F1 Starting Grid 2022 Japanese Grand Prix

Event: Japanese Grand Prix
Track: Suzuka Circuit

Pole position qualifier Max Verstappen in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the 2022 F1 Grand Prix of Japan (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images )

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

*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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