The Latest Breaking News from Aston Martin

Verstappen will start ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in Sunday’s race after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

A slow-burning session, which featured no track action for the opening five minutes, ended with a series of qualifying simulations in which Verstappen set a 1m30.267s lap to eclipse the two McLarens - which had found performance relative to the Red Bull driver overnight.

The Dutchman punched in a 1m30.688s to stand atop the timing boards, having been bumped off the top following his opening run on soft tyres as the rest of the front-running pack waited until later in the session to clock their first times on softs.

With the team hunting further success after its triumph in Singapore last weekend, it is evaluating a revamped floor configuration at Suzuka. 

Nearly a week on from Red Bull’s humbling in Singapore, Verstappen utterly dominated the early stages, heading the times from his first flier, a 1m33.719s set on the hard tyres that no one else could get anywhere near as the pack was split across the harder tyre compounds. 

Nearly a week on from Red Bull’s humbling in Singapore, Verstappen utterly dominated the early stages – not only leading the pack out of the pack but heading the times from his first flier, a 1m33.719s set on the hard tyres that no one else could get anywhere near as…

With the team chasing further success after its triumph in Singapore last weekend, it is evaluating a revamped floor configuration at Suzuka. 

As the Red Bull mechanic scans the underside of the RB19, we are treated to a view of the floor fences on the other side of the car, which shows how twisted they are along their vertical axis and how they interact with the curvature of the floor. 

Formula 3 race winner Taylor Barnard, GB3 championship protagonists Callum Voisin and Joseph Loake, and Italian F4 points leader Arvid Lindblad will battle it out for prizes that include a test in Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One® Team machinery. None of the four have been finalists before.