The high-speed and tricky corners of the Suzuka racetrack still seem to be a difficult challenge for the Ferrari racing team this season. This makes Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, despite their great efforts, only able to Closing the qualifying round in 4th and 8th place overall.
Meanwhile, this was an easy day for Max Verstappen. The defending champion, despite making a few mistakes in the final part of the race, still had the best performance with a time of 1 minute 28 seconds 197.
So in all 4 opening races of the 2024 season, no one has been able to prevent the Dutch driver from taking the first starting position. However, what is worth noting is that Max Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, a name that often does not have a good qualifying record, had a completely transformed competition day.
Perez’s qualifying performance is the second best in the entire group, and is only 6.6 hundredths of a second behind Verstappen, thereby helping the Red Bull team occupy the first starting row in today’s main race, while in second place. 3 belongs to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
