Hamilton secures pole number 71 in Japan

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his 71st career pole position - his tenth of the 2017 season and his first ever at the Suzuka International Racing Circuit in this afternoon's qualifying session. In doing so, he broke the standing track record and absolutely blitzed the competition.

This pole position means that Lewis has secured a pole position at every circuit of the 2017 calendar over the course of his career.

Second for the session was his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, however, he will lose this position and start from seventh due to a five place grid penalty for a new gearbox.

Therefore, third placed man, Sebastian Vettel, will be promoted to P2 and will start on the front row alongside the current championship leader.

“We had a good feeling with the car yesterday, although the sessions were somewhat disturbed by the weather conditions, and that was truly underlined this afternoon with extremely solid performances from both cars in qualifying,” said James Allison. “One of the nice things about motor racing is the way that it offers a chance of redemption at every Grand Prix. After the difficulties we encountered in Sepang, we have come here and demonstrated in the most eloquent way possible that we mean business here in Suzuka. We know that we have to do it all again tomorrow, but this gives us the best possible starting point for that challenge.”

Fourth fastest was the Red Bull Racing contender driven by Daniel Ricciardo, the Aussie now promoted to P3 while teammate max Verstappen will join him on row two after qualifying fifth and being elevated to fourth.

"A pretty straightforward Qualifying for our guys today,” said Christian Horner. “Daniel and Max delivered two very clean laps, trying slightly different set-ups going into the race. With the penalties for Bottas and Raikkonen this results in them lining up in third and fourth on the grid for tomorrow's grand prix. This circuit presents challenges to our car comparative to some of our competitors, particularly in Qualifying but we will take some confidence going into tomorrow's race that we can be competitive."

Kimi Raikkonen qualified sixth, but he too has a five place grid penalty and will start outside the top ten. Esteban Ocon will therefore be elevated to fifth and will line up alongside his teammate, Sergio Perez, on row three. Perez meanwhile, is under investigation for impeding Lance Stroll in Q1.

Speaking of Q1, it came to a premature end when Romain Grosjean threw his Haas into the barriers with only three minutes left on the clock.