It’s the Japanese Grand Prix weekend and, as is so often the case, qualifying has thrown up plenty of storylines and talking points ahead of Sunday’s race at Suzuka
Qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix is always lot of fun for both fans and drivers. The Suzuka circuit is a favourite among both those respective groups and the starting grid for Sunday’s race has set up the prospect of some spicy on-track action.
For the first time in 2025, a McLaren driver is not on pole position for the start of a Grand Prix. Max Verstappen was as surprised as anyone to have beaten both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to top spot but did so with one of his very best qualifying laps.
It broke the Suzuka lap record, which was previously held by Sebastian Vettel, and marked his first Grand Prix pole position since the Austria race last June. It was also a moment to celebrate for engine suppliers Honda at their home race and in the final season of their partnership with Red Bull.
Naturally, there was plenty of fall-out and reaction following the session, including from a disappointed Lewis Hamilton who was a lot further down the grid than he would have liked, while there was also a post-session penalty handed out to one driver who was found guilty of blocking the Brit.
Ahead of Sunday’s race, Mirror Sport rounds up all the latest headlines and stories in the Suzuka paddock:
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Grid penalty changes qualifying result
As is increasingly common in F1, the result of qualifying at the end of the session was not the same as the order in which the cars will line up at the start of Sunday’s race. Carlos Sainz is the driver who has tumbled down the order after getting in Hamilton’s way.
The Brit still made it through to Q3 regardless but that didn’t save the Spaniard from the penalty which drops him from 12th to 15th on the grid. Fernando Alonso, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda each rise by one place as a result.
Ferrari’s China disqualification hangover
Ferrari bosses will be having nightmares about their unprecedented double disqualification in Shanghai for a long time. More pertinently, though Hamilton suggested after qualifying that the fact his car was running too low to the ground in China has had a detrimental effect on his performance in Japan this weekend because he and his team have played it safer on that front.
“We are running [the car] higher than we would like,” he said. “Particularly after the last race, we’re a bit higher than we want to be and that is the knock-on effect from the weekend that we had before.” Hamilton qualified only eighth, though team-mate Charles Leclerc fared better to go fourth fastest.
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Isack Hadj-argh!
Male fans watching qualifying on TV will have winced more than once when it became clear what problem Isack Hadjar was suffering in the cockpit of his car. His seat belt was twisted and it was making things rather uncomfortable in a certain, er, sensitive area.
Not that he got a lot of sympathy from Sky Sports duo Simon Lazenby and Jacques Villeneuve, who giggled throughout their post-qualifying interview with the Frenchman. But Hadjar would have been feeling much better after overcoming the pain to qualify an impressive seventh, ‘best of the rest’ of all the drivers not representing the top four teams.
Lando shows his class
Annoyed though he was to have missed out on pole position, Norris couldn’t help but be impressed with Verstappen’s lap which denied him. And the Brit was happy to give credit where it was due to his title rival from last year.
He said: “I’m happy. Congrats to Max. He did a good job, so it’s a hats off. You’ve got to credit something when it’s a lap that good that he must have done. But I’m happy, because I felt like I got everything out of the car today. So, it’s tiny. Was there probably that much in it? Yes. But Max did an amazing lap.”
Suzuka is fire, but not in a good way
Dry grass has been an issue at Suzuka all weekend long with multiple fires being caused at the side of the track as a result of sparks from the cars. There were several stoppages across the second and third practice sessions and another which was qualifying briefly red-flagged so that the flames could be dealt with.
The FIA has tried to reduce the risk by giving marshals power washers to wet the grass and make it less combustible. And the governing body is also hoping that the rain forecast before Sunday’s race will reduce the risk of it being disrupted by further blazes.
