Japanese Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli beats George Russell to Suzuka pole

Antonelli’s first lap in the final session was 0.298 seconds faster than Russell’s. He was about to improve on his last run but locked into a hairpin and lost time.

The 19-year-old Italian said: “I was very pleased with the session. It was a good, clean session. I felt very good in the car and was improving and improving with each drive.”

“It’s a shame for the last lap after the lockup at Turn 11, but before that it was fine.”

Antonelli became the youngest driver to take pole position in F1 in China and poses a serious threat to Russell in the championship; They start the race four points clear, less than the gap between first and second place in a grand prix.

Russell, who complained about a lack of rear grip throughout qualifying, was quicker than Antonelli in the difficult first part of the lap but lost out on the rest.

“It was a really weird session,” the Briton said. “We were both very fast all weekend. We made some adjustments after the last practice and we were nowhere in these qualifying, so we need to try and find out.”

Piastri, meanwhile, was pleased with the obvious progress McLaren made this weekend; In this process, for the first time, they took part with Ferrari as the closest rival to Mercedes.

The Australian pilot, who has not yet started a grand prix this season after the accident that occurred during the discovery tour in Australia and the battery failure in China before the start, said, “We looked good all weekend.”

“We still don’t have the pace to catch up with Mercedes, but we’re getting closer.”