NICO EDGES OUT LCH FOR POLE AT SUZUKA

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.