For the third year in a row, Nico Rosberg got pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix. His Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was 2nd ahead of Kimi Räikkönen.
The Ferraris were the fastest ones in Q1 with the soft tyre, while Mercedes were right behind with the medium. Red Bull also used the medium tyre. Button, Magnussen, Ericsson, Nasr, Ocon and Wehrlein were the knocked out drivers.
Rosberg was 4 tenths quicker than Hamilton in Q2. The Ferraris were 3rd and 4th ahead of the Red Bulls. Haas surprised everyone as the 4th fastest team, especially Williams who found their drivers out of Q3. The eliminated drivers were Bottas, Massa, Kvyat, Sainz, Alonso and Palmer.
After being edged off by Rosberg all weekend, Hamilton went 2 tenths faster on their first Q3 attempt. Meanwhile, both Ferraris and Red Bulls set virtually the same, separated by less than 1 tenth. Finally, Rosberg was fastest by 0.015s from Hamilton. Räikkönen was 3rd ahead of his teammate, but Vettel will start P7 due to his penalty from the Malaysian GP. Verstappen and Ricciardo were 5th and 6th. Behind them, Pérez, Grosjean, Hülkenberg and Gutiérrez completed the top 10.
