Japanese Grand Prix: Nico Rosberg dominates Lewis Hamilton to secure vital pole after dramatic qualifying shoot-out
German championship leader stamped his authority all over the title race as he found a 0.013 second advantage
NICO ROSBERG dominated Lewis Hamilton to claim pole for the Japanese Grand Prix as he started his weekend in style.
In a dramatic qualifying shoot-out the German championship leader stamped his authority all over the title race as he found a 0.013 second advantage around the 3.6mile circuit - the equivalent of a 82cm advantage.
Three-times world champion Hamilton couldn't match Rosberg for raw pace during practice and looked to have pulled it out of the bag with his own flying lap around Suzuka.
Rosberg had other ideas and stormed home ahead of Hamilton and third-placed Kimi Raikkonen to grab a trio of poles here in as many years.
Rosberg said:"The start is going to be an important one and we have seen it's not too easy because it is downhill.
"It's about putting everything together now."
Hamilton, who won the last two races here from second, added: "I'm happy with qualifying - it's been a weekend of a lot of work and some big changes.
"Considering that, to be that close I was really happy with it. I did as well as I could and I'm happy with that.
"History has shown that you don't have to be on pole to get the win."
Jenson Button, a former winner at Suzuka, had a disappointing afternoon in qualifying and will start in tomorrow's race from 17th place on the grid.
The former world champion missed out on a chance of making it into the second shoot-out session as he fell at the first hurdle.
Button said: "All weekend it's been a struggle for me.
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"On Friday we had a set up that wasn't working at all. This morning we had an issue with a power until that they promised to fix and they did, but we were three hundredths down. You always hope for a lot at Honda's home race.
"It's a tough weekend, but probably a little bit worse than we expected."
There was slightly better news for rookie Jolyon Palmer in his Renault, though, as he starts his first Japanese Formula One race in 16th after making it into Q2 and then bombing.