Rosberg beats Hamilton to Japan pole

Mercedes AMG Petronas

Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Rosberg was quicker in both runs in Q3, his final time of 1:32.506 almost two-tenths of a second faster than title rival Hamilton.

Williams secured the second row of the grid, with Valtteri Bottas in third and Felipe Massa in fourth.

Fernando Alonso ended in fifth for Ferrari, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and the McLaren pairing of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button.

Sebastian Vettel, who earlier confirmed he is leaving Red Bull at the end of 2014, was ninth, with Kimi Räikkönen rounding out the top 10.

Jean-Éric Vergne narrowly failed to make it through to Q3 and will start from 11^th, while Sergio Pérez abandoned his final lap on his way to 12^th.

Daniil Kvyat was 13^th while Nico Hülkenberg was set to progress until he locked up at the Casio Triangle and lost time.

Sauber made it through to Q2 but 15^th and 16^th was their limit, with Adrian Sutil ahead of Esteban Gutiérrez.

Neither Lotus driver was able to progress from Q1, with Pastor Maldonado edging out Romain Grosjean by less than a tenth of a second.

Maldonado, however, will drop to the back due to an engine penalty and as he can’t serve all 10 positions, the remaining five places will be taken at next weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.

Marcus Ericsson was a fine 19^th for Caterham, ahead of Jules Bianchi, Kamui Kobayashi and Max Chilton.