Suzuka Qualifying: Hamilton on pole as Ferrari fumble again

For Hamilton, it will be his 80th pole position start on Sunday, the Mercedes driver claiming top spot on the timing screens with a best lap time of 1:27.760, a quarter of a second faster than teammate Valtteri Bottas making it another Mercedes front row lock-out.

The World Champion team can take full credit for ensuring their drivers were serviced and sent out on track in Q3 at a crucial time, just before the rain came both their drivers set bankers, which in the end were the difference between them and their rivals. Perfect timing by the Silver Arrows.

Hamilton acknowledged afterwards, "The call to go out for Q3 which was probably the most difficult call, and the team were just spot-on with it and gave us the opportunity to grab this pole position. I can't believe I have 80 poles."

"It is so difficult out there to make the right call. I think that's another big difference that we as a team have made this year.

"Everyone has smart people but when it comes to being under pressure, and making the right decisions and right calls, that is why we are the best team in the world," added Hamilton who will hunting his fourth win at Suzuka, and his fifth grand prix triumph in Japan.

In contrast, their arch-rivals, in the red garage, messed it up by sending out both their cars on intermediates for their first run in Q3, but it was the wrong call as both cars had to re-pit for slicks for their final run, but the damage was done. Bad timing by the Scuderia.

The wasted time cost Ferrari dear as when Vettel and Raikkonen embarked on their final laps the track was wetter and any hope of improving went out the window.

Once again the Reds shot themselves in the foot, while their championship rivals were able to capitalise and maximise the damage. Raikkonen was fourth on the timing screens, with Vettel down in ninth.

The German reflected, "The first run was ok, I had a mistake in Spoon so I lost some time there but the second run we didn't make it out on time because the rain came down."

"It's not the position we deserve to be in, we have better speed than ninth, but tomorrow is a new day, it's not easy when you start further back but it's not impossible," added Vettel.

As a result of Ferrari's foibles, Max Verstappen was the big winner claiming third place on the grid, albeit with a time 1.2 seconds shy of Hamilton's best effort!

The Dutchman told reporters, "Normally, we would be close to Ferrari but it's hard to beat them. I didn't expect to start third and now we have a bigger chance to be on the podium. Is the championship still a battle? I'm not sure."

In contrast, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo was clearly downbeat with another mechanical failure haunting him. He vented his anger vocally as he alighted his Red Bull during Q2, stricken yet again with a problem that compromised the Australian's ambitions for the race.

He was livid and will start from 15th on the grid barring penalties to other drivers ahead of him.

Romain Grosjean continued his run of fine form in the Haas to claim the fifth-fastest time and the Best of the Rest accolade, teammate Kevin Magnussen was caught out by the tricky conditions and will start from 12th.

Big story on the day was the performance of the Toro Rosso boys with Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly in sixth and seventh respectively, thanks to Honda's C-spec power unit which is clearly a step up in performance.

Hartley estimating that they may have found half a second with their latest package, which will be music to the ears of all at Red Bull.

Easily the best qualifying performance by Honda since their return to the top flight which, on a race track they own and this year the 30th occasion of the race which they sponsor, is extra special and sure to be a big boost to their programme.

Ironically, and notably, Renault powered only Verstappen's car in the top ten while McLaren, who ditched Honda for Renault last year were the slowest of all the runners at the end of Q1, with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in 18th and 19th respectively.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson crashed in Q1 and is set to start the race from last.

Force India also got both their cars into Q3, with Esteban Ocon eighth fastest and Sergio Perez rounding out the top ten, but the Frenchman received a three place grid penalty after confusion with the red flag after Ericsson's mishap.

Vettel established an early benchmark in Q1 with a lap of 1:29.049, more than half a second clear of Räikkönen. Hamilton soon bypassed Vettel to take P1, however, with a lap of 1:28.702 that left him 0.347 ahead of the Ferrari man.

Vettel then had a spin at the hairpin, but there was worse to come for Ericsson who lost control of his Sauber in Turn 7 and hit the barriers hard. Ericsson was soon out of his car but the red flags were immediately shown.

In the final runs of Q1, Gasly made the biggest jump, climbing from P15 to P10 at the end of the session. It was a necessary improvement, as Stroll put in a good final lap to jump to 15th place with a time well clear of Gasly’s best time from before the final laps.

Stroll’s escape from the drop zone meant that Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was eliminated in P16 ahead of Sirotkin, the McLarens of Alonso and Vandoorne and the unfortunate Ericsson.

In Q2, Mercedes both Hamilton and Bottas out on soft tyres, and this time it was Bottas who set the pace, the Finn topping the timesheet at the end of the session with a lap of 1:27.987, three hundredths of a second ahead of Hamilton.

Further back there was trouble for Ricciardo. The Australian began his opening run but experienced a power loss and quickly returned to the pits.

With the covers going back on his car in the final minutes of the session, it looked like his team had solved the issue, but rain was already falling on track and as conditions worsened Ricciardo’s hopes of getting in a lap dwindled. He was ruled out in P15 with no time on the board in Q2.

Also ruled out at the end of Q2 were 11th-placed Leclerc, Magnussen, Sainz and Stroll.

In Q3 it was Ferrari’s turn to encounter trouble. Rain was expected, but it didn’t arrive soon enough for the Italian and they sent Räikkönen and Vettel out on intermediate tyres at the start of the session. Both were forced to lap and pit for slick tyres, putting them out of sequence to the other front runners.

Hamilton staked a claim to pole position with a time of 1:27.760, more than two tenths ahead of Bottas, while Verstappen slotted into third place on the timesheet. Räikkönen managed to sneak in a lap to take fourth place, but Vettel made a mistake on his opening lap and was forced to try again.

By the time he was ready for a hot lap rain was falling and his chance was gone. He ended the session in P9 between Ocon and Perez.

With the conditions growing steadily worse, the session was effectively over and after the clock had counted down to the flag, Hamilton duly took his 80th career pole position ahead of Bottas, Verstappen and Räikkönen.

Grosjean was fifth for Haas, while Hartley scored his best ever qualifying result with sixth place, just ahead of Toro Rosso team-mate Gasly.