Fraser MasefieldKimi Antonelli backed up his Chinese GP pole position and subsequent race win by again finishing a spot ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Oscar Piastri maintained McLaren’s encouraging pace from free practice by setting the third quickest time from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and defending champion Lando Norris.
Lewis Hamilton lines up sixth on the grid ahead of Pierre Gasly, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoletto.
But there was a shock for Max Verstappen, who missed out on Q3 for the first time and again qualified behind his Red Bull teammate and starts 11th.
“It feels great to take pole position today here at Suzuka,” commented Antonelli on the official Mercedes press release.
“I’ve been having a lot of fun driving around such a brilliant circuit and pushing to the limit in qualifying.
“The car was a little snappier than it had been in FP3, so it wasn’t straightforward.
“We had some tyre overheating which we were dealing with too, but we were able to put together two solid laps in Q3. Thankfully our pace was strong enough to take P1.”
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The driver who has put his car on pole has come out victorious in the opening two grands prix of the season.
And with overtaking also difficult around Suzuka, Russell may well need a strong start to buck that trend.
“That was not a straightforward qualifying session on my side of the garage,” commented Russell. “We made a small and standard set-up adjustment after FP3 to balance out the car but it made it a lot more difficult to drive.
“I was struggling with oversteer and tyre overheating and was having to adjust my driving around that to find the lap time. We also had to take a good chunk of front-wing flap out of the car too which wasn’t ideal.
“Given how difficult overtaking usually is here at Suzuka, the start will be important.
“We’ve been working hard to improve how we get off the line and will be aiming to make sure we are the leading cars into turn one.”
For Piastri, who has endured a nightmare opening two races, crashing out on the formation lap in Australia and failing to even start in China, Japan represents a great chance to get back some confidence.
Feeling good after Quali ☺️#McLarenF1 | #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/syGPDikEvz
— McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team (@McLarenF1) March 28, 2026
“A good Qualifying session today, it was nice to be in the top three and closer to the leading team, so overall we can be pretty happy with this afternoon’s result.
“All weekend, I think we’ve looked reasonably good, and the team has executed every session well, getting things right for the moment across each day, which is pleasing.
“We clearly don’t have the pace or the grip to match Mercedes still, but we’re getting closer and that’s the most important point in our on-track performance.
“There are plenty of positives today, and it was good to be able to qualify ahead of Ferrari too.”
Whilst McLaren will no doubt be pleased to be back fighting at the front end of proceedings, it was another nightmare result for Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll starting from the back of the grid.
“A tough Qualifying for us today here in Suzuka,” said Alonso. “This circuit exposes our current limitations, and that was clear on track.
“Despite the Q1 exit, we have still been able to build mileage across the sessions, which is important for gathering data and understanding the car better. I always enjoy driving here, so tomorrow we will try to maximise everything and see what’s possible.”
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Craig Scarborough