Japanese GP: Rosberg on pole as Kvyat escapes huge crash

Rosberg's lap of 1:32.584 was enough to beat Hamilton by 0.076 seconds, the German securing his second pole position of the year as Mercedes returned to the top following its Singapore GP slump.

Hamilton did not have a chance to try to beat Rosberg as the session came to an early finish following a huge crash by Daniil Kvyat.

Kvyat went off the track when approaching the hairpin, having a massive impact against the wall. His car rolled, but the Russian emerged unscathed.

The accident ruined several drivers' final runs.

Valtteri Bottas qualified third for Williams, ahead of Singapore GP winner Sebastian Vettel, fourth in the Ferrari.

Bottas's teammate Felipe Massa was fifth from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull.

Romain Grosjean put the quickest Lotus in eighth position, ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and Kvyat, neither setting a time in Q3.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified just outside of the top 10, but the Force India driver will get a three-place grid penalty for his incident with Massa in Singapore.

Carlos Sainz was 12th in qualifying, complaining about vibrations during his final run in Q2. He missed the cut by less than two tenths of a second, leaving Q3 without any Toro Rossos.

Pastor Maldonado qualified in 13th in the second Lotus, ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, whose team had little to celebrate ahead of Honda's home race.

"It was my best ever lap at Suzuka," said a disappointed Alonso.

Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen will start from 15th position after he was unable to take part in Q2 as a result of a spin at the end of Q1.

Verstappen's car ended up parked across the track on the exit of the hairpin, ruining the laps of several drivers at the end of the first segment.

The Dutchman, visibly angry when returning to the pits, said he had suffered a loss of power and that his engine had shut down.

Jenson Button was knocked out in Q1 once more - and for the 10th time this season - after failing to improve his laptime on his final lap, when he found yellow flags at Sector 2 due to Verstappen's spin.

Button also complained that he had not been told which engine mode to use during his runs, something which compromised his pace.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson survived an off during the first qualifying segment, when he lost his car at Spoon but managed to rejoin the circuit despite engine up on the gravel, but also failed to reach Q2.

Both the Swiss cars were knocked out, as teammate Felipe Nasr also failed to complete his final flyer due to the yellow flags on track. The Brazilian will start from 18th position.

Will Stevens qualified in 19th place, over three seconds behind Nasr, while teammate Alexander Rossi failed to even set a time and will need special dispensation to take part in the race.

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.015	1:32.632	1:32.584
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.844	1:32.789	1:32.660
3	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:34.326	1:33.416	1:33.024
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:34.431	1:33.844	1:33.245
5	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:34.744	1:33.377	1:33.337
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:34.171	1:33.361	1:33.347
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:34.399	1:34.153	1:33.497
8	Romain Grosjean	Team Lotus	1:34.398	1:34.278	1:33.967
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:35.001	1:34.174
10	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:34.646	1:34.201
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:35.328	1:34.390
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:34.873	1:34.453
13	Pastor Maldonado	Team Lotus	1:34.796	1:34.497
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:35.467	1:34.785
15	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:34.522
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:35.664
17	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:35.673
18	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:35.760
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:38.783
20	Alexander Rossi	Manor	1:47.114