Sebastian Vettel pips Jenson Button to Suzuka pole - Vettel secures another pole position, but only just
Published by Christine
Welcome to F1 Minute - Sebastian Vettel pips Jenson Button to Suzuka pole.
It was a beautiful sunny day at Suzuka as qualifying got underway. Immediately, it was bad news for Nico Rosberg and Tonio Liuzzi, both of whom had reliability problems on their respective cars and neither of whom could set a time. Rosberg qualified 23rd.
In Q2, Sergio Pérez failed to set a time, also through mechanical trouble. The Mexican is suffering with the flu this weekend, as is Paul di Resta, who missed out on the top ten shootout, qualifying 12th behind teammate Adrian Sutil.
Both Renault drivers got through to the top ten, an impressive feat as the mechanics had some serious work to do on Bruno Senna’s car after an FP3 crash. Neither of them, nor Kamui Kobayashi or Michael Schumacher set a time in Q3, however. Schumacher, along with Lewis Hamilton, missed out on crossing the line before the chequered flag dropped, and so were unable to set a lap. Hamilton had provisional pole but was knocked down by Sebastian Vettel, who was super fast, and Jenson Button, who missed out on the top grid slot by just nine thousandths of a second.
