Breaking: Lando Norris beaten as under-pressure driver eliminated

Lando Norris beaten as under-pressure driver eliminated early

Lando Norris was beaten by his team-mate and George Russell in the first part of qualifying for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver was comfortable enough not to be out on the track at the end of the session, but didn’t pace the field. Meanwhile, Jack Doohan’s nightmare weekend continued with an early elimination putting him in P19 for the race. The fires which have plagued the weekend miraculously stayed away after a couple of hours of the grass being watered, allowing 18 straight minutes of running.

Isack Hadjar struggled for the second session in a row with seatbelt issues, in obvious pain while mechanics were adjusting his setup in the pits and apologising to his team on the radio – although he did enough to make it through to Q2.
F1 Qualifying Results: Japanese Grand Prix 2025

ELIMINATED IN Q1

16. Nico Hulkenberg [Sauber]
17. Gabriel Bortoleto [Sauber]
18. Esteban Ocon [Haas]
19. Jack Doohan [Alpine]
20. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]
How does F1 Qualifying work?
The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday’s race. The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2. Then, Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.