Vettel snatches Suzuka pole!

Sebastian Vettel snatched another pole position on Saturday as he came out on top of a close contest with the McLarens at Suzuka.

Hamilton and Button gave the World Champion elect a hard time and he really had to go for it this time. The Red Bull driver was just 0.009s faster than Button and thus maintained Red Bull’s stranglehold on pole position intact.

Hamilton will line up right behind him, on the second row, with his best enemy Felipe Massa by his side. Alonso and Webber will share the third row. Schumacher, Petrov, Senna and Kobayashi qualified within the top ten but didn’t complete a single lap in Q3.

How the session panned out :

Q1

The action got underway quickly as the light went green. Vitaly Petrov fought hard with the Force Indias for top spot in the early days, but the frontrunners were already on track, ready to assert their domination.

Just eight minutes in, Vettel went one second quicker than Petrov to take over at the front. Webber soon joined him and made it a provisional Red Bull one-two. However, they were quickly toppled down the order by Alonso and Button. Meanwhile, Hamilton had a brief off at Spoon.

The Briton bounced back from his earlier moment with the second fastest time.

With five minutes left, Alonso was leading from Hamilton, Button, Vettel, Webber and Massa. Three drivers were yet to post a time: Rosberg, Senna and Liuzzi.

As the top seven stayed in the pits, the midfielders took on the softer tyre option and messed up with the order. Sutil and local hero Kobayashi went fastest while Petrov moved up to fifth. Buemi came up in 8th place.

As the clock was ticking down, Rosberg and Liuzzi were still in the pits and it was game over for both of them. Remember Liuzzi had hydraulics problems in the morning. It is understood Rosberg was also sidelined by hydraulics issues.

Both were eliminated alongside Ricciardo, d’Ambrosio, Glock, Trulli and Kovalainen.

Q2

For once, the top teams’ drivers were first to leave the pits. They were joined by Sutil and Maldonado.

The Force India man set the first benchmark but it was quickly lowered down as Vettel, Button and Webber completed their respective flying laps. The German was faster than his McLaren rival. Webber was third quickest. Seconds later, Hamilton stormed on top.

McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari filled the top six. There were four Q3 spots remaining and they were hardly fought for. Petrov looked rather comfortable in 7th place but was demoted to 8th by Schumacher.

With just under four minutes left, Pastor Maldonado was the only man on track. He was soon joined by a bunch of cars equally eager to qualify in the top ten. Unfortunately, Sergio Pérez couldn’t join the party and was sure to be eliminated.

Both Toro Rossos also gave up without fighting, presumably opting to save rubber for the race.

Maldonado, Barrichello, di Resta and Sutil didn’t make the cut either.

Q3

The final segment of qualification promised to be intriguing, with McLaren in ominous form on single laps. Could they break Red Bull’s 100% pole position record?

As the battle got underway, Schumacher, Petrov and Senna remained in the pits. Kobayashi, meanwhile, opted for a run on the medium tyre but eventually aborted his lap.

The McLarens were first on the road and thus set the benchmark. Hamilton was quickest, Button 2nd and Vettel third. Webber set the fourth fastest time ahead of Massa. Alonso ran wide at Spoon and aborted his effort.
After a brief stay in the pits, they all came out for a final run, bar Kobayashi.

Vettel found some good improvement which put him top of the list and guaranteed him another pole position! It was extremely close though as he only beat Button by a hundredth of a second.

Hamilton crossed the line too late to start a second flyer and thus had to settle for third place. Massa was fourth ahead of Alonso and Webber.