Most drivers made maximum use of the third free practice at Suzuka. At the end of that session the soft tires were put on most of the cars. Max Verstappen was the fastest, followed by Pérez and the two Mercedes drivers. A precursor to qualifying in Japan? We'll see now.
Q1
After the first timed laps, Max Verstappen is the fastest, followed by Alonso who is 0.3 seconds slower. Pérez has to give up four tenths and Piastri more than half a second. Mercedes cannot yet take the pace from FP3 into qualifying. Hamilton and Russell are currently eighth and ninth.
Both Mercedes drivers do not come out again and finish ninth and twelfth. Who is even sadder is Lance Stroll. Not only does he fall a fraction short of advancing to Q2, his teammate Alonso manages to maintain the pace and finish second. Gasly, Magnussen, Sargeant and Zhou also finished behind their teammates and dropped out in the first part of qualifying in Japan.
Q2
Once again Verstappen opens strongly and clocks the fastest time. This time Pérez is extremely close to his teammate. The difference after the first fast laps is 0.012 seconds. In addition, McLaren is showing good things. Norris was third for a while, two-tenths behind Verstappen and Piastri now occupies sixth place. Once again, Mercedes does not get further than eighth and ninth places.
The top seven remain in at the end of Q2. These drivers believe it. Lewis Hamilton drives a strong lap and plants his Mercedes in P3. Yuki Tsunoda also performs. In his home race he reaches Q3, at the expense of VCARB teammate Ricciardo. Hülkenberg, Bottas, Albon and Ocon also fall outside the top ten.
Q3
The remaining ten cars consist of two Red Bulls, two Mercedes, two Ferraris, two McLarens, an Aston Martin and a Racing Bull. Charles Leclerc now only has one new set of soft tires left. He therefore only drives a fast lap at the end of Q3. The other drivers will enter the track at the beginning and end of qualifying.
Max Verstappen sets the benchmark again, but this time is followed by Lando Norris. He is 0.249 seconds slower than Verstappen. Both Hamilton and Alonso do not understand how they can give up so much time to Verstappen. The gap is 0.5 and 0.6 seconds respectively. Leclerc has now crossed the line and is seventh.
In his final lap, Pérez pushes to the limit and closes within a few hundredths of his teammate. Good work from the Mexican driver. Verstappen also goes faster and ensures that the gap is 0.066 seconds. After four GP weekends, Verstappen has four pole positions in 2024. For the excitement, it would be nice if Pérez could also stay close to Verstappen in the race.
Qualifying results for the 2024 Japanese GP
- Verstappen
- Pérez
- Norris
- Sainz
- Alonso
- Piastri
- Hamilton
- Leclerc
- Russell
- Tsunoda
- Ricciardo
- Hulkenberg
- Bottas
- Albon
- Ocon
- Stroll
- Gasly
- Magnussen
- Sargeant
- Zhou
What time does F1 start at Suzuka?
Sunday April 7
Race: 7:00 am
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