Three-time world champion Max Verstappen said his performance was “not ideal” but was still good enough to take pole position ahead of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez at Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. Verstappen, who failed to finish in Australia two weeks ago, set the fastest lap time of 1 minute 28.197 seconds in qualifying at Suzuka, only 0.066 seconds ahead of the Mexican, achieving a one-two lead for Red Bull. This is the fourth time this season that the Dutchman has taken pole position in as many races.

Verstappen said he was “not too happy with myself” after nearly handing Perez the lead in the final moments of the race.

“It’s not ideal, but still good enough,” Dutch said.

“Of course, I always wanted it to be perfect, but that was impossible. Fortunately, it’s still good enough today.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris was third, 0.292 seconds behind Verstappen.

Perez finished third towards the end of a gripping qualifying session in dry conditions, but nearly jumped to the top with an inspiring final effort.

The Mexican said “it’s quite difficult to complete a perfect lap”.

“It was close today but I thought the whole weekend was good,” said Perez, who finished second behind Verstappen in the first two grands prix of the season.

“We made some good progress and we managed to maintain some consistency in qualifying.

“Let’s see what we can do tomorrow,” he added.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won in Melbourne and finished fourth.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was fifth, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished eighth, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and RB Racing’s Yuki Tsunoda.

~check~Check~check~Check~check~“question mark”–

Verstappen won the first two grands prix of the season but retired with brake problems in Melbourne, the first time in two years that he failed to finish.

He looked back on his awe-inspiring best result so far at Suzuka, topping the first and third practice sessions but missing the second practice session due to bad weather.

But he said after qualifying that he was not satisfied with his current pace in the long distance races in Japan.

The Dutchman said it was a “question mark” ahead of the race and wondered aloud whether Ferrari would be able to take advantage.

“Maybe they didn’t have that fast lap today, but in the long run they are definitely fast,” Verstappen said.

“So we have to wait and see how the game develops.”

Norris emerged from a crowded qualifying session to finish third, behind the two Red Bulls.

The British driver went toe-to-toe with Verstappen at the first corner in last year’s race and finished second.

He admitted “there’s still a lot of work to be done” to close the gap but vowed to keep trying.

“It’s tricky, they’re fast,” Norris said.

“They complain about the pace of their games, but I don’t think they’ve had a bad season in the last four or five years.”

Mercedes failed to build on their promising practice session, with the team fined after an early incident in which Russell was released onto the pit road in Piastri.

With a late charge, Tsunoda beat RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon into the fourth third quater.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was eliminated in Q1 for the fourth time this season.

Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargent and Guanyu Zhou also fell at the first hurdle.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)