Max Verstappen claimed pole for the Japanese Grand Prix with an immense lap for Red Bull at Suzuka, beating the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri into second and third. Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton eighth. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were fifth and sixth for Mercedes.

The pole will be of no little relief to Verstappen and Red Bull and was very much against expectations, given that the car had not looked as strong as the McLaren or Mercedes in the opening rounds, nor at Suzuka this weekend. It demonstrated that given full rein, the RB21 is still a quick car and may yet be a title contender. McLaren looked strongest by some way in practice but when let fully off the leash at Suzuka in a tightly contested fight it was Verstappen and Red Bull who had the edge, setting up a fascinating fight for Sunday.

It is Verstappen’s fourth consecutive pole in Japan, having converted all of the previous three to victory and his first this season. Red Bull’s issues with their car, notably a lack of balance which they had hoped to solve over the winter, had not been dealt with and they struggled in the opening two rounds. However in Japan, they found the window for the car and Verstappen did a mighty job to exploit it, , wrestling with an unpredictable ride.

On the first hot laps in Q3, Russell set the initial pace with a time of 1minute 27.318seconds, but was surpassed by Piastri, who put in an immense middle sector and took provisional pole with a 1min 27.052sec lap. Verstappen moved into second and Leclerc third but Norris was disappointed after a poor lap, claiming only fifth.

For the final runs Norris knew he needed to step up and replicate some of the form he has shown across the weekend, and duly nailed a very quick first sector. Hurling his car at the challenging track that rewards commitment and he executed perfectly, taking top spot. However behind him Verstappen too had found his groove when it really mattered, wrangling the Red Bull through the corners despite all its shortcomings. Having not been quickest at any stage all weekend he pulled out a brilliant lap when required, pipping Norris with a time of 1min 26.983secs, one hundredth up on the British driver.

Last week Red Bull had made the decision to demote Liam Lawson after only two races in favour of Tsunoda from sister team Racing Bulls. Tsunoda, who is now in his fifth season in F1, was passed over in favour of Lawson last year but his experience has been cited by the team as the rationale in their decision.

The car is proving remarkably hard to deal with, even in Verstappen’s hands, lacking stability and with a very narrow performance window. It has an alarming proclivity to reel from understeer to oversteer that puts it on a knife edge. Lawson was unable to master it and failed to make it out of Q3 in qualifying for either of the opening two meetings.

Tsunoda, however, appeared to have a better grip on it from the off, just one-tenth slower than Verstappen in first practice and within three-tenths in third practice. In front of his home crowd in qualifying he had looked good in the opening phase but failed to improve as the track evolved and his last quick lap in Q2 was scruffy. It proved costly and he went out in 15th place and was a full half a second off Verstappen.

Lawson at Racing Bulls, in a car that is altogether more drivable and easier to handle, managed 14th place, his best result this season and notably in front of Tsunoda but was still seven places behind his teammate Isack Hadjar who was an excellent seventh.

Qualifying was interrupted with a red flag because of a fire in the grass beside the track during Q2, a problem which has persisted across the weekend. There were two stoppages for fires in both the second and third practice sessions. They were started by the sparks from the skid plank on the cars, igniting the very dry grass, each time requiring the marshals to come out trackside to extinguish them.

The FIA said after the issues in third practice the grass would be dampened before qualifying and while the session was stopped more water was deployed in an effort to prevent further conflagrations. The fires may be an issue during the race on Sunday, although some rain is expected overnight which may ease the problem.

Alex Albon was in ninth for Williams and Oliver Bearman was an impressive 10th for Haas. Pierre Gasly finished 11th for Alpine, Carlos Sainz 12th for Williams and Fernando Alonso was 13th for Aston Martin. Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were in 16th and 17th for Sauber. Esteban Ocon was 18th for Haas, Jack Doohan 19th for Alpine and Lance Stroll 20th for Aston Martin.