'Very rare' Verstappen lap stuns Red Bull and McLaren

Japanese Grand Prix

Venue: Suzuka Date: Sunday, 6 April Race start: 06:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 Live from 05:30. Live text updates on the BBC Sport website and app

Was the lap that put Max Verstappen on pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix the best of his career?

The Red Bull driver himself certainly thought it was up there.

"It's difficult," Verstappen said. "I mean, I've had some really nice ones also in other places. But I think if you look at how our season started, even during this weekend... yeah, it's very unexpected, I would say. And I think that makes it probably a very special one."

His Red Bull team were stunned. And so were McLaren.

Verstappen had not looked as if he was in contention for pole at any point of the weekend until the final lap of qualifying at Suzuka. If McLaren had a rival, it had looked until then as if it would most likely be George Russell.

The four-time champion was struggling with the balance of his Red Bull throughout the practice sessions.

The team were making change after change to the car to try to make the driver happier. But on the first runs in the final qualifying session, he was still more than 0.2 seconds slower than the quickest McLaren, at that time Oscar Piastri.

But then Verstappen did something special. Really special.

"The last lap," he said, "I was like: 'Well, I'm just going to not try and feel comfortable - just send it in and see what we get.

"It's very rare, of course, that a lap like that then can stick, but this time it worked well."

Where, exactly, had he "sent it" and hoped for the best?

"Exit (Turn) One," he said. "Into Two, Six, Seven, Eight and then Spoon (Curve). Those places I was like: 'Well, I hope it's going to stick.' But it did."

In the end, Lando Norris was the McLaren driver who ended up next best. The Briton, who had made a mistake at Turn Seven on his first lap, turned it on for his second attempt, improving by 0.2secs over his previous best lap, and snuck ahead of Piastri. But it was not enough to stop Verstappen's genius.

"You've got to credit something when it's a lap that good," Norris said, "which he must have done, you know"Graphic image of, from left to right, Alex Albon, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman. It is on a blue background with 'Fan Q&A' below the drivers " loading="lazy" src="https://image.staticox.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Face%2Fstandard%2F480%2Fsprodpb%2F7ff9%2Flive%2Fd42302e0-34b3-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg" width="385" height="216" class="ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950"/>