A quick return to Susuka for F1 in 2024 with Yuki Tsunoda managing to put the RB into Q3,but the weekend belongs to Verstappen and Redbull who will start with a 1-2 for the Japanese GP
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Qualifying 1
The session started slowly, with the HAAS of Kevin Magnussen the only car to venture out, however the rest of the grid began to filter out to the track.
An early benchmark time of 1:28.866 from Verstappen with Alonso only 0.388 behind.
No Surprises?
For the most part, the usual suspects were knocked out, however Lance Stroll hadn’t read the script and was knocked out by 0.061, what will hurt Aston and Stroll more is the Fernando Alonso set a time that was second fastest.
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Qualifying 2
The clocks and times reset and we go again. Q1 saw us lose 50 percent of Aston Martin, Sauber, HAAS, Williams and Alpine.
The early running of the session has the Redbull pair sitting 1-2, at one point Perez was only 0.012 behind his teammate at the top, Sergio has started well this season.
As the session developed, a surprise was building with the Mercedes cars struggling, sitting at the bottom of the Top Ten and close to the bubble.
With a couple of minutes to go Mercedes sent the car’s back out along with the RBs, HAAS, Alpine and Williams.
Hamilton and Russell performed well under pressure and get the cars into third and seventh.
Local hero, Tsunoda has done it again, putting the RB into Q3 at the expense of Danny Ricciardo who will start the Japanese GP in 11th.
It’s Shootout time!
Ten cars head into Q3, with the usual suspects (with the exception of Tsunoda at the expense of Stroll) all managing to make it into the final session of the day,
For a second or two it looked good for Mercedes with Hamilton first and second, however the rest of the field followed and pushed them down to sixth and eighth.
The Mclaren of Lando Norris had a great early session putting his car on the front row.
Into the final 5 minutes it is still all to play for with Norris only 0.249 behind Verstappen’s provisional pole time.
Charles Leclerc had only one attempt to put the Ferrari at the front of the grid, disappointingly for the tifosi he managed seventh … Will he drop further down the order by the end of the session?
The remaining nine cars all took to the track for one more attempt to improve form the race tomorrow, Sergio Perez the first to log his time, he would take second only 0.066 behind Verstappen.
Lando Norris cemented his place in the top end of the grid and managed third 0.292 behind pole.
It was a futile exercise, with no one really able to challenge the Redbull pair at the front. Mercedes will be more disappointed managing only 7th and 9th after looking good throughout free practice.
Its all to play for tomorrow, well for third !! Can Norris jump the Redbull’s at the start? We can only hope!