Japan 2012 - Qualifying results - Sebastian Vettel secures Suzuka pole for fourth year in a row

Published 6 October 2012 by Christine

Red Bull locked out the front row of the grid with Vettel picking up pole position and teammate Webber securing second place alongside him. Button was third, but faces a gearbox penalty, whilst further back there were struggles. Mercedes have had a tough time of it, whilst Bruno Senna was held up by Jean-Éric Vergne and couldn't make it out of the first session.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1:30.839	11
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	1:31.090	15
3	Jenson Button	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	1:31.290	14
4	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber F1 Team	1:31.700	16
5	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	1:31.898	20
6	Sergio Pérez	Sauber F1 Team	1:32.022	20
7	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari	1:32.114	17
8	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Team	1:32.208	18
9	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	1:32.327	17
10	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	1:32.272	12
11	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari	1:32.293	12
12	Paul di Resta	Sahara Force India F1 Team	1:32.327	14
13	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1:32.469	10
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams F1 Team	1:32.512	11
15	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1:32.625	16
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:32.954	14
17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:33.368	14
18	Bruno Senna	Williams F1 Team	1:33.405	8
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham F1 Team	1:34.657	6
20	Timo Glock	Marussia F1 Team	1:35.213	8
21	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT Formula 1 Team	1:35.385	6
22	Charles Pic	Marussia F1 Team	1:35.429	8
23	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham F1 Team	1:35.432	8
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT Formula 1 Team	1:36.734	6