Rosberg storms to pole at Suzuka

Mercedes driver and Formula 1 World Championship leader Nico Rosberg won pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit. This is the third consecutive pole for the German driver at Suzuka but he never won in Japan.

Mercedes and Rosberg were dominant during free practices at Suzuka Circuit and they continued supremacy during the qualifying but in Q1 Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel set the best lap time – 1:31.659, what was only 0.015s better than the lap time set by Kimi Raikkonen. Jenson Button, Kevin Magnussen, alongside both Sauber and Manor cars failed to qualify for the second round.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

However, Rosberg fought back in the second qualifying round. Championship leader set the time 1:30.714 what was 0.415 better than the time set by his teammate Lewis Hamilton while two Ferraris were behind them.

Out of the last qualifying round stayed Jolyon Palmer, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniil Kvyat, and surprisingly, both Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, were out of top 10. For the first time, both Haas’ cars managed to go into the last round.

Romain Grosjjean, Haas F1 Team

The last round was pretty exciting after the gaps among top 6 were really tight. At the end, Rosberg was just 0.011s faster than Hamilton, so the two Mercedes’ will start from the first row. Kimi Raikkonen took the third place while Vettel had the fourth result but the former champion will be moved back three positions.