Breaking: Japanese GP: Max Verstappen beats Charles Leclerc to pole at Suzuka

Max Verstappen is in the perfect position to clinch a second world title at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday by grabbing pole at Suzuka.

Verstappen made an error on his own final lap, running wide at Turn Two and losing some bodywork, but held on.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took third ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

Verstappen will become champion if he wins the race with fastest lap, regardless of the results of Leclerc and Perez.

A win without fastest lap for the Dutchman would require Leclerc to be lower than second for Verstappen to put the title to bed.

Verstappen was later handed a reprimand by the race stewards following a scary moment with McLaren’s Lando Norris during the final session.

Verstappen almost lost control of his car on the exit of the flat-out 130R while on a slow lap as Norris approached at high speed. And when the Red Bull snapped sideways, Norris had to take to the grass to avoid him.

“I was driving quite slow and tried to accelerate,” Verstappen said, “but my tyres were quite cold so I had a snap.”

For his part, Norris saw the incident very differently, insisting it was “quite clear” Verstappen had tried to defend his position on track.

Asked if he would expect a penalty if he was in Verstappen’s situation, Norris said: “Oh yeah, for sure.”

According to a statement confirming the ruling, Norris accepted it had been an “unfortunate incident” but the stewards noted it was “the driver’s responsibility to at all times maintain control of their car” and that all previous such incidents had resulted in a reprimand.

Speaking before seeing the stewards, Verstappen said he had enjoyed F1’s return to the fabled Suzuka track for the first time since 2019, after a break because of the pandemic.

“It was incredible to drive here again,” Verstappen said. “These cars really come alive in the first sector.

“I lost a part of the [floor] duct in the second lap, which is why I couldn’t improve, but the first lap was enough.”

It was Verstappen’s first pole for three races and his fifth of the season. He will be bidding for his 12th win of the year on Sunday, which would be one short of the record for a season held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon grabbed fifth place with his final lap, jumping ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and the Frenchman’s team-mate Fernando Alonso.

George Russell in the second Mercedes was eighth, followed by an impressive ninth from Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin on his final appearance at his favourite track and Lando Norris’ McLaren completing the top 10.

The Alpine was upgraded with a new floor in Singapore last weekend. The team were optimistic that it was a significant step forward but Alonso said it would be this race in Japan before its true potential would show.

On that basis, Alpine have reason to be happy – the car has looked quick all weekend, and Alonso was faster than Red Bull’s Perez for much of qualifying before dropping down the order a little in the final session, and allowing Ocon to end up the faster of the two drivers with an excellent lap from the Frenchman.

Mercedes suffered for the high drag levels of their car and Hamilton and Russell said they were losing in the region of 0.6-0.8secs on the straights to the front-runners

“The car felt really good today,” Hamilton said. “I was really happy with the balance, just slow on the straight.

“We’ve had a really draggy car all year. We are losing at least 0.6secs on the straights compared to the other guys but through the corners it was still a fun lap to drive.”

Russell added: “We’re losing a huge amount of lap time on the straights compared to our rivals.

“This is the first circuit that has long straights but also has high downforce. Normally the circuits with the long straights – Spa, Monza, even Silverstone – you run low downforce, and the high-downforce circuits have short straights and you don’t really see that defect in the straight-line speeds. That weakness has truly been exposed here.”

It was an emotional session for Vettel, who is having his last race on a track he loves and where he has won four times, after his decision to retire at the end of the season.

He said in Japanese over the radio: “Arigato gozaimasu, Suzuka,” which translates as thank you very much, as he returned to the pits.