06:50
Gasly out of the box
Pierre Gasly will start his race from the pits today. The Frenchman received a different rear wing and his setup was reworked. After an unsuccessful qualifying, Gasly was already far behind in the grid with 17th place, which means that you didn’t lose much by taking this step.
06:46
Also Schumacher faster than teammate
Mick Schumacher should also look satisfied on Saturday. He didn’t get a place in Q3, but with 15th place he was faster than teammate Kevin Magnussen and thus also provides arguments for a contract extension. With Pierre Gasly confirmed at Alpine for 2023 and AlphaTauri signing Nyck de Vries, he only has two vacancies for next year. One at Haas and one at Williams.
06:38
Vettel out of the top ten
Sebastian Vettel particularly likes the track in Suzuka and so the man from Heppenheim should be happy that everything came together in qualifying. While teammate Lance Stroll was already kicked out in Q1, Vettel was able to drive into Q3 and will start tomorrow’s race from ninth place. Next to him is Lando Norris in the McLaren.
06:30
Drivers expect rain
In the forecasts ahead of the weekend, it was said that there would be rain on Friday and Sunday and this forecast is correct. It started raining before the rain and a look at the radar reveals that it should stay like this for the next few hours. So it will be anything but an easy race what the drivers can expect.
06:25
Verstappen from pole
Max Verstappen already took the first step towards an early title win in yesterday’s qualifying. With a time of 1:29.304 minutes, he took pole position ahead of Charles Leclerc by a hair’s breadth. Only ten thousandths were missing in the direction of Verstappen. Carlos Sainz was also close to the championship leader in qualifying, 0.057 seconds down. Sergio Pérez completes the second row of the grid. Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton are behind them, ahead of Fernando Alonso in the second Alpine and George Russell in the second Mercedes.
06:19
Will there be a world title in Suzuka?
Max Verstappen could already bag his early title win at the Grand Prix in Japan. The Dutchman, who currently leads the World Cup with 341 points, only needs eight points more than Charles Leclerc and six more than teammate Sergio Pérez. Leclerc could still equalize on points, but then the victories would count and there he can no longer catch up with Verstappen.
Warm welcome!
After two years of the Corona compulsory break, Formula 1 is racing again in Suzuka, Japan! Race start is at 7:00 a.m.!