Qualifying results 2018 Japanese F1 Grand Prix

Formula One - Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Japanese GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Event: Japanese F1 Grand Prix
Track: Suzuka Circuit

Weather:  Clouded,  26ºC
Tarmac: Dry/Wet, 29ºC
Wind speed: 16.5 km/h
Humidity: 84.2%

Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position for tomorrows 2018 Japanese Grand Prix. Hamilton scored his 8th pole position of the 2018 season and the 4th time in Japan. It was his 80th pole of his F1 career and the 98th pole position for Mercedes.

Q1 session
Qualifying for the Japanese F1 GP started with a rain probability of 60%. In FP3 Nico Hulkenberg crashed his car in the SS-es and damaged the back of his car. Nevertheless his car was repaired on time by his Renault mechanics to compete in qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton's first lap in Q1 was right away the fastest of the session. Sebastian Vettel was 0.347 sec slower in the Ferrari driver did an extra lap to try  and go faster. He was pushing hard to try and go as fast as possible, but spun in the hairpin. He didn't damage his car and continued and was 2nd fastest at that point.

Moments later it was Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson who crashed his car in turn 7 and caused the session to be red flagged and stopped for 5 minutes. With 2 minutes to go in Q1 it started raining in the pit lane.

Q2 session
In Q2 Daniel Ricciardo had some loss of power and he was pushed back to the Red Bull pit box to fix the issue. Some rain also fell down in turn 9. Valtteri Bottas was the first who drive a lap into the 1:27 min this weekend.

The tarmac became to wet for slicks and Charles Leclerc made a nice 360 spin with his Sauber in turn 8, because of that. At the time Daniel Ricciardo's engine problem was fixed the rain ruined his qualifying because would never make it to Q3.

Both Toro Rosso cars made it through to Q3 for the 2nd time this season with their big important Honda power unit update. Which is great for the Japanese fans.

Q3 session
Both Ferrari's went out on intermediate tyres. Waiting for the traffic light Vettel already said it was to dry for intermediate tyres now. All other cars started on Supersofts and Hamilton's first attempt was 1:27.760 min.

Max Verstappen was telling his team the clouds on the horizon look to have some rain in them. Both Ferrari drivers where pushing like hell, but Vettel made a mistake in spoon (turn 13-14) and was 9th fastest. The track was already to wet to go faster and the times would not improve anymore.

Last years pole time was with 1:27.319 min much faster and also driven by Hamilton.

See current 2018 Used F1 Power Unit Elements.
Read our race preview in: What to expect from the 2018 Japanese F1 GP.

Qualifying Times 2018 Japanese GP

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