Verstappen calls pole a "great little surprise", but still "not happy" with the RB21

Max Verstappen said his stunning pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix was a "great little surprise" but is still "not happy" with his RB21, hoping for some improvements.

The Dutchman found some pace that no one thought was possible to beat the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

The papaya-coloured cars looked almost unstoppable around Suzuka, but Verstappen pulled a lap from out of the fire to pip Norris by +0.012 seconds, keeping the Brit behind him.

Verstappen took his fourth consecutive pole position at Suzuka today

Verstappen hails pole lap as "special"

Speaking at Saturday's press conference at Suzuka, Verstappen started by saying how happy he was to take his first pole position of 2025.

"Yeah, a lot of happiness when I crossed the line. The whole qualifying, we just kept on trying to improve the situation a bit. The final lap was very good. I had a lot of fun out there, being fully committed everywhere. Some places I wasn't sure if I was going to keep going or not. It was really nice and also great for the team as well.

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"It's difficult. I've had some really nice ones also in other places, but I think if you look at how our season started, even during this weekend, I think it's very unexpected, I would say, and I think that makes it probably a very special one," continued the Dutchman.

Suzuka is a circuit that is renowned for being a favourite amongst many of the drivers, including Verstappen, and that propelled the Dutchman to P1.

"I mean, when I enjoy the track, it's more fun to drive anyway, right? You have to be super committed. Sector 1 around here is crazy fast. But yeah, it's amazing in qualifying."

However, straight away, the Red Bull driver has his mind set on what he and his team can do better to improve an RB21 that has had a lot of issues so far in 2025.

"We are just trying a lot of different things to try and make it more balanced, which is a bit of a difficulty for us at the moment. Even in qualifying, that is still the same. I could be more committed, but I'm on pole, but I'm still not happy with the balance of the car. We are working on it. For us, this is a great little surprise.

"We did what we could. We also have to wait and see what weather we'll get. From then onwards, I think it's very important to just focus on ourselves, try to do the best we can, and execute the race, of course, in the best way possible. But I don't know, of course, how fast we'll be," concluded Verstappen.