A session that produced the expected result and had no major shocks…

Red Bull – A fourth pole for Verstappen which nearly didn’t come to be after the Dutchman was summoned to the stewards for ‘driving erratically’ but escaped without penalty. Perez starts tomorrow’s race P4.

Ferrari – Leclerc was tantalisingly close to pole position being only 0.01 seconds off in P2. Sainz was also close in P3.

Alpine – Somebody clearly shoved a rocket in the back of the Alpine today as Ocon beat both Mercedes to P5 while Alonso split the two silver cars in P7.

Mercedes – A lack of straight line speed cost Mercedes again as Hamilton took P6 and Russell took P8 despite the 24 year-old leading the pair throughout the session.

Aston Martin – Vettel’s 100% Q3 record at Suzuka continues with an impressive P9. This is a stark contrast to Stroll who could only manage P19.

McLaren – A mediocre performance for McLaren with Norris in P10 and Ricciardo in P11, the closest the pair have been all season.

Alfa Romeo – A double Q2 appearance for Alfa Romeo with Bottas ahead in P12 to Zhou in P14.

AlphaTauri – The home hero put in a decent performance as Tsunoda took P13. Gasly suffered a brake issue so could only manage P17.

Haas – A disappointing outing for Haas although Schumacher did well to beat his teammate in P15 after his tumultuous start to the weekend, Magnussen starts P18.

Williams – A terrible but unexpected performance for Latifi in P20 as he completes the all-Canadian final row. Albon did slightly better in P16.

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