Red Bull are in a spot of bother here, with Sebastian Vettel 11th and Daniel Ricciardo 12th. Only the top 10 progress.

With seven minutes remaining, here's the top 10: 1) Ros 2) Ham 3) Bot 4) Alo 5) Mas 6) Mag 7) Rai 8) But 9) Per 10) Kvy

Replays show that Lewis Hamilton had a small lock up at the hairpin on his first flying lap. The Mercedes driver then reports: "These tyres started with a small vibration."

Nico Rosberg cruises to the top of the timesheets with a 1:32.950, 0.032 seconds quicker than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Reset the times, it's time for the second part of qualifying.

Here's something I bet you thought you'd never see. BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard attacking Romain Grosjean with a banana. Watch it here.

Romain Grosjean led the Japanese Grand Prix last year. Twelve months later, he's complaining about several aspects of his Lotus as he gets knocked out in the first part of qualifying. Misery for Lotus as Pastor Maldonado also takes an early bath but a good performance from Sauber who get both drivers through.

1) Lewis Hamilton 2) Nico Rosberg 3) Valtteri Bottas 4) Felipe Massa 5) Fernando Alonso 6) Kevin Magnussen 7) Kimi Raikkonen 8) Nico Hulkenberg

9) Jenson Button 10) Jean-Eric Vergne 11) Daniil Kvyat 12) Esteban Gutierrez 13) Sergio Perez 14) Sebastian Vettel 15) Daniel Ricciardo 16) Adrian Sutil

17) Pastor Maldonado 18) Romain Grosjean 19) Marcus Ericsson 20) Jules Bianchi 21) Kamui Kobayashi 22) Max Chilton

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton finishes fastest in the first part of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The top six - Hamilton, Rosberg, Bottas, Massa, Alonso and Magnussen - have done their quickest lap on the hard tyre and are all but through to Q2.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari pops in fifth, with McLaren's Kevin Magnussen sixth and Jenson Button seventh.

If you hit the red button you'll be able to watch a new feature called multiscreen. It looks something like this.

Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, Marcus Ericsson, Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton and Kamui Kobayashi are currently in the drop zone.

It looks like Mercedes and Williams believe their drivers have done enough to get through to Q2 as Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa are sat in the garage with eight minutes remaining.

Everyone is out on track apart from the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson.

The top 10 as it stands: 1) Ham 2) Ros 3) Bot 4) Mas 5) Ver 6) Rai 7) Hul 8) Kvy 9) Gut 10) Sut

Lewis Hamilton is the early pace-setter, the 2008 world champion clocking a 1:33.611, which is 0.060 seconds quicker than his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. Good effort from the Briton, who crashed this morning.

Mercedes:, external Incredible effort from the boys in the garage over lunch there! Both cars out for initial runs now.

No expense spared here as a fan creates a Kamui Kobayashi-inspired cardboard shield to stop the sun reflecting off his tablet.

Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi is the first man out, the Japanese driver waving to fans as he negotiates the first corner.

Here we go, then. Let's get this qualifying session under way.