F1 Quals: Japan 2012

An overcast sky hung low over the Suzuka International Racing Circuit as Quals got under way, a shocking contrast to the beautiful sunny day we had for both Friday practice sessions.  The good news is that there wasn't even a hint of rain in the sky, so we had an unimpeded run for pole today.  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2012 Grand Prix of Japan:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:32.608	1:31.501	1:30.839
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:32.951	1:31.950	1:31.090
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.077	1:31.772	1:31.290
4	Gandalf Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:32.042	1:31.886	1:31.700
5	Lettuce Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:32.029	1:31.988	1:31.898
6	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:32.147	1:32.169	1:32.022
7	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:32.459	1:31.833	1:32.114
8	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:32.221	1:31.826	1:32.208
9	Shiv Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.061	1:32.121	1:32.327
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.828	1:32.272	No Time
11	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:32.946	1:32.293
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.898	1:32.327
13	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes	1:33.349	1:32.469
14	Rinpoche Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:32.834	1:32.512
15	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.015	1:32.625
16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:33.059	1:32.954
17	Jules Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:33.370	1:33.368
18	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:33.405
19	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Caterham-Renault	1:34.657
20	Tim O'Glockenspiel	Marussia-Cosworth	1:35.213
21	Pete Rose	HRT-Cosworth	1:35.385
22	Charles ToothPic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:35.429
23	The Red Menace	Caterham-Renault	1:35.432
24	Narain Kittylitter	HRT-Cosworth	1:36.734
	Q1 107% Time		1:38.471

Oh look, Seb Vettel is on pole in Japan, what a shock.  This is the fourth season in a row he's been the top qualifier at Suzuka.  Right next to him, we find his teammate Mark Webber, making this the first Red Bull front row lockout of the season.  What a difference a year makes; last year at this time there had been seven such performances by Red Bull.  Roughly a half-second behind the leader, we find Jenson Button, de facto lead driver for McLaren... except he's got a five-spot grid penalty.  As you may remember, Shiv Hamilton wound up out of the race at Singapore with a failed gearbox.  It turns out that Button's gearbox had the same problem, it just hadn't yet reared its ugly head.  McLaren made the decision to change his gearbox, resulting in the grid penalty.  This promotes Gandalf Kobayashi into third place on the grid, the best starting position ever for a Japanese driver in his home race.

Nico Hulkenberg gets the same penalty as Button; Slappy Schumacher has been slapped with a 10-spot penalty for his overrun attack on Jules Vergne at Singapore.  For quite some time in Q1, it was looking like Slappy would be starting from somewhere in the vicinity of Hokkaido.  It wasn't until he completed his final flying lap in that session a full minute after the session ended that he wasn't 24th. 

A late spin in Q3 by Kimi Raikkonen killed off a bunch of drivers' final runs for pole; HWMNBN in particular has stated that he was probably going to get 3rd on the grid before the yellow flags forced him to back off.  Speaking of Kimi, after the session he was asked what happened.  His response: "I spun."  When asked about the impact his spin had on the other drivers, he said "I don't care about the others."  Thanks for that, Kimi.

So that's the grid for Japan!  The race is at 1230a Sunday, so while I may stay up for it, I don't think I'll be able to do the F1U! until Sunday morning... still and all, we'll see you right here then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:28 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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