German ace Sebastian Vettel snatched pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix in a thrilling qualifying session as he closes on back-to-back Formula One world titles.
The Red Bull driver, who dominated the season and needs just one point to reclaim his driver’s crown, on Saturday timed quickest ahead of McLaren duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who will start second and third.
Vettel, winner of the last two races at Suzuka, scorched around the challenging Suzuka course to take his 12th pole of the season with a time of 1min 30.466secs, edging Britain’s Button by just 0.009sec.
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Formula 1: Japanese Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Formula 1: Jenson Button Fastest in Second Practice at Suzuka
Formula 1: Japanese Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Formula 1: Jenson Button Fastest in Third Practice at Suzuka
Formula 1: Japanese Grand Prix - Final Practice Results
The pole was the 27th of Vettel’s career, and kept Red Bull’s perfect 2011 qualifying record intact with a 15th first-place start for the team in as many races this season. AFP
Hamilton starts third despite the error, alongside Felipe Massa, with Fernando Alonso fifth and Mark Webber sixth.
Michael Schumacher starts seventh despite making the same mistake as Hamilton, with Bruno Senna eighth, Vitaly Petrov ninth and Kamui Kobayashi tenth even though all four failed to set a time. Their positions were decided by sector times as none of the four completed a lap.
Senna delivered a great lap at the end of Q2 to make it through just 0.050s slower than his team-mate despite having limited running following a crash in FP3. Kobayashi’s lap pleased the home crowd as he went all out for a place in the final session to sneak through in tenth. However, the Toro Rossos and Paul di Resta went for one run in Q2 as they tried to save tyres. Sergio Perez didn’t set a time at all as he suffered from a hydraulics problem.
The first session turned out to be a bit of a non-event as Nico Rosberg also suffered with a hydraulics issue which prevented him from setting a time. That meant that the bottom seven dropping out was decided very early as none of Lotus, Virgin or HRT had the pace to challenge the midfield. Tonio Liuzzi endured another bad session as he didn’t set a time either, and a lack of running in practice means he is yet to set a time within 107%. ESPN F1
Pos No Driver Team 1 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 2 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 3 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 4 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 5 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 6 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 7 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 8 9 Bruno Senna Renault 9 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 10 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 11 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 12 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 13 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 14 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 15 18 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 16 19 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 17 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 18 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 19 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 20 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 21 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 22 22 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth DNQ 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes DNQ 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth
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