Max Verstappen breaks Suzuka Lap Record!

Max broke Seb’s Suzuka lap record with an inch-perfect lap in qualifying. Suzuka is the track I love driving on the most in the F1 game, because the track is really technical and flowing. What I mean by that is performance on large parts of the track is directly dependent on entry/exit at the beginning, and all the tiny mistakes stay with you throughout the lap. I would say it is probably the only track I feel comfortable on in the game, so I always like to watch pole laps to see what the drivers do, especially at the hairpin where I usually mess up.

Sebastian was always good at Suzuka, and he had the lap record before Max broke it today. Two of my favourite laps are his 2019 pole lap and his final qualifying lap at the 2022 GP where he was driving the AMR22 but still managed to ace every turn. I will link the videos here, but I can’t really guarantee that the AMR22 lap video will stay up on YouTube forever. If in the future, the video gets taken down, you can write to me for a copy :)

• Record breaking pole lap by Sebastian Vettel in the SF90.
• A perfect Suzuka qualifying lap by Sebastian Vettel in the AMR22.

And now for Max’s lap, this was “simply lovely” to say the least. The RB21 is a very oversteery car and to put in on pole is nothing short of spectacular. Max later told the Dutch media that he actually found the car to be understeering in some parts of the track! It shows how Max’s driving style is very similar to Schumi’s where they both just want the car to point in the right direction, and then they’re going to take care of the back. He makes a lot of time in the final chicane, and notice how he close he gets to the wall, which is technically the shortest route to the finish line but for some reason, not everyone can manage to not scrape the wall at such high speeds (the air pressure tends to suck you into the barriers)

• Record breaking pole lap by Max Verstappen in the RB21.

Probably his best lap ever, but one can only imagine what that Jeddah 2021 lap would’ve been like if it was completed.

In a way, Red Bull golden boy Max Verstappen taking the Suzuka lap record from former Red Bull golden boy Sebastian Vettel in the last Honda powered Japanese GP is very poetic. Almost like a distillation of their careers.

p.s: that makes it two lap records Seb has lost to these fast cars this season. But the thing is, I’m sure Seb wouldn’t mind at all, he’s the kind of person who thinks records are transient and are meant to be broken.