Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell on Saturday as Max Verstappen suffered another qualifying nightmare.<\/p>\n
Mercedes have claimed one-two finishes at both grands prix so far in a flying start to the Formula One season and they were again dominant in dry conditions at Suzuka.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old Italian Antonelli became the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history two weeks ago in China and he made it two in a row with a fastest lap of 1min 28.778sec.<\/p>\n
Early championship leader Russell was second, 0.298sec behind, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri third and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fourth.<\/p>\n
Antonelli, who won the first grand prix of his F1 career in China two weeks ago, said it was “a really clean session”.<\/p>\n
“There’s still work to do in these big tracks with the energy, how to find a solution that allows us to push even more and drive without thinking too much,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But overall I think it was good fun.”<\/p>\n
Russell was fastest in Friday’s first practice but he has trailed his younger team-mate in every session since then.<\/p>\n
The British driver said he was struggling with his car for most of qualifying and admitted it was “not ideal” going into Sunday’s race.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been really comfortable with the car this whole weekend, it’s just in qualifying something didn’t quite feel right,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Let’s see tonight, maybe we’ll get some answers, maybe I can adjust my driving style to compensate.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Undriveable’ Red Bull –<\/p>\n
Russell’s problems paled into insignificance compared with those facing four-time world champion Verstappen, who exited in Q2 and starts from a lowly 11th on the grid for Red Bull.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman, who has won in Japan for the past four years, took pole last year with a track-record lap time.<\/p>\n
He has railed against new Formula One regulations that see a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power, and labelled his car “undriveable”.<\/p>\n
“The car never turns mid-corner, but at the same time this weekend, it’s just oversteering a lot on entry,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s really difficult, unpredictable.”<\/p>\n
Verstappen, who finished sixth in Melbourne and retired from the Shanghai grand prix two weeks ago, added: “We have problems that I cannot explain in detail here.”<\/p>\n
Verstappen was involved in a public confrontation on Thursday when he ejected a reporter from his news conference.<\/p>\n
McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris was fifth, followed by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar was eighth, with Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad of RB rounding out the top 10.<\/p>\n
Piastri will be desperate to make an impact in Sunday’s race after missing the first two grands prix of the season.<\/p>\n
The Australian said his qualifying session was “pretty well executed” after also finishing fastest in Friday’s second practice.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to be closer,” said Piastri of his third place on the grid.<\/p>\n
“I think we’re learning more and more about the car and about the power unit every weekend.”<\/p>\n
Esteban Ocon of Haas, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, RB’s Liam Lawson, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Williams’ Carlos Sainz went out in Q2 with Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Haas driver Ollie Bearman, who finished fifth at the Chinese Grand Prix, was a shock faller in Q3 and will start from 18th.<\/p>\n
Cadillac pair Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas went out with him, as did Williams’ Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n
The Aston Martin pair, who have yet to complete a grand prix so far this season as they struggle with extreme vibration, finished bottom of the timesheets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell on Saturday as Max Verstappen suffered another qualifying nightmare. Mercedes have claimed one-two finishes at both grands prix so far in a flying start to the Formula One season and they were again dominant in dry conditions at Suzuka. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3076,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073\/revisions\/3076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}