shropp, didn't Ror say that you could do the job as good as anyone,, I wonder if he's still got your case packed ready to go.
When lando. N. Lost to to sir Lulu last year at the russian gp,, sir Lulu spoke to lando about something "probably" stick with me son and you can have my place when, so just n I retire,, so Lando stop being a sh*t to your mates because he's not going to retire., why am I saying this because my wife backed you from the start but no longer does, your happy go lucky attitude has changed to being just another whinger, so just saying, be yourself.
Donald Trump is in form then.
Can't win with you, at least I've left old boring 💤 sir Lulu out of it.
one max verstappen,theres only one max verstappen,all together now
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