F1 Japanese GP live commentary and updates: Qualifying

And that's it from us for Japanese Grand Prix qualifying – join us again for the race tomorrow!

Here's our full story on Max Verstappen's reaction to being eliminated from qualifying in Q2...

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images

Against this tapestry of widespread misery, let's have some happiness – which, as Russ Abbot famously sang, is the greatest gift that I possess. Well, not me but Arvid Lindblad in this case, having made it through to Q3 after a troubled Friday:

"Quali felt really good, I mean it's not been an easy week at all. I missed all of P2, I missed quite a bit of P3 as well with another issue.

"I wasn't particularly confident coming into quali just because I was so on the back foot and I knew it wasn't going to be an easy session. But I think the job I did was really mega.

"I think that my guys as well on my side of the garage have done an amazing job to give me a car that I had a lot of confidence in with such little mileage. I'm very thankful to them, very proud of the job I did, because I think we put the car in a position where I'm not sure it belonged."

Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Marcel van Dorst / EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Carlos Sainz comments on his qualifying performance:

"It seemed better going into the weekend, a bit disappointed into Quali, as the more you pushed, the slower you went.

"So that's what happened to me in Q2. I think I had a bit less slipstream in my lap, and I was in clean air, I went quicker in every corner, slower in every straight, and I went one tenth slower."

Seems to be a recurring theme in the pen that the cut to the amount of harvesting that can be done in qualifying here has had an unintended consequence: if you drive to the limit of grip in the corners you get punished on the straight as the electrical power drops away sooner.

More amusing reaction from the Verstappen Dutch-media session. Our man Ronald Vording asked Max if Suzuka is still a challenge for drivers under the new regs, as it used to be…

"I invite you to drive my car and think it would be quite a challenge then!"

And of course, no significant track session would be complete without our five quick takeaways. I'm thinking chicken in black bean sauce...

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

Oliver Bearman explains his Q1 exit: 

"In the first run I was simply slow with no real explanation. And then the team told me there was an issue – I don't know exactly what, but just losing time in the straights basically.

"We managed to reprogramme the car, I think that it was okay in the final run but I haven't been able to check yet.

"But of course that first run I didn't really learn a whole lot because I was driving quite slowly, I would say. At the end I didn't really improve that much on the final lap so we need to understand exactly why.

"Some of these things, you know, the car needs laps to understand where to deploy and obviously the lap time is a lot quicker than it is in other sessions – so with any of these issues you kind of lose cumulatively. It's not that you can just miss a lap and go back and it's okay."

An allusion there to the amount of machine learning going on in the background. Let's go back to the days of cable-operated throttles, eh?

Here's some more Max. Asked whether there were some changes to the car which didn't work out, hence his complaint about it being 'undriveable', he said:

"We made changes all weekend, but at the same time we also have some problems in the car that we're trying to fix, and I guess it was worse again in qualifying compared to FP3. So as soon as you really tried to push, for me it was just all over the place.

"Yeah, really not good, and also really doesn't give you confidence to attack any corner. For me, I was just stuck, I couldn't push more."

Our man Filip Cleeren then pointed out that historically speaking, Red Bull has been good at turning the car upside down between practice and qualifying, and finding something... so what's making that not possible now?

"Well, there's just a few parts in the car that are not working how they should be working. And that's, I think, limiting us to even when you make just setup changes like you used to do in the past, it still doesn't respond, basically.

"For sure we'll fix a few things, hopefully in the coming weeks, months. Yeah, the rest, you know how I think about a lot of stuff, I don't need to mention it again.

"So yeah, a lot of stuff also for me personally to figure out."

Asked to elucidate about what that personal stuff might be, he replied thus:

"Life, life..."

It's understood that, behind the scenes, he has been asked by management to stop criticising the new regulations in public and just get on with driving the car. We can see how he feels about that...

Verstappen's Dutch media session has also been a bit of a car crash. He says he's not even disappointed in the car anymore because he's past all that.

"I simply have no words for this, which is even worse than being disappointed."

I dunno, it can be quite a powerful term – perhaps he should enunciate it in the manner of Dan O'Herlihiy as the embattled CEO in Robocop when ED209 goes rogue and massacres one of the execs: "I'm very disappointed..."

Nico Hulkenberg has been explaining his Q2 exit to Sky Germany.

"I didn’t put together a clean Q2, it was a bit messy on my part," he said.

"I just didn’t get the two laps clean enough. Had a few small mistakes here and there.

"And now in Q2, everyone is really close together – and that makes the difference.

"The feeling in the car is positive. You just have to execute it and bring it onto the asphalt. An Audi is in Q3 and we are definitely competitive.

"But as you can see, there’s an Alpine there. A Racing Bull is there and a Red Bull, which we now seem to be fighting with. So the midfield is very close together."

DUEL IF YOU THINK IT'S OVER

Want to find out how teammates fared in the head-to-head? We've got you covered there too...

George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Well we've got the audio from Max Verstappen in the post-session media 'pen'. While someone handles it with a pair of oven gloves, here's our full report from qualifying.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Stick with us for more reactions from the paddock as we digest the implications of qualifying. Where is George Russell losing out to his teammate? What's making Max Verstappen's car "undriveable"?

ANTONELLI ON POLE POSITION

F1 legend Jean Alesi conducting the top three interviews. "It was a good one, a clean one," says Antonelli.

Has to be said that the wolf-themed livery looks good on the Mercedes, but on the drivers' overalls it looks like a terrible laundry shunt has occurred.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Hamilton doesn't improve, either. Nor does Hadjar. Gasly does a 1m29.661 which puts him P7 ahead of Hadjar. Bortoleto improves to 1m30.274 but, despite finding the best part of four tenths, he stays P9. Lindblad rounds out the top 10 with a 1m30.319s.

What can Leclerc do? 1m29.405s, splitting the McLarens in P4 and pushing Norris down to the third row.

So it will be Antonelli first to clock a timed lap in these final runs. Green micro-sectors in S1 but he's locked up into the hairpin...

Antonelli doesn't improve. Neither does Russell. Nor Piastri. Norris? No...

Right, the final Q3 runs are beginning. Antonelli and Russell first out of the pitlane, followed by Norris, Piastri, Hadjar, Hamilton, Bortoleto, Lindblad, Gasly and Leclerc.

Antonelli fastest in the opening Q3 runs with 1m28.778s, 0.298s quicker than Russell's 1m29.076s. That's a marked improvement from George.

Piastri and Norris P3 and P4 with 1m29.132s and 1m29.409s respectively – faster than both Ferraris, 1m29.434s (Leclerc) and 1m29.567s (Hamilton).

Then another half-second gap to Hadjar (1m29.978s), Gasly (1m30.294s) and Bortoleto (1m30.648s). Lindblad hasn't set a timed lap in Q3 yet.

So that's Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and Carlos Sainz out in Q2.

Besides Verstappen – good luck to those interviewing him in the 'pen' afterwards, lest they be banned from future press conferences – this will sting for Hulkenberg, Lawson and Colapinto, both of whom had teammates go through to Q3. Pierre Gasly was P7, just a tenth off Norris's McLaren.

VERSTAPPEN OUT!

Arvid Lindblad does a 1m30.109s to annexe the final spot in the top 10, pushing Verstappen down to P11. 

Up at the front, Antonelli goes P1 with 1m29.048s.

Verstappen PBs his way around to do a 1m30.262s, leapfrogging Hadjar to go P9 – but only temporarily because Isack does a 1m30.104s.

What can Hulkenberg do? No, something has goone wrong for him in the last sector and he doesn't improve.

Russell goes round in 1m29.767s on his new softs, which isn't good enough to beat Piastri.

But Leclerc has found something – and how! P1 with 1m29.303s is 0.148s quicker than Piastri, and 0.464s ahead of Russell. Let's see what Antonelli can do on his new softs...

Yes, Hadjar and Verstappen now out again on fresh softs. This is going to be a critical final four minutes for the Red Bulls.

And, crucially, the difference between P10 and P11 – the cusp of elimination – is current five hundredths of a second.

Hulkenberg, Ocon, Lindblad, Colapinto, Lawson and Sainz in the drop zone after the first runs.

Hulk is three tenths off teammate Bortoleto.

Hamilton and Leclerc also going out on new softs.

Hadjar and Verstappen 0.888s and 0.912s off Piastri in P9 and P10 – and they did those laps on new softs. Peril!

It's Piastri-Antonelli-Leclerc-Norris-Bortoleto-Russell-Hamilton-Gasly-Hadjar-Verstappen in the top 10. Russell now heading out on new softs.

Antonelli, Russell, Leclerc and Hamilton all did their first push laps on used tyres, so it's no surprise to see Piastri slotting in to P1 with a 1m29.451s on new tyres. Bortoleto, also on new softs, P5 with 1m30.093s and Norris goes P4 with 1m29.795s.

Q2 begins. Based on what we've just seen, barring disasters for Mercedes/Ferrari/McLaren, this is going to be a question of whether the Audi drivers can deliver again, and whether the Red Bull drivers can find some improvement because it's quite tight in that space between half a second and a full second behind the leaders.

And in the battle of the stragglers, Perez beat Bottas to be fastest Cadillac and Alonso beat Stroll to be least slow Aston Martin.

Well well well, it all got very tasty in that battle to not be P17 and P18. Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto just managed to list themselves out of the drop zone with their final laps – Colapinto's 1m30.931s, 1.016s off P1, was the threshold.

So that means Alex Albon, who improved but not quite enough with a 1m31.088s, out in P17. Oliver Bearman a surprise elimination in P18 with 1m31.090s.

"You probably don't want to known but you can probably guess," Alex Albon is told when he asks where he is slow relative to Sainz. More to this than meets the eye...

Hulkenberg and Bortoleto split the McLarens with a 1m30.358s and 1m30.359s respectively.

Piastri leapfrogs Hamilton with his final lap, a 1m30.200s, to go P4.

Piastri and Norris fifth and sixth, both also on push laps now.

Antonelli is in the garage so he won't be trying to improve. Ditto Hamilton, who lies 0.394s off his teammate in P4.

Russell improves to 1m29.967 to push Antonelli down to P3.

Clearly the Cadillacs and Aston Martins don't have it in them to escape Q1, it's more a question of the remaining two places for those drivers who are in that hinterland of 1.5s off the frontrunning pace.

Albon, Sainz, Bottas, Perez, Stroll and Alonso currently in the drop zone with three minutes remaining.

Max Verstappen currently P9 after a snap of oversteer in the first sector of his opening flyer. 1m30.726s is a few hundredths off teammate Hadjar.

Good flyer from Hamilton – purple in sector one until beaten by teammate Leclerc. A 1m30.309s eventuates for Lewis, then Leclerc goes over the line in 1m29.215s. That's good for P1 for Charles, Lewis currently P3 with Antonelli in the Ferrari sandwich.