George Russell was knocked off his expected pole position by his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Championship-leader Russell suffered a difficult afternoon, sending a sequence of distressed messages to the pit wall, telling them to ‘look at everything’ to rectify his problems.
So Antonelli took a second successive pole after his career first in Shanghai last weekend at 19 years 202 days, converting his sure-footed afternoon’s work here into a pole lap by a yawning 0.298sec from Russell.
Antonelli is four points behind Russell heading into Sunday’s race owing to the British driver’s sprint win.
Russell sensed all was not well throughout the session, saying: ‘Something doesn’t feel right. Quite a lot of oversteer.’
And later said: ‘We can’t be missing this much pace. Look at everything.’
Kimi Antonelli took a second consecutive pole ahead of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell in Suzuka
Russell sent a sequence of distressed messages to the pit wall, telling them to ‘look at everything’ to rectify his problems
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went out in Q2 claimed his Red Bull car is ‘completely undriveable’
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri will start third, a tonic for the Australian because he has not started either of the two opening grands prix – crashing out on his way to the start in Melbourne and spiked by a technical glitch in Shanghai.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth best and defending world champion Lando Norris fifth – green shoots at McLaren. Lewis Hamilton was sixth quickest on the Suzuka track where he has won four times.
Max Verstappen’s vexed start to the season continued – out in Q2. The last time that happened was in Brazil in 2024, a day before he won brilliantly in the wet, a performance among the greatest comeback wins of all time.
He will start 11th here and the prospects of a reprise of those heroics are slim. His Red Bull is hardly a rocket ship under the new regulations.
The four-time world champion, a major critic of this season’s technical changes, complained: ‘There is something wrong with the car. It is completely undriveable.’
His team-mate Isack Hadjar qualified eighth.
The Aston Martins were last, predictably enough, even behind the two cars belonging to newcomers Cadillac.
