00:01Is this going to be good enough though? So he's a tenth up on Nicholas Latifi through that middle sector,
00:07Latifi one of his rivals, he's four tenths up on his teammate Lance Stroll, Lando Norris has just gone quickest
00:13overall through the first part of the lap, Sebastian Vettel crosses the line and goes into the top ten, so
00:19he's pulled out some pace and he's keeping his fingers crossed that those below him can't do something similar, Lance
00:24Stroll only 14th fastest, checkered flag is now out,
00:29Joe Guanyu is into the top eight, very good lap on his first appearance here of course at Suzuka, Lance
00:36Stroll goes into the bottom five as Mick Schumacher goes 11th fastest, gets his hat out of the bottom five,
00:43Lando Norris as I said did brilliantly in the first sector, eighth fastest for him, Pierre Gasly pushed down into
00:49the bottom five as his teammate Yuki Tsunoda goes 12th fastest, so Vettel now at risk having completed his final
00:56flying lap, Esteban Ocon goes into the top six,
00:59in his Alpine, Sebastian Vettel might just survive and get himself through into Q2, Alex Albon who had a lap
01:06time deleted, which was a 1.31.5, that wouldn't have been good enough, but neither was that lap either.
01:16I've asked to wait, why to wait, why, why to do it, what are you doing with the other quarter
01:24with me, what time?
01:26So there, first part of qualifying is over, Latifi gets a five place grid penalty and he's the slowest, driver
01:31starts last, Lance Stroll is on that back row with him, Kevin Magnus now qualified for the fifth time this
01:37season by Mick Schumacher, Gasly and Albon also out.
01:44Through the chicane we go with Sebastian Vettel, currently 12th fastest, wanting to preserve his 100% record of coming
01:52to Suzuka and being in Q3 and in the top ten, he's done just that.
01:56Fifth fastest so far for Sebastian Vettel, Ocon goes second fastest, decent lap from Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez, quickest overall
02:04and into the 1.29s, first man into the 1.29s this weekend.
02:09Next across the line will be Valtteri Bottas, he is out of qualifying by the merest of margins.
02:15His teammate Joe Guan Yu is also out of qualifying and that's Bottas sealing the Alfa Romeo head-to-head
02:22in qualifying this season.
02:24Next across the line Mick Schumacher will stay in that bottom five.
02:28What though of Yuki Tsunoda?
02:29He moves up but only 12th fastest.
02:33George Russell is a driver on the cusp here as Lando Norris goes fifth fastest, that pushes Russell into the
02:40bottom five.
02:41Lewis Hamilton goes fourth fastest overall and we now look to see Fernando Alonso who will be next across the
02:48line, goes second fastest where his teammate was a few moments ago.
02:51So it's all eyes now on George Russell to see if he can get out of Q2 and not have
02:57two Q2 exits in successive weeks.
02:59It hasn't happened for him.
03:01He goes seventh fastest.
03:04Oh, I did it my best.
03:05Yeah, it was a pretty good lap.
03:07Mick Schumacher, Joe Guan Yu, Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo, the five that we've lost.
03:14Perez ended up with the fastest time in Q2.
03:19Flat through 1.30, easy and then braking for the last chicane.
03:23How has he done?
03:24Oh, you can see the under rotation on the front right.
03:26Perfect, perfect positioning of the car.
03:29Straight exit, good traction.
03:31I hope this is a good one.
03:32So Leclerc to the line then, 1.29.5 and he's gone significantly quicker than he did in Q2, nearly
03:39a second faster.
03:40Next across the line, Sergio Perez behind him by about four tenths.
03:44Carlos Sainz makes it the Ferrari 1 and 2, two tenths between them.
03:49Norris on his out lap had a few adventures behind Max Verstappen, had to go onto the grass.
03:55That didn't help him.
03:56Verstappen goes onto provisional pole by nearly two, well, over two tenths of a second.
04:01Hamilton goes fifth fastest.
04:03His teammate George Russell, who trails 10.7 in the qualifying head-to-head, just goes ahead then of Lewis.
04:10It's Hamilton 10, Russell 7 in terms of the quality head-to-head at Mercedes this year.
04:16Alonso goes fifth fastest.
04:19Going through 130R and then suddenly Verstappen, whoa!
04:22The FIA stewards will investigate the 130R incident between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen after the qualifying session.
04:34It's unbelievable.
04:3640.1, purple, fastest of anyone.
04:39Max slower in the first sector than he was earlier on.
04:42So, great lad by Charles, he's pulling it out as we know Charles can in qualifying.
04:46He needs to improve by two and a half tenths at least, and he hasn't done it!
04:49By one one hundredth of a second, Charles Leclerc is denied a pole position.
04:55He's on the front row currently.
04:57Esteban Ocon goes fifth fastest in his Alpine.
05:00Can Sergio Perez get onto the front row?
05:02No.
05:03Four tenths down, he stays on row two alongside Carlos Sainz, who's trying to improve but hasn't managed it.
05:09Only five one hundredths of a second between first and third, and Verstappen has picked up time during that middle
05:15sector.
05:16Fernando Alonso, sixth fastest currently, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who's qualifying is finished.
05:22Russell and Hamilton both improving on the new soft tyres that they're using on their final runs.
05:27As Verstappen crosses the line, doesn't improve his time, but it's good enough anyway for pole position.
05:33Hamilton, sixth fastest, as he makes his way to the line.
05:37His teammate George Russell, only eighth fastest in the Mercedes, but in his applause in the Red Bull garage for
05:44Max Verstappen.
05:45He's done his business on the track.
05:47He's going to have to go and do some business now in the stewards room.
05:50That incident involving himself and Lando Norris will be investigated shortly.
05:56It's the first time he's been on the front row.
05:59It's the first time he's been on pole here at Suzuka on this championship deciding, potentially championship deciding weekend.
06:15It's the first time he's been on the track.
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