F1 Fanatic

Sebastian Vettel remains the man to beat at Suzuka after taking pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix.

He leads an all-Red Bull front row at Suzuka while Robert Kubica will start from third position.

Lewis Hamilton qualified third but will start from eighth due to his penalty. Robert Kubica’s Renault will take third on the grid instead.

Q1

The first part of qualifying was very busy, with drivers doing many laps as the track conditions improved rapidly.

A few damp spots around the circuit were not enough to lead most teams into using anything other than slicks – with the exception of McLaren, who sent both their drivers out on intermediates.

Despite a busy session for traffic there were few surprises in Q1. The three new teams were eliminated as usual along with one of the Toro Rossos – Sebastien Buemi, who said he’d been held up by an HRT on his last effort.

Driver eliminated in Q1

18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’33.568
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1’35.346
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1’35.464
21	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1’36.265
22	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’36.332
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1’37.270
24	Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	1’37.365

Q2

The shock of Q2 was Felipe Massa failing to make the cut for Q3. He looked on course to improve on his final tour but a slow middle sector left him 12th.

Nick Heidfeld was on the cusp of making it through into the top ten in the Sauber. But he was demoted at the end by Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes.

It was another poor qualifying session for Force India, with Adrian Sutil 15th, two places ahead of his team mate.

Driver eliminated in Q2

11	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Ferrari	1’32.187
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’32.321
13	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’32.422
14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’32.427
15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’32.659
16	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’33.071
17	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1’33.154

Q3

Jenson Button made an unusual gamble to use the hard tyres in Q3. It seemed to pay off to begin with, as he moved up to fourth place with his first lap.

But he couldn’t improve on his final run, and later said they should have done a single lap and took the benefit of running with less fuel.

Sebastian Vettel put in another virtuoso performance to take pole position, clearly revelling in the RB6′s massive downforce on the Suzuka circuit.

But Mark Webber got within a few hundredths of his flying team mate to take second place and complete an all-Red Bull front row.

Lewis Hamilton took third place despite failing to improve in the first sector on his final lap. But his gearbox change penalty means he will start the race from eighth place.

Taking third in his place will be Robert Kubica, who qualified ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Top ten in Q3

1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’30.785
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’30.853
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’31.169
4	Robert Kubica	Renault	1’31.231
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’31.352
6	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’31.378
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’31.494
8	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’31.535
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1’31.559
10	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’31.846

Qualifying times in full

	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2 (vs Q1)	Q3 (vs Q2)
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’32.035	1’31.184 (-0.851)	1’30.785 (-0.399)
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’32.476	1’31.241 (-1.235)	1’30.853 (-0.388)
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’32.809	1’31.523 (-1.286)	1’31.169 (-0.354)
4	Robert Kubica	Renault	1’32.808	1’32.042 (-0.766)	1’31.231 (-0.811)
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’32.555	1’31.819 (-0.736)	1’31.352 (-0.467)
6	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’32.636	1’31.763 (-0.873)	1’31.378 (-0.385)
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’32.238	1’31.886 (-0.352)	1’31.494 (-0.392)
8	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’32.361	1’31.874 (-0.487)	1’31.535 (-0.339)
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1’32.211	1’31.926 (-0.285)	1’31.559 (-0.367)
10	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’32.513	1’32.073 (-0.440)	1’31.846 (-0.227)
11	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Ferrari	1’33.011	1’32.187 (-0.824)
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’32.721	1’32.321 (-0.400)
13	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’32.849	1’32.422 (-0.427)
14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’32.783	1’32.427 (-0.356)
15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’33.186	1’32.659 (-0.527)
16	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’33.471	1’33.071 (-0.400)
17	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1’33.216	1’33.154 (-0.062)
18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’33.568
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1’35.346
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1’35.464
21	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1’36.265
22	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’36.332
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1’37.270
24	Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	1’37.365

Ultimate laps

A drivers’ ultimate lap is his best sector times added together.

1’30.7661’30.8081’31.0971’31.2131’31.2311’31.3781’31.4191’31.5071’31.5351’31.7631’32.1191’32.1281’32.1871’32.3841’32.5941’32.6221’32.6611’33.3691’35.3391’35.4501’36.2651’36.2801’37.1861’37.338

	Driver	Car	Ultimate lap	Gap	Deficit to best	Actual position
1	5	Sebastian Vettel		0.019	1
2	6	Mark Webber	0.042	0.045	2
3	2	Lewis Hamilton	0.331	0.072	3
4	8	Fernando Alonso	0.447	0.139	5
5	11	Robert Kubica	0.465	0.000	4
6	1	Jenson Button	0.612	0.000	6
7	4	Nico Rosberg	0.653	0.075	7
8	10	Nico Hülkenberg	0.741	0.052	9
9	9	Rubens Barrichello	0.769	0.000	8
10	3	Michael Schumacher	0.997	0.083	10
11	7	Felipe Massa	1.353	0.202	12
12	23	Kamui Kobayashi	1.362	0.299	14
13	22	Nick Heidfeld	1.421	0.000	11
14	12	Vitaly Petrov	1.618	0.038	13
15	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	1.828	0.560	17
16	14	Adrian Sutil	1.856	0.037	15
17	17	Jaime Alguersuari	1.895	0.410	16
18	16	Sebastien Buemi	2.603	0.199	18
19	18	Jarno Trulli	4.573	0.007	19
20	19	Heikki Kovalainen	4.684	0.014	20
21	25	Lucas di Grassi	5.499	0.000	21
22	24	Timo Glock	5.514	0.052	22
23	21	Bruno Senna	6.420	0.084	23
24	20	Sakon Yamamoto	6.572	0.027	24

2010 Japanese Grand Prix

• Force India pair expect busy Friday
• Technical review: Japanese Grand Prix
• Tom Hitchings watches the Japanese GP at Suzuka
• Massa pleased by di Montezemolo’s support
• Hamilton takes heart from McLaren pace
• Mercedes admit missed opportunity to keep Schumacher in front of Rosberg
• Alonso says five drivers can still win title
• 2010 Japanese Grand Prix: the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
• Who was the best driver of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)
• Dominant win for Vettel piles pressure on Webber (Red Bull race review)

Browse all 2010 Japanese Grand Prix articles

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