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Autosport F1 & Motorsport

F1 2025 Japan GP Saturday: Verstappen Steals Pole As McLaren Stumble

Autosport F1 & Motorsport

Motorsport Network

News, Sports News, Sports

4723 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mark Mann-Bryans and Jake Boxall-Legge review Qualifying on Day 3 of their Japanese Grand Prix coverage from the Suzuka International Circuit. It was a stunning lap from Max Verstappen that took pole position ahead of both McLaren drivers, despite the Dutchman having no purple "fastest" sector times. Mark and Jake talk about how well Max had hooked the car up, as well as the minor mistakes from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri that opened the door for Verstappen's pole. There's also a discussion on yet another grass fire during the session, the chances of rain for Sunday's race, Isack Hadjar qualifying seventh despite a very uncomfortable seatbelt, and the surprise of Yuki Tsunoda being knocked out in Q2 and outqualified by his former teammate Liam Lawson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to the Autosport podcast.

0:10.8

Hi everyone and welcome back to Suzuki, where we've had qualifying for tomorrow's Japanese

0:16.5

Grand Prix. Lots to talk about, Jake. Let's start with, though, surprise pole sitter Max Ostaplan,

0:22.1

just how good was that lap? It was pretty exceptional. I was in the driver pen at the time

0:27.6

and we were talking to Pierre Gazzley and suddenly he stops and turns around. Just as I'd asked him a question, he stops and turns around.

0:33.6

He goes, we can watch this together. And I think all the drivers were independent

0:39.1

at the time were pretty astounded by the lap. There's tiny margins over the two McLaren's.

0:47.5

He'd struggled all weekend with the car. He's felt it's really understeery, which doesn't

0:52.5

suit him at all. but the fact that he was

0:55.5

able to turn that lap in was was pretty exceptional I think you can tell even

0:59.7

you know we know Max it's been quite dower lately with the car even towards

1:03.6

back at the last year when he found out he was on pole position when he'd

1:06.9

cross the line then Piastri came over the line just his reaction showed how good a lap

1:10.7

he thought he was afterwards he spoke about it look, it's a tough track to come,

1:13.8

this car, I'm still not happy with it. It's not just like, I'm on pole position, so that means all

1:17.0

the issues are solved. And I think for all of Stapein. Out of the 41 he's had,

1:31.3

you know, I could think of some of the mega ones, but that is a good choice for that.

1:34.3

Will you be able to hold the McClanes back tomorrow? I guess we're going to talk about the web's going to be a tough one to hold them back, isn't it? Yeah, in dry conditions you'd expect.

1:45.0

And we saw this through practice when the McLaren's were going for a lap, especially around Degna 2, it was a little bit wayward.

1:52.0

Obviously scaling it back a little bit for the race, you're not pushing quite as hard in race trim.

1:58.0

So you would say theoretically McClaren should have the legs in

2:01.2

entire Deg and everything else. But we are expecting rain, Mark. You are. And we've just seen

...

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