Sebastian Vettel on pole after a chaotic Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session.
Both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso has something to cheer after qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix; though with three out of the four cars damaged, neither squad had the time for celebration. Red Bull Racing occupied first and last positions; Sebastian Vettel took pole position on his first F1 visit to Suzuka, while Mark Webber sat the session out; his car having sustained too much damage in a practice crash.
Over at Toro Rosso, Jaime Alguersuari managed to make it into Q2 for the first time, before putting the car in the wall at Degner, while Sébastien Buemi went one better, qualifying for Q3 before another crash – his second of the session – left him unable to take part in the shoot-out. Alguersuari’s accident was one of three that bought out the red flag; in the end the qualifying hour lasted over 90 minutes.
Q1 was relatively uneventful. Heikki Kovalainen had a spin at Degner, but managed to collect it. With five minutes remaining an interesting picture emerged. The bottom five places were occupied by five different teams. Along with the non-participating Webber, Romain Grosjean, Tonio Liuzzi, Giancarlo Fisichella and Buemi were at the bottom of the pile. Buemi had crashed but managed to limp back to the pits, where the car was swiftly repaired. He went out again in the patched up car and managed to pull himself clear, unhappily for the crowd at the expense of Kazuki Nakajima.
The second session was where it all started to unravel. Alguersuari, pushing hard through the Degner bends, got on the grass and went into the wall. The session was stopped while the car was recovered. With very little run-off at that part of the circuit, it looked like a big accident, but Jaime, despite being helped from the car, was unscathed and passed as fit to race.
When the session restarted, both Toyotas went out immediately. Jarno Trulli set a fast time and Timo Glock seemed about to do something similar, but his lap ended with a big impact into the barriers. Coming out of the final chicane and winding up for the start-finish straight, the German driver left the tarmac and slammed into the wall.
Again the session was red-flagged; Timo stayed in the car and was extracted by the medical team. It was a nervous few minutes, not particularly helped by the Japanese track marshals’ preference for screening the car and driver with sheets – it’s vaguely reminiscent of the strategy for dealing with injured race horses – fortunately Glock had the presence of mind to wave and give a thumbs-up as he was stretched away – a check-up confirmed his injuries were minor. The cause of the accident is still being debated. In the dry that isn’t a typical place to see an accident, so a mechanical issue looks likely.
When the session finally restarted the next person to crash was Buemi. Exiting Spoon, the Swiss driver hit the wall and tore off his front wing. Again he managed to drag the car back to the pits, but the debris on the road led to the yellow flags being waved. Some drivers lifted, others kept their foot in. Along with Alguersuari and Glock, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica were eliminated, though the Stewards looked at the incident after the session.
Buemi was a non-starter in Q3; this time his car was too badly damaged to continue. The carbon fibre supply industry received another boost shortly after when Kovalainen once again spun at Degner. This time he didn’t get away with it, hammering into the tyre wall. Again the session was stopped as the car was craned clear. With 6m49s left on the clock the restarted shoot-out saw Sebastian Vettel take pole with his first flying lap.
Trulli would join him on the front row, with Lewis Hamilton in third. Adrian Sutil reaffirmed Force India’s prowess on the quicker circuits by taking fourth. Rubens Barrichello was fifth, with Nick Heidfeld in between him and championship rival Jenson Button. Kimi Räikkönen was the final driver to record a time in eighth position, with Kovalainen and Buemi being classified in ninth and tenth positions respectively.
It was easily the most chaotic qualifying session of the season – though perhaps that was to be expected. Suzuka encourages committed, enthusiastic driving, but its high kerbs and short run-offs extract a heavy price from those who fail to respect the limit. With Fridays’ main practice sessions washed-out, Saturday was a step into the unknown for a field, many of whom had no prior F1 experience at the famous circuit. Add to that the fact the driver merry-go-round is spinning at a blur after Ferrari’s Alonso announcement, and you get pitlane filled by drivers with a point to prove. Perhaps chaos was inevitable.
The grid would see some changes after the Stewards met. Buemi was penalised five grid places for bringing his damaged car back to the pits rather than pulling off the track at the first reasonable opportunity, while Alonso, Sutil, Barrichello and Button received the same five-place sanction for failing to heed the waved yellows. Ross Brawn confirmed that his drivers, having not set a time in Q2, opted to swerve around the debris rather than lift. Kovalainen and and Liuzzi also have five-place penalties for changing gearboxes out of sequence – creating a grid that bears little resemblance to the qualifying order.
The revamped list has Vettel and Trulli on row one; Hamilton and Heidfeld on row two; Räikkönen and Rosberg on row three; Kubica and Sutil on row four; Barrichello and Alguersuari on row five; Button and Fisichella on row six; Kovalainen and Buemi on row seven; Nakajima and Grosjean on row eight; Alonso and Liuzzi on row nine and Glock and Webber on row ten.
When weights were declared the field showed a surprising lack of variety. In the past Toyota have been known to sacrifice Sunday points for Saturday glory at their home race, but this year Trulli is carrying only one lap of fuel less than Vettel.
With his original car destroyed, using a new chassis will automatically see Webber start from the pitlane. Glock, meanwhile, will be assessed in the morning by the doctors. If he isn’t deemed fit to race, there are rumours of a special dispensation to let Kamui Kobayashi take his place. The regulation insists a driver must participate in at least one Saturday session to be eligible for the rac: Kobayashi subbed for Glock on Friday when the latter was laid low by a virus, so it would usually be a non-starter, but this is Japan, where anything can happen. And often does.
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