Antonelli details unexpected 'surprise' behind dominant Suzuka pole

The Italian clocked a 1:28.778, putting nearly three tenths between himself and Russell, who was never able to challenge him for pole and even risked losing the front row to Oscar Piastri.

Speaking after qualifying, the young Italian driver said: "With this regulation it’s very easy to gain or lose three tenths, whatever the gap was. It’s really easy to gain and lose time, so it was the same for me in Melbourne. But he’s super quick, he’s been super quick around here and we’ll see tomorrow in the race how we’re going to do."

His team-mate instead focused on the gap to the chasing pack, noting that "qualifying was very close between the Ferraris and McLaren throughout, so that was probably a bit of a surprise to us. We both had a very strong FP3 session, we thought we had a bit of a margin to the competitors. Obviously, we’re still P1 and P2, so that’s great, but clearly the others are closing in."