Lewis Hamilton has described his qualifying laps as “crazy” as he secured his first-ever pole at the Suzuka circuit in dominant style.

Nobody could get close to the Brit, who took his career pole tally up to 71 with a gap of three tenths to Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel a further tenth behind in P3. But, due to Bottas’ gearbox penalty, Vettel will join Hamilton on the front row.

“It’s been a really good day and every lap was fantastic,” Hamitlon told Jenson Button in the post-qualy interviews.

“You were rapid here, Nico was rapid here, I never really got a great balance in the past so I never really did great in qualifying.