Hamilton storms to pole ahead of Japanese GP

Lewis Hamilton set a new lap record at Suzuka as the Mercedes driver strengthened his grip on the F1 title race by claiming a dominant pole position for Sunday’s Japanese GP.

Hamilton’s pole lap of 1:27.319 was over 1.5 seconds faster than the previous record, a 1:28.954 held by Michael Schumacher.

Remarkably, Hamilton’s pole position was the first of his career at Suzuka and means he has claimed pole at every circuit currently on the F1 calendar.

“I was very much on it,” said Hamilton. “I didn’t make one mistake and each lap got better and better.

“It’s been 10 years trying to get that pole position!”

Despite being half a second slower than Hamilton, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start the race alongside his world championship rival on the front row.

Valtteri Bottas was second quickest in the session, three tenths down on Hamilton, but will start from seventh due to a gearbox-related grid penalty.

“I tried everything on that last lap as I knew I had to take a bit more risks, it didn’t work,” said Vettel, who trails Hamilton by 34 points in the standings.

After Mercedes’ struggles in Singapore and Malaysia, the world champions have found their groove again in Japan – with Hamilton very much to the fore.

Such was Hamilton’s confidence and outright speed that he was fastest in Q1 on the slower soft tyre. Only Vettel was able to enjoy the same luxury of saving up a set of supersofts but in a tell-tale giveaway of their relative speeds, Hamilton was instantly three tenths quicker than his rival.

After bolting on the supersofts for Q2, the Mercedes driver immediately broke Schumacher’s lap record, which had stood for 11 years, and then improved again at the start of Q3 when the Silver Arrows are able to deploy a power boost that Red Bull reckon is worth up to eight tenths of a second.

“It’s just incredible to come here with this car,” said Hamilton. “This track is one of the greatest circuits and with this car it’s mind-blowing. It’s insane the speeds this car is throwing us around inside and the way you can throw the car around is like the craziest roller-coaster ride.”

Also benefiting from Bottas’ demotions, Red Bull pair Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will form the second row with the Australian fractionally quicker than last week’s victor at the Malaysia GP.

The final grid for the race will be heavily revised with Bottas joining Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Jolyon Palmer in being hit by a penalty.

The Suzuka stewards also investigated Force India’s Sergio Perez for impeding Williams’ Lance Stroll during Q1 but decided that no further action was required.

Alonso made it through to the top ten at the expense of McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne but the pair were separated by less than a tenth and the Spaniard’s demotion means the youngster will carry the team’s best hope of a points-scoring result on Sunday.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer was knocked out in Q2 and remains the only driver yet to out-qualify his team-mate in any qualifying session this term.

The Englishman announced on Saturday night that Japan will be his last race for the team, with Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso, already appointed Palmer’s 2018 successor, taking his place from this month’s United States GP.

Suzuka is recognised as posing one of the sternest tests on the entire calendar and the circuit bared its teeth on Saturday with first Bottas and Raikkonen crashing in Practice Three before Romain Grosjean also hit the barriers at the start of qualifying as Haas’ struggles continued.

While Bottas’ Mercedes suffered only minor damage, Raikkonen’s accident was more severe and required a new gearbox to be fitted to his Ferrari car – triggering a five place demotion that will relegate the Finn outside of the top ten.

For Grosjean, the incident bore an unwelcome familiarity – just a week ago, the Frenchman was pitched into the barriers at Sepang during qualifying after running over a broken drain.

“The car just went on a massive snap,” he said. “It’s a shame because I thought we could have made the top ten.”

apanese Grand Prix Qualifying