McLaren had the car to beat Max Verstappen in qualifying at Suzuka, Christian Horner believes, but failed to “put their laps together”.

What had looked like being an intra-McLaren battle for pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix came to a surprising conclusion as Max Verstappen pipped both to claim his first pole position of the F1 2025 season.

Christian Horner admits Red Bull ‘did not expect’ pole position

With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri leading the way for most of the weekend, the MCL39 had looked the quickest car around the Suzuka Circuit throughout Friday practice and the first two parts of qualifying.

Norris and Piastri traded fastest times throughout, and the final part of qualifying looked set to be more of the same – only for Max Verstappen to pop in a stellar final lap to pip both.

Setting a new lap record with a 1:26.983, this was 0.012 clear of what Norris managed and 0.044 clear of Piastri’s time.

Celebrating in jubilation over team radio, Verstappen was clearly surprised to have taken an unlikely pole position, while race engineer GianPiero Lambiase praised his driver for what had been an “insane” effort.

Beaming with the result, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was full of praise for his driver.

“We did not expect that. On Max, I mean, what do you say?” he told Sky F1.

“Just an outstanding, outstanding lap – he’s extracted every ounce of performance.

“He and his engineering team, they were working on the preparation, getting the tyres in the right window, and he’s got the most out of it today.

“Getting that pole position was completely against the run of form that we’ve been seeing. So a massive result for him and a big lift for the team.”

With Red Bull over half a second off the pace on Friday, the improvement of the RB21 throughout the sessions allowed Verstappen to fight for pole position – even though the Dutch driver wasn’t fully happy with the handling of the front end of the car.

Horner said Verstappen’s engineering team had “turned the car upside down” as the weekend progressed.

“I mean, in set up, we’ve been around the houses with it, and Max and his team have done a great job,” he said.

“Just getting the car coming into the window, getting the tyres in the right place, and just putting everything together.”

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On paper, McLaren did have the quicker car, with Horner revealing the data had suggested the MCL39 had an inherent pace advantage.

“I think the McLarens, if they’d have put their laps together on the theoreticals, they’re half a tenth quicker, but they didn’t get their laps together,” he said.

“Then, with Max, he left nothing on the table.

“That was one of his best laps, I think, in qualifying ever.”

Put to him that Verstappen is driving around handling issues with the RB21, a car which appears tricky to drive and proved a mystery for Liam Lawson over the first two race weekends, Horner hinted that the car is not as bad as may be suggested.

“You’ve still got to have a car under you to be able to extract a lap like that,” he said.

“Max has just been working so hard behind the scenes with the team.

“Look, that lap is down to him today. But I think the team has done a good job in making progress throughout the weekend.”

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