The jury has been out on Max Verstappen for a long while now. He is undoubtedly one of the all-time Formula 1 greats. This past weekend, however, Verstappen surpassed himself.
No-one had seen Verstappen’s fourth consecutive pole position – with an all-new track record to boot – coming, but the Dutchman stunned the F1 paddock and wider watching world with a mesmeric performance to beat the much-fancied McLaren duo, who had dominated the weekend with the quickest times in all three practice hours and Q1 and Q2.
In less unexpected news, plaudits followed.
Fernando Alonso hailed a “magical” and “outstanding” Verstappen in the media pen just as the record-setting attempt came to an end. As Verstappen strung together his stunning lap around an iconic F1 venue, Alonso was poised to speak to Dutch broadcaster Viaplay, eyes ablaze in amazement at what he was witnessing on the nearby television screens.
“Only he can do it,” Alonso told the Dutch broadcaster in amazement.
The veteran Spaniard doubled down on that opinion when speaking to written media, including Motorsport Week.
“He’s an outstanding driver. He’s proving it every weekend,” he said. “Hats off to him. I think the lap he did today is only down to him. I think the car is clearly not at the level to fight for pole or even the top five. But he manages to do those magical laps and magical weekends. At the moment, he’s the best, he’s the reference for all of us, and we need to keep improving to reach that level.”
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Verstappen’s boss, Christian Horner, who has seen the now multiple World Champion’s storied career, hailed it as one of the greatest laps that his driver has ever produced.
“An unbelievable lap from Verstappen to take a fourth consecutive pole position here in Suzuka! It’s possibly one of the best laps of his career,” Horner wrote on Instagram.
Verstappen’s 41st pole position could well be regarded as one of his finest. He was asked whether he’d rank the lap at number one in the post-qualifying press conference, and while he couldn’t give a sure answer, it was definitely a lap worth savouring considering the occasion – Red Bull’s last Japanese GP with Honda – and the team’s struggles in 2025.
“I’ve had some really nice [pole positions] also in other places,” Verstappen recalled. “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. Yeah, a lot of happiness when I crossed the line. The whole qualifying, we just kept on trying to improve the situation a bit. And the final lap, honestly, it was very good. I had a lot of fun out there, being fully committed everywhere.”
Ok then, Verstappen was due to line up right at the front, bringing an end to his 15-race run without a pole, but surely he couldn’t keep the McLaren behind in the Grand Prix?
That was the general consensus – and even Verstappen admitted it would be a challenge. But, as ever, the Dutchman vowed that he was prepared to get his elbows out.
“It will be very hard, but that’s fine. I’ll try to do my best.. So far this season we have not been able to fight them. But it’s not like we just sit there and accept it,” he asserted.
Max Verstappen caps off sensational Japan weekend with race victory
Fine, Verstappen was aided by the fact that Suzuka offered up minimal degradation, which limited the overtaking opportunities which are at a premium with a single DRS zone. But the low tyre usage also meant Japan transpired to be a flat-out sprint from beginning to end this time around, and in an RB21 that is by no means a match for the McLaren MCL39, Verstappen kept Norris and Piastri at bay throughout, capping off a sensational weekend.
“Look I mean, what a great race, an incredible race for Max, great for the team,” Horner said afterwards. “I think the majority of the hard work was done yesterday, when you look at I guess, 90% of the cars finished in the order that they started in. But it was a flat out sprint race today, there was very low degradation. We know the McLarens are very, very fast and it needed Max to be inch perfect with two very fast McLarens right behind him. And for 53 laps he made not a single mistake and had the pace to cover them, keep them out of his DRS. He was particularly strong in Turn 11 and the last corner to keep that vital second gap and had enough to cover whatever they could throw at us today.
READ MORE – Red Bull ‘turned the car upside down’ to help Max Verstappen win in Japan
“I think that’s one of Max’s best weekends that he’s had. We literally turned the car upside down set-up-wise. He’s worked very hard with the engineering team. Finally, we were able to give him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday with the most stunning lap and then convert that today in a hard-fought victory, in a straight fight, [which] puts him one point behind in the Drivers’ Championship. So we leave Japan still with plenty of work to do but huge motivation.”
With Verstappen remaining in championship contention at this early stage, Alonso saw similarities with the 2012 season that saw him rag a substandard Ferrari to a title decider.
“I’ve been fighting for World Championship with the fourth fastest car,” he said. “I hope for him he can fight until the end, but they need to improve a little bit. I think the people don’t realise how difficult it is and how you need to make perfect every weekend and he’s doing so far and as I said reminds me of my 2012 season in a way when the car was not so good and we fought for the championship.”
But what did the man himself think of it all?
“[It shows] that I really care, even though of course it’s not been the easiest start to the year for us. You know, we are not where we want to be in terms of performance. I think that’s no secret. But yeah, this weekend has been really, really nice. Sometimes you have those kind of moments where you get some really great laps out of it. And luckily, of course, also the balance got a bit more together throughout that qualifying. So yeah, we just have to keep on working. I mean it’s nice, but I’m a bit of a person—I don’t listen to the positives and the negatives. I’m just in the middle, you know. So I just focus on my own performances and yeah, just keep working, keep grinding.”
One thing is for certain, he’s really rather good at this F1 malarkey.
READ MORE – Max Verstappen makes bold McLaren statement following F1 Japan win
