Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton took a record-extending 80th career pole position in Japan on Saturday with Mercedes locking out the front row while Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel qualified only ninth.

Finland’s Valtteri Bottas joined the Hamilton on the front row, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in fourth.

Rain in the final phase of the session came at the wrong time for Vettel, who is 50 points behind Hamilton with five races remaining.

Ninth will be the German’s lowest starting position so far this season.

Earlier Hamilton completed a practice clean sweep in his Mercedes, setting the pace in the final hour of track action before qualifying.

The Briton, who had dominated Friday’s opening day of practice, lapped the 5.8km long Suzuka circuit in one minute, 29.599 seconds on Saturday in a session that saw an early drizzle and gusty winds.

Vettel was second fastest for Ferrari.

The German had been nearly a second adrift of his rival’s best on Friday, but closed that gap to 0.116 seconds on Saturday.

Raikkonen followed his Ferrari teammate in third ahead of Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes, who was 0.823 seconds off team-mate Hamilton’s pace.

Daniel Ricciardo was sixth for Red Bull ahead of Esteban Ocon, who swept “best of the rest” honours for the third successive session in his Force India.