Max Verstappen endured a nightmare at the Japanese Grand Prix as he failed to make it through to Q3 for the first time at Suzuka since 2022, qualifying 11th and calling his Red Bull ‘completely undriveable’

Daniel Moxon Senior F1 Correspondent and Neil Docking

08:23, 28 Mar 2026

Max Verstappen entered this Japanese Grand Prix weekend having secured pole position for each of the previous four Suzuka Formula 1 races, but that impressive run came to a dramatic end as the Dutchman couldn’t even progress to Q3 on Saturday.

He appeared set to narrowly advance to the top 10 despite battling a Red Bull machine he was visibly struggling to handle around the demanding and intricate Japanese track. Yet his session ended abruptly when Arvid Lindblad, aged 18 and driving for Red Bull’s sister team Racing Bulls, in only his third F1 weekend and debut at Suzuka, posted a faster time and knocked the four-time world champion out in Q2.

Speaking to race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase via radio, after learning he had qualified merely 11th, Verstappen raged: “I think there’s something wrong with the car, mate. It’s completely undriveable suddenly in this qualifying. Jumping on high speed in the rear, suddenly.”

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He reiterated his “undriveable” assessment twice more when appearing in the media pen to address Sky Sports. The Dutchman explained: “The car never turns mid-corner. And also again, there’s just so much oversteer on entry, it’s really difficult and unpredictable.

“We thought we had fixed it a little bit in FP3 – there was still a lot of understeer in the car – but in qualifying it was again, for me, undriveable. So that’s something we need to look at. I’m also driving a bit of a different aero package this weekend, but it seems like that’s not working, so that’s also not very good.

“Jumping in the corners. We have problems that I cannot explain in detail here, that we know are there. Sometimes they are a bit worse than other times, and in this qualifying it just came back to a point where it was undriveable.”, reports the Express.

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By contrast, there was celebration for Lindblad who shone in his F1 debut earlier this month by securing Q3 at the first attempt in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix and managed the feat once more here. “Come on mate, that’s got to be a good one?” he enquired over the radio after finishing his final Q2 lap and, when confirmation came that he was in the top 10, he exclaimed: “Come on!”

For the second consecutive race weekend, Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position while his teammate George Russell was battling an issue with his Mercedes. He still succeeded in securing another front-row sweep for the Silver Arrows while Oscar Piastri was the driver to accompany them in the top three following an expensive error from Charles Leclerc on his final attempt. Red Bull were at least represented in Q3 by Isack Hadjar, who finished eighth fastest to outpace Verstappen for the second time in three Grands Prix as the four-time champion’s teammate. Lindblad may have been thrilled to reach Q3 but that proved the highlight of his day as he concluded it as the slowest of the top 10 qualifiers and will begin one position ahead of the Dutchman.