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Rosberg on pole for Mercedes in Japan – Vettel leaving Red Bull.

Rosberg beats Hamilton to pole in Japan Lewis Hamilton must have been confident of taking pole for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka this morning after his resurgence in recent races – in the process taking the lead in the drivers F1 battle – but it wasn’t to be. Hamilton’s car needed a major front end rebuild after he ran wide and hit the barrier in final practice – which may have contributed to his qualifying result – but whatever the excuses it’s Rosberg in front of Hamilton for tomorrow’s race after posting a time 0.197s quicker than the Brit. Behind the two Mercedes cars it’s a Williams second row – with Bottas in third and Massa in fourth – followed by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in what is fast becoming his default place – 5th – and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth.

Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.

Jaguar F-TYPE Project 7 dynamic debut at Le Mans Classic this weekend

The Jaguar F-Type Project 7 joins the first D-Type at Le Mans this weekend The Jaguar F-Type Project 7 got its reveal at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend as a D-Type inspired, short-run F-Type with 567 bhp and 502lb/ft of torque. It was joined by Land Rover’s first Special Operations car – albeit a prototype version with red and black swirly camouflage – the Range Rover Sport SVR, which gleefully took to the hillclimb to demonstrate the incongruity of a big SUV acting like a hot hatch and sounding like a muscle car on steroids. But what was a little odd is that the RRS SVR happily strutted its stuff, even though it’s only a prototype, but the F-Type Project 7 didn’t turn a wheel in anger.