Verstappen equals his longest pole streak, Red Bull lock out the front row for the first time in over a year and Tsunoda reaches Q3 at his home event. Here are the facts and statistics from qualifying at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.
VERSTAPPEN ON POLE AT THE 2024 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
Max Verstappen secured Red Bull’s 99th pole position at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix. This was the 36th pole position of Verstappen’s career.
With his fifth consecutive pole, Verstappen equalled the longest pole streak of his career. He last took pole at five races in a row between the 2023 Monaco and British Grands Prix. In total, it is the 25th time that a driver has taken pole at five consecutive races.
Verstappen starts from the front row for the seventh consecutive race at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix. It’s the longest front row starting streak of his career to date.
This was Verstappen’s third consecutive pole position at Suzuka. Verstappen is the fifth driver – after Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Ayrton Senna and Nico Rosberg to have taken as many as three pole positions at the track.
Verstappen’s pole was the eighth in total for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix.
IN THE TOP 10
Sergio Perez qualified on the front row at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix. This was his first front row qualification since taking pole position at the 2023 Miami Grand Prix. It’s Perez’s first front row qualification – and his first top three – at Suzuka.
With Verstappen on pole and Perez second, Red Bull recorded their first front row lockout since the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix. This is the team’s fourth front row lockout at Suzuka. It’s the first time they’ve locked out the front row at the Japanese Grand Prix since 2013.
Lando Norris recorded McLaren’s best qualifying result of the season to date with third place. It was Norris’ best qualifying result since he qualified on the front row at the 2023 United States Grand Prix. Norris also qualified third for the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso qualified in the top five for the second time this year, recording a seventh consecutive Q3 appearance. This is Alonso’s first top five qualification at Suzuka since 2014.
With fifth place, Alonso recorded the best qualifying result for the Silverstone-based team at Suzuka since Adrian Sutil took fourth place with Force India in qualifying for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.
This is the third year in a row in which one Aston Martin driver has reached Q3 while the other has been eliminated in Q1.
With seventh place, Lewis Hamilton recorded his best qualifying result of the 2024 season to date. This is the second consecutive season in which Hamilton has qualified seventh at Suzuka.
Along with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Hamilton maintained his 100% Q3 appearance rate at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc qualified eighth for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix. This was the first time he qualified outside of the top five since the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, where he qualified ninth.
With ninth place, George Russell recorded his worst qualifying result since exiting in Q1 at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda reached Q3 at his home Grand Prix for a second consecutive season. He qualified tenth this year, compared to ninth in 2023.
This is the first time since the 2022 Dutch, Italian and Singapore Grands Prix that at least one driver for the Red Bull junior team has reached Q3 at three consecutive races. It’s the first time Tsunoda has reached Q3 at three races in a row since doing so at the end of the 2021 season.
OUT IN Q2
Daniel Ricciardo qualified in 11th place for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, recording his best qualifying result since qualifying in the top four at the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix. It’s the second time he’s qualified 11th in his last two appearances at Suzuka.
Nico Hulkenberg reached Q2 for the third time in the four races so far in 2024.
Valtteri Bottas equalled his best qualifying result of the season to date, qualifying in 13th place for a second consecutive race.
With Bottas out in Q2 and Zhou Guanyu eliminated in Q1 at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, 2013 remains the last time that a Sauber driver reached Q3 at Suzuka.
With 14th place in qualifying for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, Alex Albon recorded his worst qualifying result of the season to date.
Esteban Ocon qualified 15th for a second consecutive race. This is Ocon’s worst qualifying result at Suzuka since qualifying 21st on his first appearance at the track in 2016.
OUT IN Q1
Five different teams were eliminated in Q1 at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, with Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu being the five slowest drivers in the session.
Both Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen recorded their 68th Q1 exits, putting them three away from equalling Marcus Ericsson at the top of the all-time list of most Q1 eliminations.
Lance Stroll recorded Aston Martin’s first Q1 exit since the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix.
This was Stroll’s third consecutive Q1 exit at the Japanese Grand Prix – but was his best qualifying result at the track since 2019.
Qualifying 17th for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly was out in Q1 for a fourth consecutive race. It equalled the longest consecutive Q1 exit streak of his career, having also been eliminated at four races in a row between the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix and the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.
17th equals Gasly’s worst qualifying performance to date at Suzuka. He also qualified 17th for the 2017 and 2022 Japanese Grands Prix.
With 18th place, Kevin Magnussen recorded his worst qualifying result since qualifying on the back row at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. This was Magnussen’s first Q1 exit of the year.
2024 is the third consecutive season in which a Haas driver has qualified 18th for the Japanese Grand Prix.
With Logan Sargeant qualifying 19th, this was the first time since 2018 that a Williams driver has not set the slowest lap time in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Zhou Guanyu set the slowest lap time in qualifying and was eliminated in Q1 for a seventh consecutive race weekend. It’s the second time in the last three races that Zhou has set the slowest Q1 lap.
This was the first back row qualification for a Sauber driver at the Japanese Grand Prix since 2018.