In the early hours of the morning the next qualifying session of the season took place while the majority of the people here in this part of the world were asleep, I certainly was. But fortunately there was a lump of plastic there to handle the recording for me which is always helpful, because crawling out of bed at 6am is not something that takes place all too often. When I finally managed to wake up it was a session of contradictions where some things were all too familiar, and others proved to be a little more interesting. In the end it was almost like being transported back in time to a realm of complete and total dominance out front with a front row lock-out and 0.7s back to the nearest other team.
The track looked as resplendent as always, proving that you don't need lightyears of tarmac run-off areas stretching out into the horizon for a circuit to fit into the modern calendar. A narrower lap lined with grass and gravel before a shorter run to the tyre walls, the challenge of the circuit showed up in the practice sessions as both Force Indias visited the wall. We also saw the retiring (again) Schumacher spin off on the entry to Spoon corner and also find himself in the tyres. There were a fair amount of moments which could also have resulted in contact with the wall, Maldonado in Degner one was a significant one. But all the trackside attention is naturally directed towards the local hero Kamui Kobayashi, although the Japanese fans retained a high degree of support for those who formerly drove for the home teams of Honda and Super-aguri, both former homes to the other Japanese blog legend and current Indycar driver Takuma Sato. However it is time to move swiftly on to qualifying as due to the time difference, the race is not too far away.
Qualifying
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
It was Paul Di Resta that started things off, making up for the loss of time throughout second practice after his accident in Spoon. He was followed by a wide range of mid-field teams including Williams and Torro Rosso. Di Resta set the initial time, a tenth clear of One-stop Perez's Sauber, before the Lotus team sent their two drivers out and they went straight to the top of the timesheets split only by 0.15s. Contrasting fortunes were erupting in the Willams pit garage while Senna set the third fastest time, Maldonado came back in with some technical issue and frantic work took place on the Venezuelan's car. Out on the track One-Stop Perez took a little too much curb on the way into the Dunlop corner, as a result the car went out wide and embarked on a long voyage through the gravel, but without hitting anyone.
More levels of intrigue were unravelling as Felipe Massa went fastest maintaining the three tenth gap he had over Alonso across the weekend - something that would bode well for his hopes of remaining at Ferrari. The other main runners were starting to impact on the session with Webber going second and both McLarens placing inside the top 6. Down at the lower end of the grid the relegation looked a little odd, with Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Vettel and Maldonado languishing at the bottom of the timings. But Vettel had no problem making it through, while Maldonado and Nico opted to go straight to the softer tyres to escape relegation. This left Schumacher needing to make it through and drop either Vergne or Senna out in his place, with his final lap Michael did break through by a tiny margin of half a tenth. As for the other two drivers, they were not making friends with each other - Vergne was trying to make space for his lap and got in the way of Bruno Senna. As the Brazilian drove past he waved all manner of gesticulations at the Frenchman, to which Jean-Eric replied by repassing the Williams before turn one. The end result was that Bruno was in and Vergne was out.
Off into the second phase of qualifying, and it was local favourite Kamui Kobayashi who left the garage first, much to the adoration of the Japanese crowd, setting a modest time in the process. Which didn't stand too long, as Vettel came out and destroyed Kamui's lap by over a second underlining the pace in that car. It quickly got very busy on circuit with the majority of the cars circulating which lead to problems once more at the final chicane, four cars were trying to leave each other enough space to complete their laps. Normally this doesn't cause too much of a problem but with the high speed 130R corner preceding zone of compression and cars on a fast lap behind it gets complicated. Cue Paul Di Resta having to weave through a maze of slowing cars to finish his lap, with Webber on the outside, but Grosjean was slowing up on the racing line forming a slow rolling chicane on the braking zone.
As with last race there was a mid-session break in Q2 where only Schumacher was driving round on the track all by his self - a reflection of his now empty solitary career prospects. This lead to a frantic final phase of the section, with a flurry of cars on track - positions started to change rapidly - Rosberg made it through but within a minute was bumped into relegation. The Saubers both made their way into the next round, with Kamui leading the team, he was to be joined by Hulkenberg's Force India. This meant that falling out of the session were both the Mercedes drivers, which won't be helping Hamilton's prospects for the next season, Maldonado also failed to make it through. In contrast to the earlier form of the day Massa was in relegation and defeated by Alonso for the first time of today. As Grosjean dumped Felipe out of the final promotional place.
Ten minutes remained to settle the line-up for the 2012 Japanese GP, on one of the greatest tracks of the season. Raikkonen and Hamilton were the first two drivers to venture out at the beginning of the session, out of the two it was Kimi who set the pace a tenth clear of Lewis. But a little further round the lap the two Red Bulls were setting purple sectors to dominate the challenge for pole, Vettel was first and set another dominating time 1.3s clear of the field. A small mistake by Webber in Kobayashi corner cost him a couple of tenths dropping into second behind his team-mate. The only driver to even come close to matching the pole time was Button - another local favourite - but even his efforts were almost half a second down. Grosjean made it into fifth before everyone ventured into the garage for the mid phase break.
Prepared with a fresh set of tyres the cars headed back out onto the track attempting to challenge the dominant power of the Red Bull team currently locking out the front row. One-Stop Perez was the first of the drivers to complete a lap, to move ahead of the Lotus team into 5th. However improvements were to be few and far between because Raikkonen had brought out the yellow flags after spinning on the astroturf in Spoon corner. Not something that phased Kamui however, who kept the boot in all the way round the lap, setting an impressive time to take 4th, much to the pleasure of the crowd. Everyone else was hampered by the spinning Lotus, which confirmed the inevitable result of a Red Bull 1-2, with Button 3rd (but demoted to 8th due to the penalty). This means Kobayashi will start 3rd at home ahead of Grosjean and Perez, behind Sergio lies current championship leader Alonso with Raikkonen. Button will slot back into the grid in 8th, still in front of the other McLaren of Hamilton, while Massa ended 10th following another technical penalty for Hulkenberg.
The bonus points championship points winners
From an interesting session with some points of inconsistency and some surprising results there are to be points awarded to the following contenders.
- 10pts - Kamui Kobayashi - For being strongest competition for the top three runners and lining up 3rd on the grid tomorrow morning.
- 8pts - Jenson Button - For being the only person able to compete directly with the Red Bull team this weekend
- 6pts - Mark Webber - Despite making a mistake at the hairpin, remaining on terms with the german bloke out front
- 5pts - Sebastien Vettel - Frankly for being a little dominant once more in Japan
- 4pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For his post race interview, stating how little he cared about the people affected by his spin, and being hilariously deadpan
- 3pts - Felipe Massa - For the majority of the session being ahead of his team-mate
- 2pts - Paul Di Resta - For avoiding the maze of cars on the exit of 130R
- 1pt - One-Stop Perez - Scoring a nice new drive in the 2013 McLaren
The penalties championship
This morning was not a penalty free affair and here are the ones issued.
- Jean-Eric Vergne - Three place grid drop - Blocking Senna in the final chicane
- Kimi Raikkonen - 2200 EUR fine for speeding in pit lane in FP1
- Giedo Van Der Garde - 400 EUR for speeding in pit lane in FP1
The Penalty points championship
For the most part people were well behaved but there was some bunching up on the entrance to the Casio Triangle chicane and it is there where the penalty points will be aimed today.
- Romain Grosjean - for slowing down and waiting on the racing line, while cars on a flying lap are trying to get through
- Nico Hulkenberg - for not setting a time in Q3, thought you'd got away with it but none escapes a penalty point
- Bruno Senna - as noted in commentry if he just drove away from vergne he could get a lap in but slowed down to wave angrily
Looking to tomorrow
The Japanese GP, generally doesn't echo of enthralling wheel to wheel racing for 90 minutes - it is flowing track which doesn't encourage too much overtaking, even with the DRS. The only main overtaking locations are into the final chicane and into the first corner at the end of the DRS zone, unless of course you are Kobayashi, then the hairpin is also an option. So in that respect there is a reliance on the tyre degredation to increase the amount of on track action, meaning that the latter phase of the race could become more interesting than the intial stint.
In terms of a result, it can be assumed that the Red Bulls will probably vanish off into the distance not to be seen until the flag falls at the end leaving only one place on the podium up for grabs. On the grid Kobayashi leads that charge, but on raw pace the Sauber will be weaker than those around it. Which could mean that this part of the grid could offer some intrigue, throwing both Saubers into that could add something to the mix. There is enough in this race to chase away the prospect of a processional event, and that worked well on a dull track in Valencia so on the epic turns of Suzuka the results can be fantastic. So until tomorrow this is farewell from the blog.
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