Rosberg gets eighth Pole Position of this season at Suzuka

Rosberg gets eighth Pole Position of this season at Suzuka

Suzuka circuit by www.grahamandleigh.co.uk

This morning we saw Mercedes dominating qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg fastest ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Rosberg has seized back the momentum in the 2014 title race by out-pacing Lewis Hamilton to qualify on Pole Position for the Japanese GP. Rosberg had the edge over the World Championship leader throughout Saturday morning’s session, eventually edging out his Mercedes team-mate by two-tenths of a second to claim his eighth pole of the season.

Hamilton was on the backfoot after crashing out in Practice Three, with his Mercedes W05 finally fixed just a few minutes before the qualifying session commenced. Hamilton was emphatically eclipsed by Rosberg’s final lap time of the session of a 1:32.506. This is even though Rosberg's effort in qualifying will be somewhat overshadowed by the news that Sebastian Vettel is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season and the prospect of Typhoon Phanfone disrupting Sunday’s race.

Hamilton despite his accident in FP3 and his side of the garage doing a great job to rebuild the car ready for qualifying, ended the session 0.982 seconds behind than his team mate who was ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third place 0.622s behind them the Mercedes pair.

Felipe Massa qualified in fourth place ahead of Fernando Alonso in fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo in seventh place, Kevin Magnussen once again out qualifying his team mate Jenson Button who finished in eighth place and ahead of Sebastian Vettel in ninth place and Kimi Raikkonen who rounds off the top ten of the grid.

Jean-Eric Vergne qualified in eleventh place ahead of Sergio Perez in twelfth place, Daniil Kvyat in thirteenth place and Nico Hulkenberg in fourteenth place. The Sauber drivers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Guiterrez ended the session in fifteenth and sixteenth places ahead of Pastor Maldonado who qualified eighteenth but will take the first half of his ten place grid penalty this weekend at Suzuka and will start 22nd. Maldonado will take the final part of his penalty at the Russian GP in Sochi next weekend.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Marcus Ericsson did a super job to out qualify the Marussia's and also his team mate. Ericsson finished the session in nineteenth place ahead of Jules Bianchi in twentieth place, Kamui Kobayashi in twenty-first place and Max Chilton in twenty- second place.

The classification of Qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.32.506
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.197s
Valtteri Bottas William-Mercedes 0.622s
Felipe Massa Williams- Mercedes 1.021s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.234s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.569s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1.736s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.811s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.926s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2.042s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1.34.954
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1.35.089
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.35.092
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.35.099
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1.35.364
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 1.35.681
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1.35.917
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1.35.984
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1.36.813
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1.36.943
Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1.37.015
Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1.37.481

[NB Pastor Maldonado will take a five place grid penalty into the race tomorrow and will start 22nd. The last section of his ten place grid penalty will be served in Sochi next weekend]

Reporting by Sarah Jones