I´ve had a lot of stress at work this week so I was extremely glad that the week was coming to an end and it was time for thrilling Formula 1 action again. In spite of the early wakeup all the tiredness was gone by the time qualifying got underway!
These Asian venues seem to involve dramatic events this year. Last week at Korea there were flames, sparks and exploding tyres. This trend seems to be continuing in Japan this weekend. Already in the free practice sessions we´ve seen a lot of crashes and in Q1 there was a dramatic moment when Gutierrez´s car in Sauber´s garage was suddenly on fire! The flames were spectacularly big and Gutierrez rushed out of his car. I just read fuel vapour was the cause of the dramatic fire. The car wasn´t damaged, however, so Gutierrez could continue his driving soon after the incident! Toro Rosso´s Vergne also had to stop his car on track due to the car catching fire! So what a dramatic Saturday under the Japanese sun!
But let´s get back to what happened on the track in Q1. Grosjean set the fastest lap time, which gave me hope that Lotus would be up there to fight for the top three grid slots. Bottas in his Williams made a magnificent job by being 12th fastest in the first session! His team-mate Maldonado also made it in to Q2. Sutil in his Force India was the first man to be knocked out of Q2 this time.
In Q2 some of the top drivers made their first run on the hard tyres but changed to the medium tyres at the end of the session. Bottas drove an excellent second session and outqualified his team-mate. Bottas will start to the race from P13 whilst Maldonado will be right behind him in P15. Q2 was pretty much business as usual: the top ten consisted of the two Red Bulls, Mercedes duo, the two Ferraris, both Lotus drivers, Sauber´s Hulkenberg and Button in his McLaren.
Sebastian had suffered from a KERS problem already in the third practice session in the morning and the problem hit him again when Q3 got underway. Sebastian pulled out a very decent lap but without KERS it wasn´t enough for clinching the pole! Webber beat his team-mate in qualifying for the very first time this season! Hamilton qualified 3rd, Grosjean 4th, Massa 5th, Rosberg 6th, Hulkenberg 7th, Alonso 8th, Kimi 9th and Button 10th. Hulkenberg´s achievement is impressive once again. Considering Sauber´s performance so far this season, it´s impressive that Hulkenberg can outqualify drivers like Kimi and Alonso! I was really hoping to see more from Kimi. P9 puts the Iceman in to a difficult position on the grid though Kimi is the one who makes the miracles when the lights go out. And as we´ve seen before, even P17 on the grid can´t necessarily stop Kimi from winning the race...! The grid slot may be an obstacle but it doesn´t mean Kimi wouldn´t be capable of winning the race. That´s simply how it is :D
In the post-race press conference Webber stated that the pole felt hollow because Seb had been hit by the technical issues. That sounded like Webber would have known that he had absolutely no chance to take pole in "normal circumstances". And taking into account the number of the lousy starts that the Australian has had this year, I don´t see he has any chance to hold Sebastian back at the start tomorrow! The most interesting question is: will Sebastian be able to secure the 4th consecutive WDC tomorrow? It means Seb has to win the race and Alonso mustn´t finish on points. I didn´t buy a bottle of champagne yet... I hope I won´t have to regret it tomorrow! ;D
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