Antonelli grabs Japanese GP pole position, making it two in a row
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli enjoyed a clean qualifying session to take his second consecutive pole of the fresh season. The Italian improved throughout while George Russell stranded in second and was left ruing an unstable car. Oscar Piastri was third fastest, happy to see McLaren close into Mercedes.
When qualifying kicked off at Suzuka the Racing Bulls went out first with Liam Lawson ending up setting the first timed lap of the session. He was immediately beaten by his teammate who crossed the finish line 10 seconds later. Their laps proved midfield territory, in the mix with laps soons set by the Audi and Alpine drivers, but comfortably beaten by the McLarens when they completed their first laps, again on the back of reliability issues in earlier sessions.
Leclerc proved faster still moments later while Hamilton ended up behind the McLaren duo, and even got bumped down by Hulkenberg thanks to an impressive second flying lap for the German Audi driver.
Antonelli for Mercedes briefly topped the times midway in he session before Leclerc put down another lap to beat Antonelli again by 0.120s. George Russell on the other hand sat 7th only, half a second down on the pace setter as he pointed to a possible aerodynamic issue leading to no rear grip. Russell would later return to the track to move up to second, rectifying the disappointing first lap.
The final minutes again saw a flurry of track action, leading to Bearman losing out on further running. As Colapinto, Sainz and Bortoleto found ways to improve, Bearman didn't, dropping down into 16th and therefore out along with the Cadillacs and Aston Martins who are struggling badly with performance at this track.
When the track opened for Q2 Mercedes and Ferrari were out quickly, all however on used soft tyres. Antonelli again proved fastest of the two Mercedes while Charles Leclerc got in between them with his first lap, just 0.011s down on the Italian. Bortoleto also jumped into this fight to lead the timing board early, setting the third best time.
When the McLaren duo emerged they did so on new soft tyres, enabling Piastri to go fastest. Norris was three tenths off and had to be content ith fourth position as Russell was readying himself to do another lap. This time again it showed that Russell wasn't really confident in the car with a seemingly unstable car. Talking to his engineer after that lap, Russell said "I think we're missing something here. Losing so much page isn't expected".
Ferrari also returned to the track with Leclerc once again acing the first sector, leading to beating Piastri's lap to top the timesheet as it stands. Hamilton ended up 6th while neither McLaren was able to improve on their first attempts when going again at the end of the session.
Red Bull meanwhile was again fighting at the brink of the top 10. As Hadjar consistently beat Verstappen the Dutchman questioned if there as something off with the car, also suffering stability in the Esses. When Lindled improved to 10th it also sealed Verstappen's fate, eliminating him in 11th, out along with Ocon, Hulkenberg, Lawson, Colapinto and Sainz.
The Mercedes duo were sent out first once again as Q3 started. Though Russell seemed closer to Antonelli than he had been so far in qualifying, the Italian still completed his lap two tenths faster than what his teammate managed.
Piastri and Norris took third and fourth as both Ferraris lost 3 tenths in the final sector, resulting in 5th for Leclerc and 6th for Hamilton. Hadjar was 7th with his first lap as Lindblad opted to go for a single lap late in the session, sitting out the first 7 minutes of the session.
The second series of hot laps was again initiated by Mercedes sending out their cars first, immediately followed by the other 8 cars quickly filling the grid to gradually take the track.
Neither Mercedes improved, and the same was true for the McLarens right afer them. Hamilton crossed the line 30 seconds later but also failed to make an improvement. Leclerc and did find an improvement, but it was only enough to get 4th, relegating Norris to 5th.
Gasly meanwhile also had an enjoyable lap and took 7th on the grid, out qualifying Hadjar in the leading Red Bull.
