F1 Quals: Japan 2011

A gorgeous day at Suzuka, Japan for the Quals session for the 2011 Grand Prix of Japan.  Will the Red Bullies continue their stranglehold on the pole position for the season?  Or will McLaren, who were the fastest in every practice session so far this weekend, finally kick them out of the top slot?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:33.051	1:31.424	1:30.466
2	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.947	1:31.434	1:30.475
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.843	1:31.139	1:30.617
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:33.235	1:31.909	1:30.804
5	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:32.817	1:31.612	1:30.886
6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:33.135	1:31.576	1:31.156
7	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes	1:33.748	1:32.116	No Time
8	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:33.359	1:32.297	No Time
9	The Red Menace	Renault	1:32.877	1:32.245	No Time
10	Gandalf Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:32.626	1:32.380	No Time
11	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.761	1:32.463
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:33.499	1:32.746
13	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:33.921	1:33.079
14	Canon Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:33.781	1:33.224
15	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:33.064	1:33.227
16	DJ Squire	STR-Ferrari	1:35.111	1:33.427
17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.704	No Time
18	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Lotus-Renault	1:35.454
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:35.514
20	Custard d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:36.439
21	Tim O'Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:36.507
22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:37.846
DNQ	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	No Time
DNQ	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	No Time
	Q1 107% Time		1:39.109

.009 of a second.  That's the total difference between a potential clean sweep of the season's poles for Red Bull... and a pole for someone else for the first time this year.  Seb Vettel just barely pipped McLaren's Jenson Button for first place, but could have lost it at the last moment.  Fortunately for him, Lewis Hamilton either messed up the sector (most likely) or was balked by both Slappy Schumacher and Mark Webber (Hamilton's story in the post-quals interview), meaning that he didn't get across the start/finish line in time to take a last shot at pole.  As this is being written (130am Saturday morning, just moments after the Quals session went off the air) there is nothing being said regarding penalties as of yet. 

A nice moment in Japan was Gandalf Kobayashi pulling down the fastest time in Q1 to the delighted roars of his home crowd.  He then managed to get through to Q3 for only the second time this season.  When the lights went green for Q3, Kobayashi's Sauber went out on track... alone.  For at least half a lap, his was the only car on track.  The Legendary Announce Team called it a "parade lap" for the Japanese fans, and I'm sure that's right since he turned into the pits and parked it without setting a time.  He had burned his soft tires already, so it's not like he could have done much else, but a nice gesture by the rest of the field to let him out alone... even if it was just the other teams waiting for the perfect time to get their guys out.  Particularly when Sauber rolled out their newest modifications for this race:

They may be under-funded, but they're still revolutionary as heck at the team from Switzerland.

In other news from Quals, Nico Rosberg's string of making it into Q3 at every race this year has come to an end, thanks to a hydraulic problem.  He set no time in Q1, meaning that at least in theory he could be excluded from the race.  That won't happen, but it could.  Vitantonio Liuzzi's HRT had mechanical issues as well that didn't allow him to set a time.  It's a little more likely that he'll be excluded, but still pretty much a long shot.

More if events warrant!  The race is at 1am Sunday morning, Pond Central time, so your guess is as good as mine as to when the F1U! will be up.  Sunday for sure.  See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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