Perez says Lotus will be Force India's target at Suzuka

After a largely wet Friday, teams were greeted with dry, overcast conditions at Suzuka for Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions

While Nico Hulkenberg missed out on Q3 by 0.112s, teammate Perez made it into the top 10 shootout - but couldn't set a time after an abrupt end to the session due to Daniil Kvyat's crash.

Hulkenberg's three-place grid penalty means he is due to start 14th, while Perez was classified as ninth for the race.

"It’s a shame I couldn’t complete my lap in Q3, but the main thing is that Daniil [Kvyat] is okay," the Mexican said after qualifying.

"Perhaps if I had the opportunity to set a time I could have been ahead of Romain [Grosjean], but hopefully I can get ahead of him at the start tomorrow because I think Lotus will be our main competition," he added.

We did our best, says Hulkenberg

Hulkenberg was disappointed on missing yet another Q3, but added that he has no complaints of his performance.

"I think my qualifying lap was pretty good and I felt I was pushing the car to its limit - unfortunately that wasn't enough, but I know it was our best effort," the German said.

"I had hoped to qualify a bit higher to offset my penalty, especially as this is not the easiest place to overtake.

"It will be interesting to see how the lack of running from yesterday will affect others. We managed to do a good job with our set-up this morning, but there are plenty of unknowns about the long run pace," he added.