Hamilton delighted to beat the Ferraris

The Briton, seven points ahead of Felipe Massa with three races to go, managed a best time of 1:18.404 to finish ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

More importantly, Massa was down in fifth place and will face an uphill battle if he is to stop Hamilton from extending his lead in the standings.

It was Hamilton's sixth pole of the season and the second in a row at Fuji.

"I had a good qualifying session, quite a bit different to Singapore," said Hamilton. "We didn't have any problems through Q2, it was pretty straightforward. The first lap didn't seem to be very good. Kimi was just ahead of me and the last lap I put all the sectors together and bought it home.

"The team have done a phenomenal job, without them we wouldn't be here so it is all down here.

"Going to Q3 we had already decided what our strategy would be and we believed it would be competitive and put us in a good position for the race, but qualifying is down to not making mistakes and putting the lap together, it can be very tough.

"We had very good pace here and starting in front of the Ferraris is great. If tomorrow we can push forward with the strategy we have we should be okay."

The Briton, who doesn't need to win again to secure the title, insisted he is not planning to change his approach in the remaining races.

"I will try to take each race as it goes," the McLaren driver added. "We as a team have to put a really strong effort in to continue with the momentum we have.

"I am approaching the races exactly the same as I have this season. I don't need to change anything, just keep the car on the road and score some good points."