Verstappen's pole at Suzuka 'one of his best qualifying laps' according to Horner

The pole position of Max Verstappen At Suzuka, no one expected it... even in his own clan. Just hear the Dutchman's enthusiasm on his radio, or see the explosion of joy in the garage. Red Bull, to capture the surprise and happiness of the Austrian team which took its first pole position in sixteen Grands Prix (the last one was at the Austrian GP in June 2024). A pole position obtained by sheer force of the wrist, on a razor's edge, with only 12 thousandths of a second ahead of the McLaren – yet dominant since the start of the season and the weekend – of Lando Norris.

Scenes of jubilation that we had lost the habit of seeing from Red Bull in recent months, given the Milton Keynes team's struggle to stay at the top. Christian Horner's team can nevertheless still count on its four-time world champion who manages to extract, we don't know how, all the potential of an RB21 that is extremely tricky to drive. The British manager was still struggling to understand his driver's feat when he gave his first reaction from Sky Sports.

“Max [Verstappen] and his engineers did a great job, underlined the Red Bull Team Principal. To get the car into the right window, get the tires in the right place and get everything right. I think the McLarens, if they could get everything right on their laps, would be half a tenth quicker. But they couldn't do that and Max left nothing on the table. It was one of his best laps, I think, in qualifying." He would add a few moments later: "It's truly exceptional. It's a very well-deserved pole position, and even a little unexpected!"

Verstappen up front, Tsunoda stuck

This surprise pole position for Max Verstappen erases the disappointment Yuki tsunoda, eliminated in Q2 despite the promise shown during Free Practice and Q1. For his first qualifying session with Red Bull, the Japanese driver was unable to increase his pace in the second session and will start his home Grand Prix in 14th place, just behind a certain Liam Lawson.

“[Yuki Tsunoda] was competitive, he was in the same tenth as Max and just one place behind [in Q1], Christian Horner stressed. Then in Q2 he didn't really improve, and on that last lap I think he was maybe too quick into the first corner, he had a big scare in the second corner, and then you can never recover from that. It's a shame because I think he would have comfortably been in the top 10 today, but he can still come back from [his starting position on Sunday].

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