Verstappen ranks qualifying performance: ‘It’s quite high on the list’

Max Verstappen was extremely happy with his performance at Suzuka after qualifying. The Dutchman claimed pole position with outperforming everyone else on the grid by more than half of a second. Verstappen explained where his performance ranks today in terms of his 'qualifying' history, and also predicted how tomorrow’s race can turn out to be.

Verstappen overwhelmingly beat his competition on Saturday, as he was ahead of second-placed Oscar Piastri by 0.581 seconds. "I think [it ranks] quite high," the defending champion told F1TV after qualifying. "But already the whole weekend has been really enjoyable, a lot of fun to drive and it gave me a lot of confidence to push, especially I think in the first sector it's been really, really nice to drive, especially in qualifying."

Verstappen also thinks tomorrow’s race can be challenging, and wants to do his own race. "I think everyone is having a lot of tyre degradation around here, the tyres are wearing a lot because of all the fast corners, but I also think tomorrow it's important to have a good start, because if we have a good start we can do our own race I think."