Motorsport

Coming into Q3, McLaren had topped every session of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend – free practice, Q1, and Q2 – positioning the Woking-based team as the clear favourite for pole. Oscar Piastri led the way after the first runs in Q3, with Max Verstappen trailing by a quarter of a second.
"I just thought, 'I'm going to give it everything in that last run,'" Verstappen explained of his ...Keep reading

Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are pinning their hopes on upgrades in Ferrari's pipeline. The Scuderia's Formula 1 drivers feel that the SF-25 in its current specification is lacking performance in comparison to the Mercedes and Red Bull cars.
Ferrari made a significant change to its car concept over the off-season in switching to a pull-rod front suspension layout, as technical ...Keep reading

Oliver Bearman admitted he did not expect to get out of the first qualifying session for the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix before putting his Haas 10th on the grid.
Having benefitted from a trio of disqualifications to finish eighth last time out in China, Bearman continued to impress after progressing to Q3 at Suzuka.
In contrast, team-mate Esteban Ocon failed to get out of Q1 and will ...Keep reading

Despite returning to the slower Racing Bulls car, Liam Lawson outqualified his Red Bull replacement Yuki Tsunoda for Formula 1's Japanese Grand Prix. But there are signs Red Bull's merciless switch may actually be working already.
Leaving aside the ruthlessness of Red Bull's decision to demote Lawson after two difficult races on circuits he didn't know, what ultimately mattered to the team is ...Keep reading

Pain from his seatbelts almost put Racing Bulls Formula 1 driver Isack Hadjar out in Q1 for the Japanese Grand Prix, before completing an "unbelievable" lap having overcome the discomfort.
Hadjar was heard over the radio complaining about an unspecified cockpit issue in FP3, and had reported in the first part of qualifying that the problem had reoccurred as he attempted to break into Q2.
It ...Keep reading

Lengthy rain showers have been forecast for Suzuka overnight on Saturday and into Sunday, with the expected downpours set to halt the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix grass fires.
Five separate incidents of scorched turf have delayed track action across the weekend so far, with two red flags in FP2, two in FP3 and another during Q2 as the FIA and race organisers grappled with finding a ...Keep reading

Williams driver Carlos Sainz has received a three-place grid penalty for Formula 1's Japanese Grand Prix for impeding Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.
Arriving at high speed into Turn 1 for his final flying lap in Q2, Hamilton encountered Sainz in the middle of the road, having to abort his lap and take avoiding action into the runoff area.
Sainz said he had no warning that Hamilton ...Keep reading

Lando Norris insists he is much happier with his McLaren Formula 1 car than he was in China - despite being beaten to Japanese Grand Prix pole by Max Verstappen.
The current championship leader bemoaned small margins for missing out on pole by 0.012 seconds at Suzuka as Verstappen surprisingly took the top spot ahead of both Norris and his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Throughout the ...Keep reading

After every F1 qualifying session, Motorsport.com publishes each team's qualifying record in terms of team-mate battles.
This record is based exclusively on qualifying results so that grid penalties don't alter the statistics.
When a driver can't put in a representative lap time due to a technical issue or an incident, this will be mentioned in the table.
McLaren




Oscar ...Keep reading

Max Verstappen has said Red Bull has not fixed its troublesome Formula 1 car despite taking a stunning Japanese Grand Prix pole that he called one of his finest career laps.
The four-time world champion was bidding for his fourth consecutive pole at Suzuka, but balance issues with his 2025 Red Bull car combined with McLaren's dominant form looked set to end that streak.
But after not making ...Keep reading

Max Verstappen stormed to a surprise pole position at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix as the reigning world champion defeated both McLarens to grab top spot.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had been setting the pace during practice, but it was Verstappen who delivered when it mattered, putting in a new track record of 1m26.983s to secure his fourth successive Suzuka pole.
Early championship ...Keep reading

Lando Norris closed out Japanese Grand Prix practice with the fastest time, just 0.026 seconds ahead of McLaren Formula 1 team-mate Oscar Piastri, as the session faced two red flags due to grass fires.
The championship leader aborted two hot laps during his late-session qualifying simulations on soft tyres due to minor wide moments on the exit of the second Degner corner, but rallied on his ...Keep reading

The NASCAR season kicked off this year with a race at the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had not seen a NASCAR Cup Series race since 1971. While the parking lot paddock behind the fieldhouse hearkened back to those early days of stock car racing, some 40-plus years before, the cars in the garage that day were far from those that might have been assembled in the backyard garages of the ...Keep reading

"I think the people at Racing Bulls were a bit surprised themselves by the good car they've built this year," Max Verstappen told reporters on Thursday at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Two weeks ago in China, the world champion made it clear that his struggling team-mate Liam Lawson would be faster in the Racing Bulls car than in Red Bull’s RB21, mainly because the VCARB 02 is “easier to ...Keep reading

Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso was left confused by his spin during second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix and suggested it may have been caused by a gust of wind. 
The Aston Martin driver lost control at the entry to Suzuka's Turn 8 and spun across the gravel resulting in his AMR25 becoming beached, with FP2's second red-flag period subsequently happening. 
Alonso was the ...Keep reading

Alpine driver Jack Doohan has said he was "caught by surprise" by his heavy crash in Formula 1's Japanese Grand Prix second practice, with team boss Oliver Oakes labelling it a "misjudgement".
The rookie spun off entering the high-speed Turn 1 in the opening stages of the one-hour session, smashing heavily into the barriers. Due to the severity of the impact, Doohan was checked at the medical ...Keep reading

The FIA is attempting to prevent a repeat of the grass fires that derailed the second practice outing at Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Friday’s session was thrown into disarray by four red flags, two for offs by Jack Doohan and Fernando Alonso and another two for grass patches lining the Suzuka track catching fire.
The dry grass approaching Turn 8 first caught fire with 13 minutes ...Keep reading

Liam Lawson said he has enjoyed his return to Racing Bulls at Suzuka despite his harsh demotion from Red Bull, feeling at ease in the team's vastly different Formula 1 car.
After two difficult race weekends Lawson's Red Bull stint was cut short by the team's management, which opted to try his former Racing Bulls team-mate Yuki Tsunoda instead.
Having felt he needed more time to get used to ...Keep reading

After the expectation comes the reality. Yuki Tsunoda’s first day actually driving Red Bull's diva-ish RB21 Formula 1 machine, as opposed to piloting an ersatz version of it in a simulator, answered some questions while leaving others hanging.
Very few of those matters outstanding were Tsunoda’s fault, though, owing to the second practice session being punctuated by four red-flag periods ...Keep reading

McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri believe Mercedes will be their biggest opponent in this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
After winning one race apiece in Australia and China, Norris and Piastri are the favourites to win in Japan and Friday's practice running did little to suggest otherwise - Norris topped FP1 and Piastri headed a disjointed FP2 punctuated by ...Keep reading