Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez might have made it look easy as they swept to a Red Bull 1-2 in qualifying for the Japanese GP, but the two drivers were first to admit that their key Q3 laps had been far from perfect.
Verstappen took pole with a final lap of 1:28.197s, which was seven tenths quicker the best lap set the last time that F1 raced here six months ago with Perez securing P2 with a lap just 0.066s slower.
Even so, that didn't satisfy Verstappen who felt that he should have been able to do better in the cooler spring time conditions on Saturday.
"Of course you want every lap to be perfect, but around a track like this that’s not always the case," Max Verstappen told the media in parc ferme in Suzuka after the end of the session. “It was quite close at the end.
"I really enjoyed sector one," he said. "Around here it is really fun to drive. But the track is very sensitive with the tyres, the tarmac is really aggressive, and when you really want to go to the limit it doesn’t always work out.
"In the last lap I tried to push a bit more and I was gaining quite nicely in sector one, but ran out of tyres at the end so lost a bit of time which was a shame.
"It wasn’t perfect, but to still be on pole on a lap that I felt like could have been better, is great," he added. "The most important [thing] is to be on pole.
"Overall a very good day, a good starting position for tomorrow, and of course tomorrow is what counts," he acknowledged. "A front row start is a perfect start to the race tomorrow, but I expect it to be very competitive.
"We have to work on our long runs, as we have not been fully happy with these and still feel like we can work to control the balance of the car a bit more."
It's Verstappen's third consecutive pole at Suzuka, and he will be hoping to convert that into a third consecutive victory here to reignite his championship campaign after the brake fire DNF in the last rain.
While Verstappen still leads the title battle, his advantage over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was trimmed to just four points with Perez a single point further back. Red Bull is similarly four points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.
Perez had his own regrets about a small mistake on is final lap that meant he wasn't able to steal pole away from his team mate. “It felt like a good lap. We hooked it all together, but unfortunately it was just not enough.
“It was close today, really close with Max. I think we’ve been really close all weekend, all the way through qualifying as well,” he said. "When you are in that little margins, anything can make a difference.
“We have had a good weekend so far and made some really nice progress throughout qualifying today. Unfortunately in the end we couldn’t get totally hooked in for the final lap.
"It was quite tricky out there, actually. It was quite easy to lose a couple of tenths into the last section into the chicane," he said. "I didn’t have a great exit opening up the lap, so that could have been the difference.”
But like his team mate, Perez felt that the team had a strong chance of a big victory this weekend to wash away the bitter taste of disappointment for both drivers in Australia.
“I think we are in a good position for tomorrow. Our long-run pace hasn’t been that strong this morning, but we worked quite a bit so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to be strong.
"Max and I have been on par all weekend, I think we will be close tomorrow and we have everything to fight for.
"I think generally we are a lot better placed with the car. If you remember last year here, we were seven tenths off Max and it was probably the hardest circuit in terms of balance.
"This season things are looking a lot different and the confidence is coming back. Having a nice balance around Suzuka doesn’t compare to anything else in the world, today was very enjoyable."
Red Bull principal Christian Horner hailed what he called "a brilliant qualifying today from both drivers," noting that it was the team's "27th front row lock out and Checo’s finest performance in qualifying here.
"It was another stunning lap from Max and we are really pleased to have both the cars on the front row," he added. "Of course there are still things that we will look to improve on for tomorrow.
"I think the race will be a little closer but today puts us in a great position to race well as we look to carry this pace into Sunday."
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