The 25-year-old Dutchman has his sights set on a win in Japan, which would give him his second consecutive world title this Sunday.
Verstappen could be crowned with other results, which would depend on his two main rivals. The Dutchman in any case needs eight points more than Leclerc and six more than his Red Bull teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez, who leads respectively 104 and 106 units ahead in the World Cup classification.
“I’m very happy to start from pole, and also very happy to come back here,” said Verstappen, who took his first pole position at Suzuka, where it was last raced in 2019, due to the pandemic.
Verstappen depends on himself
Verstappen, in reality, depends on himself, since a victory and an extra point as the protagonist of the best lap in the race would secure him the title.
The victory gives him 25 points, seven more than the second, who would get 18. If he adds one more to those seven units of advantage with the best lap, he would already have the necessary eight.
“I don’t really think about the title. I take things as they come,” said the Dutchman, for whom “the important thing is to have a competitive car and that is clearly the case.”
Verstappen could have lost his pole position as he was under investigation by the race management for a move by the Dutchman that upset Briton Lando Norris (McLaren), who had to go slightly off the track to avoid the World Cup leader.
But the race direction finally considered that this incident did not deserve a penalty and a warning.
“I was driving quite slowly. I wanted to accelerate, but my tires were a bit cold, so I had a difficult moment. It is clear that Lando was trying to overtake me at that very moment, so he had to avoid me. But happily, nothing happened “Verstappen downplayed.
Although according to Norris, it is “quite clear” that Verstappen tried to prevent him from overtaking him and that he deserved a penalty.
The Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) will start on the second row on Sunday at 14:00 local time, followed by the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).
Before his public, the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda, will start in thirteenth place.
The German Sebastian Vettel, who will retire at the end of the year, took advantage of his classification in ninth place to greet the public on his favorite circuit: “arigato gozaimasu (thank you very much, in Japanese), i will miss this place“, declared the German of four world titles, between 2010 and 2013, and who also won four times in Suzuka.
After the first two sessions of rainy and insignificant free practice on Friday, dominated by Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and George Russell (Mercedes), Verstappen put things in their place on a dry track on Saturday.