Jules Bianchi will be in the minds of every driver at Suzuka today, with Formula 1 back at the circuit for the first time since the French driver's fatal crash last year.

As for the man himself, Daniil Kvyat tells BBC Sport's Lee McKenzie "I am completely fine" as he prepares to start from the pit-lane.

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo starts seventh and Christian Horner says the Australian has been "awesome around here all weekend" as he is expecting the Red Bulls to be "stronger than we qualified".

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner talking to BBC Sport about Daniil Kvyat's crash in qualifying:

"The first we knew about it was the telemetry because the TV cameras hadn't picked it up - the radio came on and we heard heavy breathing and then an expletive."

Horner adds that the Red Bull mechanics "turned up the music and 12 hours later they completely rebuilt the car."

Image source, Getty Images

How closer could it be between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton today?

There's not been much between the two throughout this weekend, so even the tiniest mistake could prove decisive.

The smallest margin of victory at Suzuka is the 0.344s Gerhard Berger beat Ayrton Senna by in 1991. Senna had ceded the win to Berger after an agreement pre-race

Image source, Getty Images

Fernando Alonso all but sealed the 2006 world title by winning the Japanese Grand Prix after Michael Schumacher retired.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

Image source, Getty Images

“Award for best qualifying lap of the day? That surely has to go to Fernando Alonso, who although only 14th fastest was only 0.5 seconds from the Q3 cut-off - in a McLaren-Honda lacking well over 100bhp on the rest. An epic performance. ‘I told the guys that lap was probably the best I did around here all my career,’ the Spaniard said.‘I could put 100 sets of tyres on and not do better.’ 

"The 0.9secs gap to Jenson Button was not representative, the Englishman failing to make into Q3 after being in the wrong engine setting for the only lap he managed before the Max Verstappen incident brought that session. Button felt that had prevented him getting into Q2, but that was far from a given. Had he done so, it would have been Alonso he displaced - and on their final Q1 laps Alonso was 0.1secs quicker than Button in sector one before both had to slow for the caution area.”

Lotus's Romain Grosjean starts eighth after another excellent qualifying performance.

1)  Nico Rosberg 2) Lewis Hamilton 3) Valtteri Bottas 4) Sebastian Vettel 5) Felipe Massa 6) Kimi Raikkonen 7) Daniel Ricciardo 8) Romain Grosjean 9) Sergio Perez 10) Carlos Sainz

11) Pastor Maldonado 12) Fernando Alonso 13) Nico Hulkenberg * 14) Jenson Button 15) Marcus Ericsson 16) Felipe Nasr 17) Max Verstappen * 18) Will Stevens 19) Alexander Rossi

Daniil Kvyat starting from the pit lane

*After three-place grid penalty applied

David Coulthard
BBC F1 co-commentator

"Suzuka is like a high-speed rollercoaster - not only that feeling of your belly moving around but also you're pulling massive lateral g-forces."

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

“Less than an hour after his monumental accident, in which he rolled his Red Bull, Daniil Kvyat was having lunch with his engineers and laughing about it, miming what happened with his hands.  

"He was amusing in his news conference, as well. ‘They told me it was 20g or something,’ he said. ‘I'm not sure - I thought I could do better than that!’ What happened? ‘Put my rear wheel slightly over the white line on turn 10 entry and once on marbles, straight in the wall. Then a bit of rolling.’ How bad was it? ‘This is by far my hardest crash. I never rolled a car, so unfortunately there's a first time for everything. It was the harshest one of my career.’ 

There was late drama in qualifying yesterday as Daniil Kvyat was involved in a massive crash, which you can see here. The Red Bull driver was, thankfully, fine, but his car not so much. After the chassis was rebuilt and engine changed, Kvyat starts from the pit lane today.

Image source, Red Bull

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

“Lewis Hamilton was asked how much he was ahead of Nico Rosberg on the final qualifying lap he had to abort because of Daniil Kvyat’s accident, but he wasn’t saying. 

"He would allow, though, that ‘it was looking good, really good. It was only up to corner six and there was a long way to go but up until then it was looking really good. It doesn't really matter anyway but it is a positive feeling for me as I know that I will have good pace.’ 

Hamilton loves Suzuka but amazingly has never been on pole here. ’It's been a really bad track for me,’ he said. ‘Why? I don't know. I love the circuit but I have never felt comfortable here. Today I did. The set-up has never really come together I guess. I think it's me. Some years I've not had the car but generally it is me. I come focused and prepared but it's just a track I don’t feel comfortable on - it's a weird sensation. But today I felt I had overcome a large part of that - and last year in the wet I did so, too.’”

Image source, Getty Images

Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver at the Japanese Grand Prix with six wins. Here he is claiming one of those at the 1997 race at Suzuka.

Image source, Getty Images

The Japanese fans at Suzuka have been brilliant this weekend, taking the whole getting dressed up for the occasion to a new level. 

Check out some of the best costumes and car hats in our feature on the Suzuka fans here.

Hands up then who is completing the set of early morning F1 watching today? On that subject, what is your earliest memory of getting up to follow a Japanese Grand Prix? Ever got up at unsociable hours to follow lap-by-lap updates in the old days of Ceefax?

Let us know your earliest memory of following the Japanese GP and when and how you followed it via #bbcf1,, external text in on 81111 (UK only) or post your comment on the BBC Sport Facebook page.