Grid Penalties for Fernando & Ricciardo

Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull have been slapped with massive grid penalties for the Austrian F1 Grand Prix on 21st June, 2015.

Fernando Alonso has gone beyond the permitted 4 engines and is now using the 5th engine. That automatically gets 10 place starting grid penalty. However, Alonso apart from using his 5th Honda engine is now on the 5th turbocharger and 5th MGU-H. The later two attracts 5 place grid penalty each totaling upto 20 grid point penalties for Fernando Alonso. Since his McLaren is too slow and is most likely to qualify barely before the two Manor Marussia racing cars and if luck permits then before his teammate Jenson Button and any other unfortunate racer to have a qualifying problem, he cannot consume all his grid penalties. So he is likely to be slapped with time penalties in the race by giving 10 second stop go penalty. Given that McLaren with its Honda engine is in such bad shape, does it actually matter where Alonso starts?

However, Daniel Ricciardo will obviously be in a worse position with that 10 place grid penalty as he is mostly a top ten qualifier with his Red Bull car and Renault engine and is currently in the 7th position in the drivers championship with 35 points. This hits Red Bull hard as they now can look at Daniil Kvyat to challenge the front runners. Daniil Kvyat is 8th in the drivers championship with 19 points.

Vettel wins US GP for 8th win in a row

8th win in row for Vettel

As expected Sebastian Vettel won the US F1 GP and made it 8 races in a row. He overtook Michael Schumacher’s record of 7 consecutive race wins.

Starting from pole position, it was known that Vettel would conjure up the race win despite his teammate Mark Webber started in second place. The only challenge was from Romain Grosjean of Lotus who had a superb start and finished in second place. Vettel finished 6.2 seconds ahead of Grosjean.

Mark Webber was stuck behind Lewis Hamilton for sometime and hence it was not easy for him to challenge Romain. To his credit Romain Gorsjean did as he was prompted over radio and managed to keep the Red Bull of Mark Webber at bay. Even his detractors will feel sad for Mark Webber fading away from F1 in such an unceremonious manner. Most of the times it has been his team throwing a googly at him. And in this race, he made a mistake and couldn’t take the pole position. Nevertheless, Webber has been in a lose-lose situation. On hind sight, he shouldn’t have continued with Red Bull this year.

Lewis Hamilton finished in 4th position. He came under pressure from Alonso, however, he could hold on to his position. Later on Hamilton said that he was happy to have a new chassis for this race as his team discovered a crack in his car chassis. Lewis Hamilton said that there was a huge difference after the change in chassis and it felt like “night and day” difference. Hamilton had qualified in 5th position and finished at 4th in the race. He said that he was looking after the tyres and he would have increased the pace if Fernando would haveUnfortunately, his teammate Nico Rosberg could only finish in ninth position.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber finished behind Fernando Alonso in 6th position. This finish and no information from Lotus is now making him contemplate staying at Sauber for another year. Earlier in the year, it was known that Nico Hulkenberg was not paid by Sauber. We are yet to know whether that has been resolved yet. The financial situation of teams in Formula 1 is precarious.

Sergio Perez of McLaren drove a fine race to finish at 7th ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams in 8th. It was the first points earning position for Bottas. He should be especially happy as his teammate Pastor Maldonado has scored only a single point so far and hence he can finish ahead of him in the drivers championship.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and Jenson Button of McLaren finished at 9th and 10th positions.

Final Restuls in US F1 Grand Prix 2013

1. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull

2. Romain Grosjean               Lotus

3. Mark Webber                    Red Bull

4. Lewis Hamilton                  Mercedes

5. Fernando Alonso               Ferrari

6. Nico Hulkenberg               Sauber

7. Sergio Perez                       McLaren

8. Valtteri Bottas                    Williams

9. Nico Rosberg                      Mercedes

10. Jenson Button                 McLaren

11. Daniel Ricciardo              Toro Rosso

12. Felipe Massa                    Ferrari

13. Esteban Gutierrez           Sauber

14. Heikki Kovalainen           Lotus

15. Paul di Resta                   Force India

16. Jean-Eric Vergne             Toro Rosso

17. Pastor Maldonado          Williams

18. Jules Bianchi                    Marussia

19. Giedo van der Garde      Caterham

20. Charles Pic                       Caterham

21. Max Chilton                     Marussia

Retirements in US F1 Grand Prix 2013

Adrian Sutil                            Force India

Lewis Hamilton on Pole in Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton on Pole in Belgian Grand Prix 2013

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes scores Pole in rain in F1 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.

In the Q3, rain was predicted, so all the cars started immediately as soon as the session was flagged on. However, rain immediately started and it came to notice that Force India had put their driver Di Resta on intermediate tyres. So he set the first bench mark time and it was very late when drivers could beat it. Paul di Resta scored P5.

Lewis Hamilton in the dying moments snatched the P1 slot from Sebastian Vettel with a time of 2:01.012. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull came second with a time of 2:01.200

Vettel’s teammate in Red Bull, Mark Webber scored P3 with a time of 2:01.325 seconds. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes will line up by his side in the second row after he scored 2:02.251

Jenson Button of McLaren scored P6. Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus will line up in the 4th row as they qualified P7 and P8.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa of Ferrari will start in fifth row. Unless there is rain tomorrow, the championship hopes of Fernando Alonso seems to be fading away.

Drama in Q1 in Belgian Grand Prix F1 Qualifying

In the First part of the qualifying in Belgian Grand Prix 2013, rain brought a few surprises. Towards the end of the Q1 the track was drying up and hence times were tumbling faster. Giedo van der Garde a backmarker, shot into limelight when he posted the third fastest time P3 of 2:00.564. The Fastest time was of Fernando Alonso at 2:00.190 followed by Lewis Hamilton at 2:00.368

During Q1 the six drivers who were relegated were:

17. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
18. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso
19. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
20. Valteri Bottas, Williams
21. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber
22. Charles Pic, Marussia

So out of the four perennial backmarkers belonging to Caterham and Marussia, only Charles Pic of Marussia finished in his familiar 22nd spot. The other three escaped relegation, which is nothing sort of historical.

In the Q2, Giedo van der Garde scored his career best 14th at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix came 2013 and stayed ahead of Jules Bianchi of Marussia 15th and Max Chilton of Caterham at 16th.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber scored P11 followed by Adrian Sutil of Force India at P12 and Sergio Perez of McLaren at P13.

Final Qualifying Results in Belgian Grand Prix

1. Lewis Hamilton                  Mercedes

2. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull

3. Mark Webber                    Red Bull

4. Nico Rosberg                      Mercedes

5. Paul di Resta                      Force India

6. Jenson Button                    McLaren

7. Romain Grosjean               Lotus

8. Kimi Raikkonen                 Lotus

9. Fernando Alonso               Ferrari

10. Felipe Massa                    Ferrari

11. Nico Hulkenberg              Sauber

12. Adrian Sutil                     Force India

13. Sergio Perez                    Mclaren

14. Giedo van der Garde      Caterham

15. Jules Bianchi                    Marussia

16. Max Chilton                     Caterham

17. Pastor Maldonado          Williams

18. Jean-Eric Vergne             Toro Rosso

19. Daniel Ricciardo              Toro Rosso

20. Valteri Bottas                   Williams

21. Esteban Gutierrez           Sauber

22. Charles Pic                       Marussia

Hamilton snatches Pole in Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying

Hamilton snatches Pole in Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

In the Final leg of the Qualifying, Lewis Hamilton drove at a scorching pace to snatch the pole position from Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton scored 1:19.388 vs 1:19.426 of Sebastian Vettel.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus came third in 1:19.595. He was followed by Nico Rosberg in 4th with a time of 1:19.720.
Fernando Alonso of Ferrari came 5th and will start in the 3rd row with Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus on 6th. They were timed at 1:19.791 and 1:19.851.
Felipe Massa of Ferrari scored 1:19.929 to come at P7th and was followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso at 8th with a time of 1:20.641.

Sergio Perez of McLaren came 9th with a time of 1:22.398. He was followed by Mark Webber of Red Bull - who had limped into the Q3 ie. Final leg of qualifying – choosing not to set a time.

We were surprised when Mercedes took P1-2 positions in the first segment of the qualifying Q1 in the F1 Hungary Grand Prix. With Romain Grosjean topping the timesheets in the Practice 3, it was expected that the lotus will give a fight to the Red Bulls. However, Mercedes decided to show its hand in the Q1 in qualifying with Nico Rosberg leading his teammate Lewis Hamilton 1:20.350 to 1:20.363 for P1 and P2 positions.

Mark Webber of Red Bull had an electrical problem and finished at 13th position in the Q1. Paul di Resta of Force India was a surprise dropout in the Q1.

Drivers eliminated in Q1 in Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:21.724
18. Paul di Resta Force India 1:22.043
19. Charles Pic Caterham 1:23.007
20. G. van der Garde Caterham 1:23.333
21. Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:23.787
22. Max Chilton Marussia 1:23.997

In the Q2 it was again P1 and P2 for the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton with times of 1:19.778 vs 1:19.862. Whereas Sergio Perez could squeeze in to 10th position his team mate Jenson Button was only 13th. Daniel Ricciardo was 7th in Q2, but his teammate Jules Eric Vergne couldn’t make the top ten shoot out as he finished in 14th with times of 1:20.527 vs 1:21.029. Clearly Daniel Ricciardo is making his case stronger for getting the Red Bull seat next year, atleast above Vergne.

Drivers eliminated in Q2 in Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

11. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:20.569
12. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:20.580
13. Jenson Button McLaren 1:20.777
14. Jules Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:21.029
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:21.133
16. Valteri Bottas Williams 1:21.219

Lewis Hamilton scores Pole for Mercedes in Germany

Lewis Hamilton snatches the pole position in Germany for the German team.

It was an interesting formula one qualifying in Germany. In the Q1, only Redbull and Mercedes used medium tyres, and all the other teams had to resort to soft tyres to qualify. The soft tyre is about 1.5 seconds faster than the medium tyres. This shows that Mercedes and Redbull have an edge over others in this circuit.

Eliminations in Q1 in German Grand Prix

The usual suspects were eliminated in the Q1, namely:
Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado, Charles Pic, Jules Bianchi, Geido Van der Garde, Max Chilton. There was slightly nearly four and half seconds difference between the fastest and the slowest car in Q1.

Sergio Perez was in danger of not qualifying for Q2 as he was down at 18th position before he put together a lap in the dying seconds of Q1 to move into Q2.

Intense drama in Q2 in German Grand Prix 2013

There was lot of drama in the Q2
In the Q2, the Red Bull team kept their drivers in their garage and released them with about five and half minutes remaining what appeared to be for a single run. They appeared to be saving their soft tyres. Vettel and Webber posted identical sector times in S1 and S2 but webber scored a slower S3 and as a result Vettel took P1 position in Q2 ahead of Hamilton and Webber.

Mercedes decided not to run their drivers again as they were initially 1-2. However, in the dying seconds of Q2, Grosjean came ahead of Hamilton and then Alonso scored a provisional P1 to be just inched by his team mate Felipe Massa. Then Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Jenson Button all pushed through to push out Nico Rosberg out of Q3. Kimi Raikkonen did a flyer to score P2 in Q2 in the last few seconds. The difference between Hamilton was 1:30.152 and Rosberg 1:30.326

Drivers eliminated in Q2 in F1 German Grand Prix 2013

11. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta Force India
13. Sergio Perez McLaren
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
15. Adrian Sutil Force India
16. Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso

In Q3, both the Ferrari drivers and Jenson Button of McLaren came out on medium tyres. Perhaps they expect the soft tyre not to last only for a short time so that they will get advantage if they use a medium tyre.

There was a fight for the pole as Vettel went fractionally ahead of Hamilton with a great third sector. However, Hamilton hit back by knocking off 0.2 seconds in the first sector, matching Vettel in the second sector and again besting him in the third sector. So Lewis Hamilton scored 1:29.398 seconds to Sebastian Vettel’s time of 1:29.501 seconds. It was a happy moment for Mercedes as they got the Pole in Germany, their home country. The German fans roared when Lewis Hamilton scored the pole. The blow of Nico Rosberg, a german driver of Mercedes not qualifying for the Q3 was forgotten.

Mark Webber or Red Bull scored P3 with a time of 1:29.608 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who scored 1:29.892. Both of them will start in the second row.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus scored P5 with time of 1:29.959 and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso scored P6 with 1:30.528.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso for the 7th and 8th positions with times of 1:31.126 and 1:31.209 respectively.

Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber didn’t register a time. This allows them to choose a tyre ie. both of them can either start with soft tyre or medium tyres.

It is a proud moment for Nico Hulkenberg, another German, to be on P10 as his previous races this year are forgettable.

It would be a very interesting race tomorrow in the F1 German Grand Prix 2013

Inaugural US GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Inaugural United States GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel managed to score the pole in the inaugural Grand Prix in Austin by using parts that were specially flown in the night before. Red Bull has been relentlessly developing the car to ensure Sebastian Vettel to win the drivers championship. In comparision his competitor for this years driver's championship title Fernando Alonso has been forced to depend on his individual brilliance as his Ferrari team has been lagging behind in this development race. Ferrari being a marque team with a huge motor racing history as well as sports car business is lagging behind Red Bull which is a soft drinks company. The humiliation for Ferrari can't be more. Considering the fact that in 2010, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stole the title from Fernando Alonso in the last race.

Lewis Hamilton, driving his penultimate race for McLaren gave a big fight to Sebastian Vettel but had to settle for second position scoring 1:35.766 s to Vettel's 1m 35. 657seconds.

Mark Webber of Red Bull came third and was allowed to retain his place though he missed a mandatory post qualifying weigh in.

Romain Grosjean outqualified his fancied team mate Kimi Raikkonen to score a 4th postion. However, he picks up a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. So Kimi Raikkonen will now start at 4th position.

Michael Schumacher - the God of Formula One - driving the penultimate race before his retirement, scored a strong sixth position. Due to Grosjean's penalty, he will now start at fifth position. His much younger teammate Nico Rosberg starts at a poor 17th position. As usual, Nico Rosberg was quick to jump to his defence and talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael. Nico Rosberg was faster than Michael in FP1 and FP3 and had never talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael Schumacher. However, he choose to give an excuse when he was 11 places lower than Michael Schumacher in Qualifying. This has been the story in every race when Micahel Schumacher is faster. On the other hand, Michael Schumacher being a self assured person doesn't even talk about equipment deficiency when his car breaks down or when that leads to his slower times.

Ferrari team mates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were 7th and 9th and will now start at 6th and 8th due to Romain Grosjean's grid penalty.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India, brought some good news for his team at a time when both the majority owners of Force India are having financial troubles, by qualifying in 8th place. His team mate Paul di Resta will start at 13th.

Pastor Maldonado of Williams will start at 10th position whereas his team mate Bruno Senna will start at 11th. Jenson Button of McLaren will start at a poor 12th position, separated by a massive ten positions from his teammate Lewis Hamilton who will start second. Since Hamilton is leaving McLaren after this season to join Mercedes, the McLaren team will be ruing the mistake they did by not giving in to the demands of Lewis Hamilton. Some of those sore points which led to Lewis Hamilton's moving away to Mercedes was the right to retain the winner's trophy. McLaren wanted to take away the trophy won by its drivers.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso gave a good account of himself by scoring the 14th position. He was followed by the Sauber's of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi at 15th and 16th.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was 18th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia scored 19th and 20th positions ahead of the two Caterham cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov. With Marussia now being ahead of Caterham in the driver's championship due to Timo Glock's 12th place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, and the Marussia showing more pace than the Caterham cars, it appears that Marussia will score the 10th place in the team championship. That should be worth about 20 million pounds and will come as a severe blow to the Caterham team.

The rear was brought up by Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan's car stopped with a problem. The HRT team is financially very weak and its management is hoping to sell the team outright. It is not sure if the HRT team can do a good job in the race, as there are some doubts about the parts being used. They have stopped development long time ago due to paucity of funds.

It would be good if an Indian company like Tata's can buy this F1 team outright and invest resources and turn it into a winning team. Narain and the Indian fans deserve it. 

Red Bull scripts Vettel's victory in Korean Grand Prix 2012

Red Bull stage manages victory for Sebastian Vettel's in the Korean Grand Prix to catapult him into the driver's championship lead.

In the opening lap of the Korean Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who started on 2nd of the grid moved to the side of pole sitter Mark Webber and then pulled ahead without much resistance from Mark Webber and Webber watched the flanks and stopped Lewis Hamilton from attacking Vettel. A scripted move perfectly executed by the Red Bull drivers to give Sebastian Vettel the lead. In an relatively incident free race, Mark Webber finished second followed by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari finished at P4, Kimi Raikkonent of Lotus was 5th, followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India at 6th. Romain Grosjean of Lotus, managed his restrain his urge of causing mayhem in the first lap and finished 7th. In a fantastic race for Toro Rosso team, both their drivers drove from the back of the grid to finish in points - Jean Eric Vergne in 8th and Daniel Ricciardo in 9th. Lewis Hamilton who was struggling with tyre wear finished at 10th.

In what was an ugly demonstration of the Korean track's poor quality construction and materials used, the astro turf came off and got stuck in Lewis Hamilton's car slowing him down in the last few laps. However, he still managed to hold on to the 10th place keeping Sergio Perez at 0.3 seconds behind him.

In the opening lap of the race, Kamui Kobayashi did the Grosjean act of hitting other cars. Kamui Kobayashi's kamikaze act took out Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes in the first lap. Kobayashi was handed with a drive through penalty and later retired from the race. There was only one more retirement in the form of Pedro de la Rosa of HRT.

Sergio Perez, who is heading to McLaren next year in place of Lewis finished at P11 followed by Paul di Resta of Force India at P12. Mercedes had poor race pace and Michael Schumacher's car despite his race craft, could not finish within points. He finished at 13th position.

The sad pace of the Mercedes cars may have actually made Schumacher to wait till October to announce his decision and made Mercedes to sign up Lewis Hamilton and then forcing Michael Schumacher to retire.

Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna of Williams finished 14th and 15th. Vitaly Petrov led the two Caterhams to finish at 16th followed by Heikki Kovalainen at 17th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia finished at 18th and 19th. Narain Kathikeyan of HRT - India's lone F1 driver - finished at 20th position.

Mark Webber the Lead Bull in Korean Grand Prix

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 Qualifying was great for Red Bull as they scored a 1-2 position. However, it was Mark Webber who scored the Pole position for Red Bull instead of Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of failing to qualify for Q2 but could do so at the end qualifying at 16 in the Q1 to make the cutoff for Q2. He then scored P3 position in the final leg of qualifying.


Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P4 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at P5.

Felipe Massa was driving close to half a second of his illustrious team mate Fernando Alonso and it appears that Ferrari is going to retain Massa as that means there would not be any other young driver to challenge Alonso and hence harmony is maintained. He scored a P6.


Following Massa is the “first lap nut-case” Romain Grosjean of Lotus at P7. So the people who are in danger tomorrow of being shunted out in the opening lap are Massa, Kimi and Alonso.

McLaren’s Jenson Button failed to make it to Q3 as he qualified at P11. McLaren team might be thinking what they have lost, as Jenson Button as well as their recruit for 2013 Sergio Perez at P12 failed to make to the Q3. Also all other teams have both their drivers in Q3 except McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India made it to the Q3 at the expense of Jenson Button and scored a good P8 ahead of the two Mercedes cars.


Mercedes team would have breathed a sigh of relief as both their drivers made it to Q3. Michael Schumacher had a run earlier and put in a good time and was five thousandths of a second faster than Jenson Button who remained at P11. Nico Rosberg came in a P9 in the Q3 followed by Michael Schumacher at P10. This is after sometime that Rosberg has outqualified Michael in a qualifying.

Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg saved their tyres and elected to only choose a single run in the Q3.

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 qualifying started on a bad note for Narain Karthikeyan as he failed to start due to a brake problem. He will be able to drive on Sunday on the discretion of the stewards.

Final Qualifying Positions for Korean Grand Prix

1. Mark Webber
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Felipe Massa
7. Romain Gorsjean
8. Nico Hulkenberg
9. Nico Rosberg
10. Michael Schumacher
11. Jenson Button
12. Sergio Perez
13. Kamui Kobayashi
14. Paul di Resta
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Daniel Ricciardo
17. Jean-Eric Vergne
18. Bruno Senna
19. Vitaly Petrov
20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Charles Pic
22. Timo Glock
23. Pedro de la Rosa
24. Narain Karthikeyan (no time)

Vettel scores Pole and Redbull 1-2 in Suzuka

Sebastian Vettel Scores Pole in Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix 

Red Bull scores 1-2 in qualifying with Sebastian Vettel scoring the Pole in 2012 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying.

Schumacher who has announced his retirement, made everybody gasp for breath when he was on the verge of being the only driver who couldn’t qualify under the 107% rule. He was in hard tires and had perhaps planned two back to back laps. His first lap was compromised as he ran wide and despite slow cars ahead of him, he could squeeze through and score P16 and qualify to Q2.

The following drivers failed to qualify for Q2

Bruno Senna of Williams at 1:33.405,

Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham at 1:34.657

Timo Glock of Marussia at 1:35.213

Pedro de la Rosa of HRT 1:35.385

Charles Pic of Marussia 1:35.429

Vitaly Petrov of Caterham 1:35.432

Narain Karthikeyan of HRT 1:36.734

It was a great result for Pedro de la Rosa of HRT who outqualified Charles Pic of Marussia and Vitaly Petrov of Caterham.

Mercedes was not fast enough. Michael Schumacher waited till the last moment to hit the track. However, at 1:32.469 he could score the 13^th position, faster than his much younger team mate Nico Rosberg who scored P15 with a time of 1:32.625. Michael Schumacher however has a penalty of 10 grid slots for the accident in Singapore.

Felipe Massa who was threatening to out pace his much fancied rival Fernando Alonso, could only score the P11 position at 1:32.293. Paul di Resta at 1:32.327 is at P12. Pastor Maldonado of Williams again outscored his team mate Bruno Senna. Maldonado set a time of 1:32.512. Daniel Ricciardo scored 1:32.954 for a P16 position ahead of his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne who set a time of 1:33.368

At the top of the table, it was an intensely fought session, with the RedBulls locking up the front row. Sebastian Vettel at 1:30.839 scored the Pole while his team mate Mark Webber at 1:31.090 came in second. Jenson Button of McLaren scored 1:31.290 outscored his team mate Lewis Hamilton who is going to Mercedes at the end of the season. However, Jenson Button will drop down 5 positions due to a gearbox change. The local hero Kamui Kobayashi at 1:31.700 scored the P4 position for Sauber and will be elevated to P3 due to Jenson Button’s penalty.

Romain Grosjean at 1:31.898 scored P5, Sergio Perez at 1:32.022 scored P6. Fernando Alonso at 1:32.114 was P7, Kimi Raikkonen at 1:32.208 was P8, Hamilton at 1:32.327 was P9. Nico Hulkenberg didn’t choose to set a time and was P10.

Many questions to answer. Will Michael Schumacher overcome his 10 place grid penalty and score good points as Suzuka is a drivers circuit?