Kimi Antonelli beat Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate George Russell to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix as he topped qualifying for a second race weekend in a row.

A fortnight on from his maiden grand prix victory in the Chinese GP, Antonelli appeared the more comfortable of the Mercedes drivers and once the threat of a challenge from the McLaren and Ferrari drivers dissipated he had the legs on Russell, who complained in Q3 of vibrations through the Suzuka circuit's fast corners - having questioned the rear end of his stability earlier in qualifying as well.

As the majority of drivers failed to improve on their final Q3 runs, Antonelli's first effort of 1m28.778s ultimately proved good enough for pole by almost three tenths - with Russell saying “what a horrible session that was" over the team radio after beating Oscar Piastri to second by half a tenth.

Charles Leclerc was fastest in Q1 and might have challenged for a place on the front row in Q3 but for a snap of oversteer exiting Spoon Curve on his final run.

He ended up 0.627s from pole as a result and just 0.004s ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris, who separated Leclerc from his Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Alpine recovered from a tricky Friday to lead a best-of-the-rest fight that Red Bull was firmly part of again at Suzuka. Pierre Gasly's 1m29.691s in Q3 was three tenths clear of Isack Hadjar's time and gave him seventh, with Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) and Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) the final drivers in Q3.

And that meant there was one very notable absentee from the final part of qualifying.

Verstappen's shock Q2 exit

Much like at the Chinese GP a fortnight ago, the Red Bull has been mired in the midfield and Verstappen was the big casualty in Q2 as he complained that his RB22 had become "completely undriveable suddenly" in qualifying.

His final effort in the second part of qualifying included a big snap midway through Spoon Curve, which was followed by a second correction through the second part of the corner after he'd drifted out wide. That compromised his run to 130R and unsurprisingly meant his final sector was not a personal best.

Verstappen looked to have been given a reprieve when Nico Hulkenberg failed to jump him, the Audi having looked a real match for the Red Bull all weekend, but he was then bumped out of the top 10 by Lindblad - who was right in his assessment of his final lap when he asked his team: "Come on mate, that's got to be a good one?"

In the end Verstappen was 0.153s off a Q3 slot - with his team-mate Hadjar progressing - and he is due to share row six of the grid with Haas driver Esteban Ocon on Sunday.

Hulkenberg was 13th ahead of Liam Lawson, who had a Q2 front wing change in the second Racing Bulls, with Franco Colapinto 15th for Alpine as Carlos Sainz made it out of Q1 for the first time this season for Williams.

Bearman's early exit and Albon's ire

Haas suffered its first Q1 exit of the year as Ollie Bearman fell in the first part of the qualifying with an issue on his car affecting his performance on the straights, at least on his first run, which he said then impacted the car's performance on the second.

Bearman was 0.175s off his team-mate Ocon in Q1 but that equated to four positions as he was only 18th, with strong final efforts from Sainz and Colapinto hauling them out of the drop zone.

Alex Albon was also faster than Bearman but ended up the wrong side of the cutoff too.

He said on the Williams team radio "I complain for three races in a row that there's something wrong. But I'm sure it's my driving style" when told "you probably don't want to know, but you can probably guess" where his deficit to Sainz was, hinting at differences in their respective energy deployment strategies.

Albon decline to expand on those comments to Sky Sports F1 after the session, saying "we'll look at the data" and adding he was happy with his driving style.

Cadillac was again faster than Aston Martin in the battle of the two teams at the back, with Sergio Perez the fastest of that quartet.

His 1m32.330s was 2.291s off the ultimate pace and while that was still 1.2s off a Q2 slot, he was 0.440s clear of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.

That gap had even been as much as a second midway through the session before both Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll found time on their final efforts.

Japanese Grand Prix qualifying result

1 Kimi Antonelli 1m28.778s
2 George Russell +0.298s
3 Oscar Piastri +0.354s
4 Charles Leclerc +0.627s
5 Lando Norris +0.631s
6 Lewis Hamilton +0.789s
7 Pierre Gasly +0.913s
8 Isack Hadjar +1.200s
9 Gabriel Bortoleto +1.496s
10 Arvid Lindblad +1.541s

Out in Q2
11 Max Verstappen +1.214s
12 Esteban Ocon +1.261s
13 Nico Hulkenberg +1.33s
14 Liam Lawson +1.447s
15 Franco Colapinto +1.579s
16 Carlos Sainz +1.985s

Out in Q1
17 Alex Albon +1.173s
18 Ollie Bearman +1.175s
19 Sergio Perez +2.291s
20 Valtteri Bottas +2.415s
21 Fernando Alonso +2.731s
22 Lance Stroll +3.005s