Formula One Highlights: Japanese Grand Prix, Qualifying – Part 1
Bettor.com returns with its in-depth review of the race weekend in Japan. The features offer to do justice in quenching the thirst of the most devoted Formula One fans.
The practice session Saturday morning was interrupted by heavy rain, with only the Algesuari and Glock setting a timed lap; the rest just conducted a few installation laps. Conditions worsened for qualifying and the session was postponed for Sunday morning.
On Friday, the Red Bulls were dominant in the first two practice sessions with Sebastian Vettel leading Mark Webber. Robert Kubica was the best of the rest setting the 3rd fastest time in both FP1 and FP2. Their rather large pace differential to Red Bull
was a worrying sign for Ferrari and McLaren. Alonso could only manage 4th fastest in the Ferrari, while McLaren faced issues trying out new parts as Lewis crashed during FP1 and Button had an off-track moment too.
Stay tuned as we plan to get the highlights of Q1 underway. The track was slightly damp to begin with, but was quickly drying. The temperature was 25 degree centigrade. McLaren decided to change Lewis Hamilton's gearbox after the final practice, and were
facing a 5-grid place penalty.
The first qualifying session kicked off. The drivers headed out on a damp track led by Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Willams’ Nico Hulkenberg. 6 more drivers followed afterwards. The McLarens opted to start their proceedings on the intermediate tires – an
understandable decision as the track was still wet at different places.
Minute 2 nearly held the grid on the track. It was expected that any residue of the rain would be wiped off clean after the first qualifying session. This suggested that the lap times were going to get faster as the round progressed. Petrov looked to be
the first to set a hot lap. However, it appeared to be more of banker lap as times were expected to certainly fall. And verily, the 1 minute 38 seconds time posted by the Polish driver was immediately bettered by Di Grassi and Hulkenberg.
The move for the slicks proved to be a right one as none of the drivers had spun on the patchy, semi–dry track. Felipe Massa looked set to go fastest and did not disappoint after finishing his lap. The effective top 3 were Massa, Sutil and Alguersuari.
Hulkenberg and Barrichello went quicker but still 4 drivers had not made their way out. These included the 2 Red Bulls, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica. Meanwhile, the McLarens came back into the pits after a slighter lap on the intermediates.
Michael Schumacher had won the Japanese Grand Prix a record 6 times in his career and it was no surprise that this was one of his favourite tracks on the Formula One calendar. The German did reasonably well on his Mercedes when he went 3rd fastest.
The times were quickly tumbling and they had reached the 1 minute 32 seconds levels after starting the session at 1 minute 38 seconds. The Ferrari of Fernando Alonso went 10th fastest with 1 minute 34.198 seconds. The McLarens and Red Bulls apparently
had seen enough as they left the comforts of the pits and right onto the track. Kubica, on the other hand, decided to wait a little longer and bid his time from the sidelines.
Hamilton and the other title contenders began a fast lap on the harder compound tires. This resulted in a 16th place classification for Hamilton after his first timed lap. Button was 10th fastest and Vettel went 7th. As the
‘usual’ suspects still featured in the relegation zone, Kubica finally felt that it was time for his Renault to work its magic on track.
The times were obviously getting faster. Suzuka was finally giving a test of its potential and proving exactly why it was one of the hottest destinations of the year. How would it pan out?
(To be continued in Part 2)
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