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Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton takes pole for 2018 Japanese Grand Prix

By Asher Fair

SUZUKA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 06: Top three qualifiers Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP, Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP and Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing celebrate in parc ferme during qualifying for the Formula One Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka Circuit on October 6, 2018 in Suzuka. (Photo by Will Taylor-Medhurst/Getty Images)
SUZUKA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 06: Top three qualifiers Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP, Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP and Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing celebrate in parc ferme during qualifying for the Formula One Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka Circuit on October 6, 2018 in Suzuka. (Photo by Will Taylor-Medhurst/Getty Images) /
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Lewis Hamilton took the pole position for the 17th race of the 2018 Formula 1 season, the Japanese Grand Prix, at Suzuka Circuit.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton took his eighth pole position of the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 season and the 80th pole position of his Formula 1 career, extending the all-time record, for the 17th race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton took the pole position for the 53-lap race around the 18-turn, 3.609-mile (5.807-kilometer) Suzuka Circuit road course in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan by recording a top lap time of 87.760 seconds (148.045 miles per hour) in the third and final qualifying session.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas qualified in second place by recording a top lap time that was 0.299 seconds slower than that of Hamilton and is set to start alongside him on the front row.

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Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen qualified in third and fourth place, respectively, and are set to start on the second row. The third row is set to consist of Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley, who are set to start the race in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon are set to start the race on the fourth row after qualifying in seventh and eighth place, respectively.

After going out on intermediate tires while the track was still relatively dry in the third and final qualifying session, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel came into the pits to have supersoft tires put on his car.

However, at that point, the rain started to fall and Vettel could not get a great lap time in regardless of his tire compound. He ended up qualifying in ninth place and is set to start the race alongside Force India’s Sergio Perez in 10th on the fifth row.

Raikkonen originally started the third and final qualifying session for the race on intermediate tires as well, but he was able to record a decent lap time on supersoft tires before the rain really began to fall en route to qualifying in fourth place.

Here are the full qualifying results for the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.

Qualifying Results
1st – Lewis Hamilton
2nd – Valtteri Bottas
3rd – Max Verstappen
4th – Kimi Raikkonen
5th – Romain Grosjean
6th – Brendon Hartley
7th – Pierre Gasly
8th – Esteban Ocon
9th – Sebastian Vettel
10th – Sergio Perez
11th – Charles Leclerc
12th – Kevin Magnussen
13th – Carlos Sainz Jr.
14th – Lance Stroll
15th – Daniel Ricciardo
16th – Nico Hulkenberg
17th – Sergey Sirotkin
18th – Fernando Alonso
19th – Stoffel Vandoorne
20th – Marcus Ericsson

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Be sure to tune in to ESPN2 tomorrow at 1:10 a.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Japanese Grand Prix from Suzuka Circuit. After this race, just four races will remain on the 2018 Formula 1 schedule.

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