Rosberg on pole for Mercedes in Japan – Vettel leaving Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton has been beaten to pole for the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix by Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg, and Sebastian Vettel is leaving Red Bull for Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton must have been confident of taking pole for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka this morning after his resurgence in recent races – in the process taking the lead in the drivers F1 battle – but it wasn’t to be.

Hamilton’s car needed a major front end rebuild after he ran wide and hit the barrier in final practice – which may have contributed to his qualifying result – but whatever the excuses it’s Rosberg in front of Hamilton for tomorrow’s race after posting a time 0.197s quicker than the Brit.

Behind the two Mercedes cars it’s a Williams second row – with Bottas in third and Massa in fourth – followed by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in what is fast becoming his default place – 5th – and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth.

Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button took seventh and eighth for McLaren, Sebastian Vettel took ninth for Red Bull and Kimi Raikkonen sneaked his Ferrari in to tenth place.

And it looks like next year we’re going to have to get used to different drivers in different cars after Sebastian Vettel announced that he’s leaving Red Bull for Ferrari next year, and it looks like Fernando Alonso will be moving back to McLaren to see if Honda power for the Woking team in 2015 will see them back at the front of the pack. As for Jenson Button, perhaps DC needs to watch his back at the BBC?

Tomorrow’s race could be properly mixed up with the forecast of heavy rain as typhoon Phanfone starts to impact Japan, so it could be an interesting outing.