Japanese Grand Prix qualifying: Rosberg flies past Hamilton to take pole

Everyone was quick out on to the track, and Nico Rosberg set the pace while Lewis Hamilton complained about traffic.

Then the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel bolted on a set of soft tyres, and moved ahead of the Mercedes pair.

It wasn't a good showing from Jenson Button of McLaren, loitering in the drop zone.

The Brit did indeed make a quick exit - but Alonso snuck through.

Red Bull weren't happy with their pair in the middle of the pack, sending Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen out again with two minutes to go in order to err on the side of caution, for fear that a Force India or a Williams might bump them down towards danger in their absence. Both were on mediums, though, explaining the comparative lack of pace.

Mercedes were first out again, taking advantage of the clear air to seize the top two places in Q2 as well. Rosberg stayed 0.4 of a second ahead of his team-mate, absolutely raring to go and demonstrating that he is now the favourite to take the drivers' championship.

The Ferraris and the Red Bulls lined up behind them in procession - but Williams struggled horribly, with Felipe Massa knocked out after Nico Hulkenberg's late quick lap, and Valtteri Bottas followed courtesy of the other Force India, that of Sergio Perez.

Yellow flags were waved after Carlos Sainz spun off the track in the middle of his final flying lap.

Max Verstappen enjoyed two seconds on provisional pole before being overtaken by, in turn, Raikkonen, Rosberg and Hamilton.

But Rosberg hit back at his team-mate as the clock ticked down - securing himself provisional pole by just 0.013 of a second.

It's worth pointing out that he had pole last year too - but Hamilton beat him in the race. Oh, and the year before.

Raikkonen and Vettel locked out the second row - or at least they would if the German didn't have a grid penalty after last weekend's chaos.

In a quirk of fate, Perez and Romain Grosjean recorded the exact same lap time in Q3 - the Force India starts higher up the grid because he did it first.

Absolute horror show for Williams, with Bottas and Massa both making little mistakes that allowed the Haases and the Force Indias to outqualify them.

Max Verstappen has shown glimmers of brilliance throughout the weekend, and he's been going significantly quicker than his senior team-mate once again. The Mercedes and Ferrari cars should certainly outpace him, but in the throes of a race, who knows what could happen?

Rosberg - Raikkonen - Hamilton