Credit: Daimler AG

All of the sessions in Suzuka so far this weekend have featured a crash, and qualifying was no different. Romain Grosjean was the unlucky culprit, crashing his Haas into the barriers hard, and ending Q1 a minute early. The session wasn’t restarted and there was plenty of damage to the Frenchman’s car.

In Q2, the McLaren drivers were split, with Fernando Alonso managing to make it into the top ten shootout, but Stoffel Vandoorne just missing out. Up front, it was all about Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton swept to pole with Bottas behind him, followed by Vettel and the two Red Bull drivers. Penalties will need to be applied though, with power unit grid drops hitting hard again in Suzuka. The provisional grid is mixed up to Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo and Verstappen, with Esteban Ocon getting a handy fifth place start for the race tomorrow.

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