Japanese Grand Prix - Rosberg takes Suzuka pole as Kvyat crash ends session early

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg is on pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix after Daniil Kvyat's spectacular crash brought an early end to Qualifying.

After two wet practice sessions, the Japanese rain stopped, and the track dried out as the teams finally had a chance to show their true pace here and show their pace is exactly what Mercedes did.

Silver Arrows Shine Again

After a dismal performance in Singapore last time out, the Brackley team will have been keep to show it was simply a blip, not the start of a dip and show it they did. Both Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg shared the quickest times in the qualifying sessions with no other car coming any closer than half a second to the Silver Arrows' time.

For just the second time in 13 chances Nico Rosberg beat his British counterpart to take pole. Rosberg took an early blow as Hamilton led the first qualifying session, but the German driver responded well as he topped the next two sessions.

Despite the consistently close battle Rosberg won it as he ended up with a time of 1:32.584, just 0.08 seconds ahead of Hamilton. The Championship leader however didn't believe that his best time was actually the best he could have done. He thought that had the session not been ended prematurely he could have snatched pole.

Horror Kvyat Crash

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Suzuka certainly hasn't had a great safety record recently and today was no different, as Kvyat gave the entire paddock a fright. Kvyat's crash ended the final qualifying session before any driver could do a final lap, although that wasn't the main concern for many people.

It all stemmed from the smallest of errors. Kvyat merely misjudged his entrance into the hairpin and ran his tyre on to the grass, he then lost control of the rear and that's when the young Russian hit the wall.

As he went into the run-off area he didn't stop and once he hit the barriers his car was sent flying into the air as it flipped before finally coming to a rest the right way up.

Everyone was relieved however when he told them he was okay over his team radio, although he was still taken to the medical centre for precautionary checks.

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