Kimi Antonelli secured his second straight pole position at Suzuka, outpacing Mercedes team-mate George Russell in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Antonelli led throughout the session and ended 0.298 seconds clear of Russell, despite locking up into the hairpin and being unable to improve on his final run.
Russell could not better his earlier time either but held second, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri taking third. Piastri will start the second row alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who looked set to challenge for pole until an oversteer snap through Spoon Curve ruined his final attempt. Leclerc had topped Q1 and showed strong pace early in qualifying.
Lando Norris recovered from a difficult weekend to take fifth, with Lewis Hamilton in sixth. World champion Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 and will start 11th after reporting his car as “undriveable” over the radio; he was 0.158 seconds off Isack Hadjar in that session.
Antonelli, 19, said he was “super happy” with a clean, improving session, although he regretted the last-lap lock-up. The Italian — who became the youngest pole-sitter earlier this year in China — has emerged as a genuine title contender, sitting just four points behind Russell in the championship.
Russell described the session as “really strange,” reporting a lack of rear grip after setup adjustments following final practice left Mercedes off the pace. Piastri praised McLaren’s improvements across the weekend, saying the team had been competitive with Ferrari and were closing the gap to Mercedes.
Norris had battled reliability issues during the weekend, including a hydraulic problem in FP2 and a battery fault in final practice, but still finished only 0.277 seconds behind Piastri. Hamilton, while off the Ferraris’ pace this weekend, was within 0.162 seconds of Leclerc in the final runs and claimed the last of the top three teams’ positions.
The remainder of the top 10 featured Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto and rookie Arvid Lindblad for Racing Bull, whose late Q2 lap knocked Verstappen out of contention. Oliver Bearman, who impressed earlier in the season, was eliminated in Q1.
In other notable team battles, Cadillac out-qualified Aston Martin, with Sergio Perez 1.6 seconds quicker than Fernando Alonso. Alonso, racing for the first time since the birth of his son, extended his streak of out-qualifying team-mate Lance Stroll to 39 grands prix.
Japanese Grand Prix: Race at 06:00 BST on Sunday. Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and live text updates on the BBC Sport website and app.
