After Kubica went into the wall early on, Kevin Magnussen did something similar at the very same point of the track.

Again, you can watch it below.

And here you can watch the incident that has given Williams a race against time to get their man on the starting grid.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Suzuka

Williams say they have the parts to fix Kubica's car after his big crash in qualifying but it’s a chassis change so a huge amount of work. It will be tight but they are doing everything they can and the team are confident they can do it.

This is Vettel's fifth pole position in Japan, so he's second in the all-time Japanese GP poles list behind Michael Schumacher, on eight.

His first was in 2009, and he went on to win, veering around Jaime Alguesuari - who wasn't having quite as good a day - with Vettel receiving a pie in the face from a mechanic late on for his achievements.

Think he'd happily take a pie in the face from Leclerc these days?

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Jennie Gow
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter

Looks like Renault caught Nico’s car in time so while he had a hydraulic failure they shoudn't have to replace anything that would lead to a penalty.

Meanwhile it's a chassis change from Robert Kubica after his FP3 crash - huge amount of work and the team are trying their best to get him out for the race.

Continuing our culinary theme, here are the McLaren two as well as the Racing Point pair tucking in to some local specialties.

Sainz loves it. Fair to say Norris doesn't.

Food time for the media out in Japan. Lots of things to choose from for our very own Jennie Gow.

Giedo's awake. Not hitting the wall in Japan this year, unlike six years ago.

The race gets going at 06:10 BST so plenty of time for all of you to tell us your thoughts, hopes, dreams and predictions.

Tweet us using #bbcf1 and keep us awake for the next couple of hours before the action starts again.

Ferrari have control of the front row in Suzuka, but have not triumphed in Japan since 2004.

Will that run end today?

Image source, .

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Suzuka

Image source, Mark Thompson

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel produced a scintillating performance to take pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix.

It was Vettel's first pole since the Canadian Grand Prix in June and finally halted a run of nine races being out-qualified by team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The 21-year-old Monegasque, who has taken pole at the last four races, was second, 0.189 seconds behind.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth, both just over 0.2secs off the Ferraris.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon were fifth and sixth, setting exactly the same lap time, 0.787secs off the pace, a hugely impressive performance on the face of it from the Anglo-Thai on his first visit to Suzuka.

If you're going to get yourself on to pole then you might as well do it in style and smash the track record. Well played Seb, well played.

Another unhappy man is Daniel Ricciardo, who is down in 16th after failing to escape from Q1. He tells Sky Sports: "It is what it is, we didn't have much time to get it right, we just didn't. It was a little bit all over the place and not good enough.

"It has been such a short morning, I'll take some deep breaths and I have to recover. It is tricky, but the same for everyone else.

"We made a small adjustment between first and second run. It changed the car quite a lot, and I didn't think we were asking for such a change."

Lando Norris starts eighth, but behind his team-mate Carlos Sainz. "I'm just annoyed as I keep making small mistakes in qualifying, which costs me one place, usually to Carlos," the 19-year-old Brit tells Sky Sports, before adding: "It's something I need to work on."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff tells Sky Sports: "[An] upset. It should be a good track for us, the Ferraris, out of nowhere, once they've packaged it all together, are very quick.

"I think our car is well balanced, we are just lacking on one lap. Race pace is looking good but obviously if we're behind that's not good."

So this is how they qualified.

Still waiting to see if Nico Hulkenberg needs a new gearbox after a serious problem in Q2, and also whether Kevin Magnussen and Robert Kubica are able to start after heavy prangs early on today.

Image source, F1

Valtteri Bottas was the best of the Mercedes two and is in third, with Lewis Hamilton alongside him on row two.

Bottas says: "We seemed quite strong, we always knew Ferrari had something in reserve to turn things up. In Q3 they were untouchable. We had a new package and it still felt better than before but not quite enough.

"We try to do everything we can, nothing is lost yet, they have the starting point, let's see what we can do. It always feels good to be ahead of a team-mate, we will do the maximum we can and see if we can get it done."

Charles Leclerc, who qualified in second, says: "Seb did any amazing lap and has been great all weekend.

"To be honest I’ve been struggling with the lap now in quali, apart from the last sector, where I did a few mistakes but pole was not possible. Seb was just too quick so congratulations to him.

"Very surprised to be first and second after the free practice we’ve had but the race is the most important and hopefully we’ll be able to keep these positions.

"Mercedes are very quick in the race, so it’s not going to be easy. We’ll just try to keep focused on our job and keep this one-two."

Sebastian Vettel, who has just taken his second pole position of the season, says: "Not easy with the conditions, the main thing is the sun is out, the people are happy and we didn't expect that front row.

"I didn't use the brakes other than turn two. I really enjoyed it, but that's only part of the job done."