Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix with title rival Sebastian Vettel ninth after yet another Ferrari mix-up, according to BBC.

Hamilton set his pole lap in the first part of the final qualifying session while Ferrari missed an opportunity to run in the dry as a result of team and driver errors.

They erroneously sent the drivers out on treaded tyres in the dry at the start, and Vettel failed to get in a time after switching to dry-weather 'slick' tyres.

By the time of the second runs, it was already raining hard so no-one improved.

Vettel needed desperately to have a good weekend here in Japan after falling 50 points behind Hamilton in the title race after the Mercedes driver's win in Russia last weekend. But instead it could not have been a lot worse.

With five races remaining, there is only a maximum of 125 points up for grabs.