Hamilton storms to 80th pole in Japan
SUZUKA, JAPAN: Lewis Hamilton seized a record-extending 80th pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, timing his sole flying lap to perfection while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start eighth.
The Mercedes driver, in dominant form all weekend at the Suzuka circuit, pumped in a one minute 27.760 second lap on the supersoft tyres while it was still only just spitting with rain.
Vettel and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who went out on intermediate tyres in the final part of qualifying with the track still dry, lost time coming back in to fit the super-soft tyres.
The German then made another mistake on his first flying lap and was unable to get another one in as the intermittent drizzle turned into a full-blown shower that drenched the track.
Meanwhile, Hamilton -- who along with team mate Valtteri Bottas had gone out straight away on the super-soft tyres to beat the rain -- was lighting up the timing screens.
“The team have done an amazing job this weekend, and the call that we made for Q3 was probably the most difficult,” said the Briton, joined by Bottas on the front row after the Finn completed a second successive Mercedes front row lockout.
Vettel trails his fellow four times champion by 50 points in the standings with just four races left after Japan. His hopes are fading fast and he needs a huge stroke of luck now to reignite his challenge.