Red Bull ‘turned car upside down’ for Max Verstappen's 'best ever' lap
Christian Horner hails Max Verstappen's stunning qualifying lap at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner has hailed Max Verstappen’s pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix as his best ever lap.
Verstappen showed exactly why he is a four-time world champion by producing a stunning lap to claim a shock first pole of the 2025 season at Suzuka.
The Dutchman pipped McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.012s to take what is his fourth consecutive pole in Japan.
"Unbelievable! We did not expect that,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“Just an outstanding lap. He’s extracted every ounce of performance. He and his engineering team were working on the preparation and getting the tyres in the right window.
“He’s got the most out of it today and getting that pole position was completely against the run of form that we’ve been seeing. A massive result for him and a big lift for the team.”
Horner revealed Red Bull made significant changes to their difficult RB21 to try and get it into a better working window for Verstappen.
“We have turned the car upside down this weekend. In set-up we’ve been round the houses with it and Max and his team have done a great job,” he explained.
“Just getting the car into the right window and getting the tyres in the right place, just putting everything together.
“The McLarens, if they’d put their laps together on the theoretical, they are half a tenth quicker, but they didn’t get that in today.
“He left nothing on the table. That was one of his best laps in qualifying ever.”
Red Bull encouraged by Yuki Tsunoda
Verstappen’s new teammate Yuki Tsunoda could only manage 15th place on his qualifying debut for Red Bull.
The Japanese driver was half a second slower than Verstappen when he was eliminated in the second part of qualifying.
Tsunoda was also outpaced by Liam Lawson, who has returned to Racing Bulls following his brutal demotion from the main Red Bull team.
Horner explained that opting to go for a different downforce level to Verstappen hurt Tsunoda but was nevertheless encouraged by his early showing.
“It’s all subjective to the data. This morning they both ran a bit more downforce and Yuki found it was more to his liking,” he said.
"Certainly in Q1 he looked competitive, he was within a tenth of Max and just once place behind.
"He didn't improve in Q2 and that last run, he was a bit quick into Turn One and had a big moment into Turn Two, and you are never going to recover from there.
"I think he could comfortably have made the top 10 today but he can still race well tomorrow.”
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