Ferrari blunder gifts Suzuka pole to Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton eased to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, with near-comical strategy from Ferrari costing Sebastian Vettel once again. Vettel will start the race eighth after Ferrari badly misjudged when rain would arrive in the top-10 shootout, striking another self-inflicted blow in the title race.

Ferrari emerged for the start of Q3 with intermediate tyres fitted – but the rain was yet to fall and Hamilton was able to put in a time of one minute 27.760 seconds on supersoft tyres.

Once Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen dived into the pits for slick rubber, the rain began to fall and both drivers had their laps ruined by the slippery track at Spoon.

Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start the race on softs, with Vettel and Raikkonen on supersofts, likely putting the Silver Arrows in control from the front in Sunday's race.

Toto Wolff called the decision to go out on slicks a "masterstroke", but it was only Ferrari who fitted wet-weather tyres at the start of the session.

Hamilton's pole position is his 80th in F1, with Bottas alongside him on the front row. Max Verstappen will start third, but there was frustration for Red Bull as Daniel Ricciardo suffered a power outage in Q2 and was only 15th-fastest.

An exciting session also saw Marcus Ericsson smash into the barriers at Dunlop in Q1 – bringing out red flags. The Swede walked away unscathed.

Raikkonen was able to go fourth-fastest despite Ferrari's blunder, with Romain Grosjean starting fifth.

Toro Rosso secured a superb result in Honda's home race – Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly starting sixth and seventh respectively, with Vettel sandwiched by the Force India's of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez.

Q3 CLASSIFICATION: @ScuderiaFerrari fans, look away now ???? #JapaneseGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/xgtOFiJIqE — Formula 1 (@F1) October 6, 2018

Q2

A scream said it all – Ricciardo venting his anger under his helmet after failing to make Q3 for the fifth time in seven races. Charles Leclerc was a surprise exit in 11th, having gone sixth-fastest in Q1. Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz Jr and Kevin Magnussen also dropped out.

Q1

Renault did brilliantly to get Nico Hulkenberg on-track after a big crash in FP3, but he fell out of Q1 along with Ericsson, Sergey Sirotkin and the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne -10th and 11th here last year with Honda but only ahead of a crashed car in 2018.