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Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was in awe of Max Verstappen's pole victory in the qualifying session of the Japanese GP. Alonso claimed that only Max has the ability to extract maximum performance from his car, RB21, and his final lap was special to witness.
Verstappen won F1 fans' hearts on Saturday, April 5, as he won pole position during the qualifying session of the 2025 Japanese GP. The Dutchman had been struggling with RB21's reliability throughout the free practice sessions.
Moreover, during the initial two rounds of the qualifying session, Verstappen failed to challenge McLaren's pace. However, on the final lap of Q3, he utilized every ounce of his skill set to record the fastest time in the history of the Suzuka circuit.
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With a purple sector three, he beat Lando Norris' time by one hundredth of a second and won pole position for the first time this season. While the fans couldn't stop praising Verstappen, the Dutchman also found an admirer in two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
In the post-qualifying interview, Alonso revealed that Max Verstappen's last lap was special, and only he can pull off such a performance from a troublesome car like the RB21. Talking to ViaPlay, the Spanish driver said:
"Only he can do it. I think there is no other driver at the moment that can drive a car and put it so high, or higher than the car deserves. I think it was a magical moment for everyone here."
Interestingly, Verstappen did report reliability issues during the qualifying session and still went on to put in a flyer lap good enough to win his pole. On the other hand, his new teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, exited in Q2. He finished below Liam Lawson at P15 as Red Bull once again raced with only one car in Q3.
Max Verstappen is not yet happy with RB21's balance despite a pole win in Japan
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stunned everyone to win pole position during the qualifying session of the 2025 Japanese GP. Despite being slower than McLaren, he recorded a flyer lap in Q3 to beat Lando Norris by one hundredth of a second time difference.
However, the Dutchman is still not happy with the balance of RB21. Speaking to Motorsportweek, he said:
"Just trying a lot of different things to try and make it more balanced, which it is a bit of a difficulty for us at the moment, and even in qualifying, that is still the same. I mean, I could be more committed, but I mean, I’m on pole, but I’m still not happy with the balance of the car, but we are working on it, and yeah, for us, this is a great little surprise.”
The RB21 isn't easy to drive, as stated by Max Verstappen earlier. Moreover, McLaren will be chasing the four-time world champion from P2 and P3 on Sunday, which means Red Bull is running out of time to fix the car's balance issue.
