Lewis Hamilton got his timing spot on in changing conditions to take pole position on Saturday for the Japanese GP, even as under-pressure title-rival Sebastian Vettel was all at sea in ninth.

Hamilton, timed the one minute 27.760 second lap to perfection, pumping it in on the super-soft tyres, while it was only just spitting with rain to take his 80th pole. Valtteri Bottas, who was on pole ahead of Hamilton at the last race in Russia, guaranteed Mercedes a second successive front-row lock out with a lap 0.299 seconds off Hamilton's pace.