Lewis Hamilton has praised an "incredible" qualifying performance in Japan, claiming a 71st career pole position and a first at Suzuka.
In the session, Hamilton smashed the lap record to lead a Mercedes 1-2, with Valtteri Bottas qualifying in second place. A five-place grid penalty however, demotes the Finn to seventh on the grid for Sunday's race, leaving Hamilton alongisde Sebastian Vettel on the front row.
"Incredible. It’s been a really good day and every lap was fantastic," said Hamilton, happy to finally claim a pole position at Suzuka.
"You [Button] were rapid here, Nico was rapid here, I never really got a great balance in the past so I never did great in quali, so to finally get the balance behind me with great work from the engineers, and the great timing from my mechanics, got on track and did the times, car is crazy here.
"It’s my first time, I was running out of opportunities to get this pole! I was like ‘I’ve got to make sure I make it stick today’.
"Valtteri did a great job, obviously got a penalty but he’s got a great opportunity in the race to get up with us," he added
Going into the race, Hamilton hinted at high rates of tyre wear due to the layout of the first sector of Suzuka and also predicted that Ferrari will be on the pace on Sunday.
"It’s going to be a different view, I’ve never had this view here!" said Hamilton when asked about his predictions for the race.
"We’ve worked hard for the car to hopefully work well in the race, it’s always harder here once you get to the race as those Esses really kill the tyres, hoping we’re in a good position for that, naturally the Ferraris will be rapid, as they always are, but I plan to keep them behind."
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