WORLD OF SPORT

LEWIS HAMILTON is facing an uphill challenge to wrestle the championship momentum away from Nico Rosberg after being beaten to pole position for today’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton, 23 points adrift of Rosberg heading into the race, missed out by just 13 thousandths of a second to his Mercedes team-mate and sole title rival.

The Briton, who refused to accept questions from the written media in response to criticism following bizarre antics in Thursday’s official press conference, is bidding to bounce back from his engine horror show in Malaysia.

Hamilton, who did speak in the official press conference for the top-three drivers – a feature which is mandatory under the the sporting regulations – said: “I’m happy with qualifying.

“It’s been a weekend of a lot of work that’s gone on, getting the car set-up right, and some big changes went into qualifying.

“Considering that, to be that close I was really happy with it. I did as well as I could. History has shown that you don’t have to be on pole to get the win.”

Rosberg has now secured pole in Japan for three successive seasons. Should he triumph today, the title race will no longer be in Hamilton’s hands.

The German however, is yet to open his winning account here after losing out to Hamilton in 2014, and again last year.

Kimi Raikkonen lines up in third for Ferrari with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth. Meanwhile,Sebastian Vettel will serve a grid penalty for his first-corner crash with Rosberg in Malaysia, and is bumped down to seventh.

Following a frustrating season for both Ferrari and Vettel, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene insisted the German’s place cannot be taken for granted.

“Everybody has an objective,” Arrivabene told Sky Italia. “I have, the team has, Sebastian has, everybody has. So it’s right everybody has to earn their position and salary.

“Sebastian today has a contract with us. We have work to do this year, and also the next. During the season we will see.”