Vettel receives reprimand after blocking Alonso

Just over three hours after the end of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, and it has been confirmed that Sebastian Vettel has received only a reprimand for his alleged block on Championship leader Fernando Alonso. After the lengthy deliberation by the race stewards, Vettel can now look ahead to tomorrow’s race where he will start from pole.

The alleged blocking of Fernando Alonso occurred towards the end of the top-ten shootout, as the Ferrari driver negotiated the chicane at the end of the lap. With the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne being issued a three-place grid penalty for a similar incident with the Williams of Bruno Senna, it was at one stage thought that Sebastian Vettel would loose pole after what was an excellent display of dominance during qualifying.

However, after the race stewards took their time in extensively analyzing the videos and telemetry of the incident, Sebastian Vettel only incurred a reprimand and will be able to start tomorrow’s race from pole. The Red Bull driver will be joined on the front row of the grid by team-mate Mark Webber, with local hero Kamui Kobayashi set to start 3rd after Jenson Button’s five-place grid drop due to a gearbox change.

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