The 25-year-old swung his Honda-powered Red Bull around the popular figure-of-eight layout in one minute, 29.304 seconds, beating Leclerc by just 0.010 seconds. Carlos Sainz was 0.057 seconds off the pace in third place in the second Ferrari.
Verstappen came under scrutiny for dangerous driving after McLaren got in the way of Lando Norris, but was let off with a reprimand. Norris was forced to drive off the track and onto the grass to avoid contact and said he expected Verstappen to be punished.
But replays showed Red Bull’s tail sticking out, with the stewards noting that Verstappen had temporarily lost control of his car on cold tyres.
“It was incredible to drive here again, definitely very happy to be on pole, but very happy to be back here,” Verstappen said after taking 18th pole of his career and fifth of this season. Sunday, he said, “will be interesting with the weather, I’m sure we have a good car.” Verstappen leads Leclerc by 104 points in the overall standings and needs to score eight more than Monegasque to finish proceedings on Sunday.
This means that if he wins by the fastest lap ahead of Leclerc, he will be the champion. But Friday’s practice session was affected by rain and Sunday was in danger of being hit again, so the race could be far from straight. Leclerc or Sainz could give Ferrari their first Suzuka victory since Michael Schumacher’s 2004 victory.
Verstappen was the favorite for pole in the session after setting the fastest time in Saturday’s final practice. But Leclerc was on the verge of last-gasp on his final flying lap, even as Verstappen on the provisional pole, not improving on his earlier benchmark.
In the end it wasn’t enough, Verstappen’s first flight was good enough for pole. “Let’s wait and see the conditions, should be a fun race,” he said. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez was fourth behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Mercedes has enjoyed an unbeaten run at Suzuka until 2014, but the streak looks set to end with the team’s highest-ranked Lewis Hamilton in sixth place. Fernando Alonso was seventh behind Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Sebastian Vettel, driving around Suzuka for the last time as he prepares to retire at the end of the year, was a spirited ninth for Aston Martin. Norris made it to the top ten. Home Hope Yuki Tsunoda, racing a Formula One car in front of his fans at Suzuka for the first time, was 13th. Sunday’s race at Suzuka will be the first since 2019 in which the Japanese Grand Prix has been absent from the calendar for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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