Horner on 'special' pole lap by Verstappen: 'GP winded him up'

Christian Horner believes fans witnessed "something special" with Max Verstappen's pole lap in Japanese qualifying. The Red Bull Racing driver found himself lonely at the top with a lap time that put him six tenths clear of the rest of the field.

So far, Verstappen has dominated the entire Grand Prix weekend at the Suzuka Circuit. On Saturday, he proved yet again that suggestions about the effect of the new technical directive were groundless with a pole time just under six tenths faster than that of the number two, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.

"He was just in a different league the whole qualifying," Horner began talking to Sky Sports. "That final lap, I mean, I'd encourage you to look at the replay of that because Turn 5, six at that high-speed section, that was quite outstanding," Verstappen also commented that the first sector went particularly well for him.

In his final run, Verstappen recorded a staggering pole time, dipping into the 1 minute 28 mark. Horner says it was race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase who urged him to go for that lap time: "His engineer was winding him up saying, ‘I think there's a 28 in the car'," said the Red Bull team principal.

"I said,’ GP, we want four wheels on the car at the end of this’ because it looked like he had enough margin, but he went and delivered. Of course, the race is tomorrow, but a huge performance today," said a proud Horner.