Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg turned a 1:30.647 during qualifying at Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan on Saturday to take pole position for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The German edged out his teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.013 seconds to take his eighth pole position of the 2016 season. Hamilton has won the Japanese Grand Prix from second on the grid for the past two years running.
Behind them, Ferrari would have locked out the second row of the grid, but Sebastian Vettel was handed a three-place grid penalty for triggering an incident in Turn 1 of last weekend’s Malaysia GP, dropping him from fourth to seventh.
This moves Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen up to fourth, Daniel Ricciardo up to fifth and Force India’s Sergio Perez up to sixth.
Both Williams cars were eliminated in Q2 after both drivers only went out for one run. With Toro Rosso, McLaren and Renault all failing to advance out of the second qualifying session, the door was open for both Force India and both Haas F1 cars to advance to Q3. It was Romain Grosjean’s first Q3 appearance in Haas, making it the first ever time that both Haas F1 cars had advanced into Q3.
The big news in Q1, meanwhile, was the elimination of McLaren-Honda driver Jenson Button, who will line up on the grid from 17th place on Sunday. This opened up a spot in Q2 for Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, who qualified in 16th place after taking the first point of his Formula 1 career just six days ago in Malaysia.
Pascal Wehrlein was handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change on his Manor, but doesn’t drop back any spots as he qualified in 22nd position.
Unofficial starting grid:
1. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
4. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
5. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
6. Sergio Perez- Force India
7. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari (after 3-place grid penalty)
8. Romain Grosjean - Haas
9. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
10. Esteban Gutierrez - Haas
11. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
12. Felipe Massa - Williams
13. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
14. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
15. Fernand Alonso - McLaren
16. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
17. Jenson Button - McLaren
18. Kevin Magnussen - Renault
19. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
20. Felipe Nasr - Sauber
21. Esteban Ocon - Manor
22. Pascal Wehrlein - Manor (+5-place grid penalty)
