Japanese Grand Prix – Sebastian Vettel heaped praise onto the Ferrari SF90 after taking his second pole position of the season at Suzuka.
There were blustery conditions at the Suzuka circuit following a typhoon, which caught out a couple of drivers, but Vettel managed to build up his session to a challenge for pole position.
The Ferrari man didn’t initially look like the favourite for pole position, but his pace increased over the session compared to his rivals and he was able to set two times good enough for pole position in the final part of qualifying.
His lap time of 1:27.064 was enough to beat team-mate Charles Leclerc by almost two tenths of a second, with the fastest Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas one-quarter of a second away from pole position.
Pole position, a track record and a record-equalling 64th #F1 front row lockout!
A great start to the day for Sebastian Vettel and @ScuderiaFerrari! 🙌#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Gy2N6O5S4N
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 13, 2019
Speaking immediately after qualifying, Vettel said that, after Friday’s running, he was not expecting to be challenging for pole position.
“It was’t easy, the conditions are different to what we had on Friday. The sun is out, people are happy and we didn’t expect to be on the front row, so we’re very happy,” said Vettel.
“It was unbelievable with the car being so light on fuel and on new tyres. We had a headwind at the end, which is just what you want because it makes the car feel even better. I don’t think I used the brakes other than in turn two.
“I really enjoyed it, but it was only part of the job done, so we look forward to this afternoon.”
To view the full results of the qualifying hour, click here.
