Kimi Antonelli and George Russell claim a Mercedes 1-2 at Suzuka but Max Verstappen’s Red Bull struggles continue.
Published On 28 Mar 2026
A despondent Max Verstappen labelled his Red Bull car “undriveable” after the four-time world champion qualified a lowly 11th for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The Dutchman, who has won at Suzuka for the past four years, dropped out in Q2 in another qualifying nightmare to compound a difficult start to the season.
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He crashed out in Q3 in the season opener in Australia and has consistently railed against new Formula One regulations that see a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power.
“The car never turns mid-corner, but at the same time this weekend, it’s just oversteering a lot on entry. It’s really difficult, unpredictable,” Verstappen, who took pole last year with a track-record lap time, told Sky Sports F1.
“We thought we’d fixed it a little bit in FP3 (third practice), I mean there was still a lot of understeer in the car, but now in qualifying for me it was again undriveable, so that’s something that we need to look at.”
Verstappen, who finished sixth in Melbourne and retired from the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago, added: “We have problems that I cannot explain in detail here.
“I think in qualifying it just came back to a point where it became undriveable.”
Verstappen, 28, was involved in a public confrontation on Thursday when he ejected a reporter from his news conference.
Antonelli leads Mercedes 1-2 with Russell at Suzuka
Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the race ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Mercedes have claimed one-two finishes at both grands prix so far in a flying start to the Formula One season and they were again dominant in dry conditions at Suzuka.
The 19-year-old Italian Antonelli became the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history two weeks ago in China and he made it two in a row with a fastest lap of 1min 28.778sec.
Early championship leader Russell was second, 0.298sec behind, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri third and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fourth.
Antonelli, who won the first grand prix of his F1 career in China two weeks ago, said it was “a really clean session”.
“There’s still work to do in these big tracks with the energy, how to find a solution that allows us to push even more and drive without thinking too much,” he said.
“But overall, I think it was good fun.”
Russell was fastest in Friday’s first practice but he has trailed his younger teammate in every session since then.
The British driver said he was struggling with his car for most of qualifying and admitted it was “not ideal” going into Sunday’s race.
“I’ve been really comfortable with the car this whole weekend, it’s just in qualifying something didn’t quite feel right,” he said.
“Let’s see tonight, maybe we’ll get some answers, maybe I can adjust my driving style to compensate.”
