Max Verstappen has delivered a sharp response to his critics following his pole position win at the Japanese Grand Prix, urging them to “suck an egg.”

After a disappointing outing at the Singapore Grand Prix where both Red Bull cars struggled to qualify and finished fifth and seventh in the race, ending their 15-race winning streak, questions arose about the team’s performance, with some suggesting that technical directives, including TD018 regarding elements on the floor and wing flexing, might have impacted them.

The team abandoned a new spec floor at Marina Bay but reintroduced it at Suzuka. Verstappen capitalized on this by dominating the field and securing pole position with a margin of 0.581s ahead of Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen had been the fastest in every session throughout the weekend, except for Q2 when Charles Leclerc took the top spot. When asked if his pole position victory was a response to his critics, Verstappen confidently stated, “Honestly, yeah. We had a bad weekend.

Then people start talking about ‘Ah, it’s all because of the technical directives’ – I think they can go suck on an egg. For my side, I was just very fired up to have a good weekend here and make sure that we were strong.”

Red Bull has the chance to secure the 2023 Constructors’ Championship at Suzuka if they outscore Mercedes by just one point, provided Ferrari doesn’t outscore them by 24 points.

Verstappen, on the other hand, will have to wait until the Qatar Grand Prix to potentially seal his third World Championship, as he can be a maximum of 177 points ahead of Sergio Perez after the Japanese Grand Prix, with 180 points still up for grabs.