Championship leader Lewis Hamilton beat his Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Valtteri Bottas in qualifying for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix; marking Hamilton’s first pole at Suzuka.
Hamilton topped all three qualifying sessions, setting a 1m27.319s to take pole in Q3. Bottas was just over three tenths adrift of the Brit. The Finn will take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.
Daniel Ricciardo beat Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to fourth place, which will become third tomorrow due to Bottas’ penalty.
Fellow countryman Kimi Raikkonen also has a gearbox penalty and will start 11th tomorrow after qualifying a distant sixth.
This will promote Esteban Ocon onto the third row of the grid. The Frenchman beat team-mate Sergio Perez by 0.149s to the seventh fastest time in Q3. Felipe Massa was ninth.
2015 GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne was edged out of Q2 by his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by just 0.029s. The Spaniard qualified 10th but will start last due to grid penalties.
Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer all missed out on a spot in Q3, qualifying 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.
Carlos Sainz Jr has a 20-place grid penalty for the race so he opted to save his super-soft tyres in Q2 thus qualifying 15th on worn tyres.
Romain Grosjean binned his Haas with just over a minute of Q1 remaining, prematurely ending the session and denying those in the bottom five a chance to improve.
Grosjean was 16th ahead of his fellow countryman Pierre Gasly. Lance Stroll felt he was blocked by Perez at the final chicane, the incident grounded down in 18th only ahead of the Sauber duo of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein.
