Vettel dominates a real car crash of a qualifying session

Posted on | October 3, 2009 | by James Allen | 19 Comments

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on a day when qualifying was stopped three times for accidents.

vettelP1pic
Jarno Trulli took a very strong second place for Toyota and Lewis Hamilton a rather surprising third for McLaren, given that the team wasn’t expecting to go well here.

The Brawn drivers were fifth and seventh and it looks like they have fuelled the cars heavily anticipating that they will be given a penalty and moved back down the grid after a stewards’ enquiry. Jenson Button did not slow down at the end of Q2, when yellow flags were waving out of Turn 14. There was debris on the track, Buemi’s front wing, and Button set the fastest sector time of anyone. Barrichello was three tenths slower and may have lifted off, that will be for the stewards to decide.

The Brawns had no choice as they had left it until the end to go out and only had one lap on which to set a time.

There is a precedent here in Suzuka, from 1997. Jacques Villeneuve didn’t lift off for a yellow flag (ironically at exactly the same place as Button’s incident this year) in practice for the penultimate race. He was disqualified and raced under appeal but took no points.

It was a crazy session; the tone was set when Sebastian Buemi went off at Degner corner in Q1, but managed to recover to the pits. His team mate Jaime Alguersuari went off later and crashed heavily into the barriers, bringing out the red flag.

After the restart Timo Glock had a huge accident on the run out of the chicane down the hill to the start line. The car went underneath the advertising belt covering the tyre barrier. Glock has a small hip injury apparently and has gone to hospital for checks. Like the Toro Rosso, the nose of the car was intact.

In the final session Heikki Kovalainen crashed the McLaren also at Degner, smashing into the barriers. This is a very fast circuit and the walls and tyre barriers are reasonably close in certain places, but it seemed that the kerb on the outside of the first Degner was catching the drivers out. It caught Mark Webber this morning and he broke his chassis and couldn’t take part in qualifying.

This is a shame for him because he would have been on the front row today. The Red Bull car was totally superior to the opposition here, Vettel fastest in Q1, Q2 and Q3 with ease.

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Category: Race Weekend
Tags: F1 News > Sebastian Vettel

Comments

19 Responses to “Vettel dominates a real car crash of a qualifying session”

Dave C
October 3rd, 2009 @ 8:33 am
Very interesting Qualy session. It will be interesting to see if the brawns get a penalty or not. I kinda disagree that they had no choice to complete the lap at race speed though, it was their own decision to leave it so late in Q2, if there had been a dangerous situation ahead and they caused a huge crash resulting in death or serious injury then I dont think anyone would be saying they had no choice.
Love your posts James
[Reply]
Paige Michael-Shetley
October 3rd, 2009 @ 8:37 am
James,
Are you feeling OK? You sounded quite hoarse in the interview. Hope you’ll be in form for tomorrow!
Anyhow, looks like Red Bull definitely have the quickest car, but Hamilton is in P3 with KERS on the car. He could do Vettel on the start, and then we’ll have a REALLY interesting race.
We’ll see what the car weights are. Personally, I don’t think there’s any substantial difference in fuel between Vettel and Hamilton, as the gap between them is about what it was all session (.15 to .2 of a second) and the gaps in each driver’s lap times from Q2 to Q3 is about the same (about 1.8 seconds for each driver).
Surely, Renault have protested the Brawns, yes?
[Reply]
Just a bloke
October 3rd, 2009 @ 8:37 am
That was mad. Any bets on penalties for those that set their best time under yellow. If there is going to some consistency in the application of the rules surely the majority of the grid will be affected by one penalty or another.
[Reply]
George
October 3rd, 2009 @ 8:42 am
Have you got a cold James? Sounded quite raspy in the drivers interview.
Hope Timo is ok.
[Reply]
James Allen Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Yes. Timo has a gash in his leg, some stitches required, I understand
[Reply]
em
October 3rd, 2009 @ 9:04 am
I’m a big supporter of Button for the title but both he and Ruebens should be penalised for ignoring the yellows. Not only was it dangerous but with so many offs they should have put a banker time in earlier in the session
[Reply]
Andrew Scadden
October 3rd, 2009 @ 9:07 am
Morning all – didnt hear my alarm go off so missed Qualifying live.
Could be an interesting Grand Prix.
James – are you (and we) expecting driving to be exciting or will it be a strategy/pit stop grand prix?
[Reply]
Siverstoned
October 3rd, 2009 @ 9:37 am
My money’s on Vettel for the title.
[Reply]
Kevin Brock
October 3rd, 2009 @ 9:58 am
It was an exciting session in all, but I think they really do have to look at red flag situations in qualifying. Last week I think the session re-started with 24 seconds, pointless!
Now, you take your chances with running late and going for one hot lap, all the teams know that, I also know sessions are run to precise accuracy (notably for broadcasters too) but why can’t they, say, add on two laps time when there is a stoppage, so, taking Q3 as an example, the clock was stopped, if I remember correctly, at 6:49. Add three minutes on and take the clock back to 9:49 to allow an out and hot lap.
How to work it out? Easy, take the fastest time from FP1. Take 25% off for if it was in wet conditions, as yesterday, add 25% if the time was set in dry conditions and it’s now wet.
There will be accidents, and if drivers are being instructed to stay in their cars after a big accident, then that means the Medical Car is coming out. That pretty much means a straight red flag (no point running qualifying under SC conditions), so there are likely to be more red flag situations in qualifying.
Session stoppages, and then less time to set a time mean one thing. Drivers are more likely to make mistakes, especially when they have had little dry practice, as has been the case this weekend. This increases the risk of further incidents, and repeated stoppages.
As for Button/Barrichello, I’d be concerned if I were them right now. The waved yellow was clearly visible from the TV pictures as Buemi got up close and personal to the tyre barriers!
[Reply]
Matt W
October 3rd, 2009 @ 10:10 am
James, wasn’t JV already racing on a suspended ban at Suzuka 97 which triggered his DQ?
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LeighJW
October 3rd, 2009 @ 11:07 am
This is a quote from the formula1.com website:
“There was still one final act to be played out in this session, when Buemi, having already survived a rear-end brush with the Degner Two wall in Q1, dropped his Toro Rosso on the run to 130R and spent most of it wiping the STR4 down the outer barrier and shedding debris, including his front wing. Button was lucky to weave through this before the yellows came out, and vault up to fourth at the last gasp, as was Barrichello who took sixth. Vettel set the fastest time of 1m 30.341s.”
[Reply]
rpaco
October 3rd, 2009 @ 11:24 am
Is it not quite clear that this circuit is not up to the required safety standard for modern F1 in terms of runoff areas. True it is one of the driver’s favourites and a great circuit, but it needs modifying, not slowing but giving tarmack areas to slow cars that go off. I gather there is a lot of bike racing here too and that modification would also make it much safer for riders.
With three “offs” of varying degrees of danger in similar places, the very small area of gravel is of little or no use at all in slowing the cars before they hit the barrier. Also in Glock’s case the conveyor belt positioning needs to be investigated.
This point was made by Mark Webber (obviously immediately after he had shaved) and needs to be taken up by FOTA. There is a chance of a full speed crash this weekend, worse than Glock’s.
[Reply]
chris Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
The track is fine. Three Suzuka virgins were attacking Degner 1 like they would on their playstation’s and demonstrated a lack of respect for the race track.
[Reply]
rpaco Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 8:29 am
One of them finished third!
[Reply]
Werewolf Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Rpaco, you have clearly missed the point. Millions of yen have been spent on new pit buildings and hospitality areas and all you can do is worry about gravel. My heart is still pounding from the all too brief glimpses of these glorious trackside edifices in the TV feed. I think I caught sight of a working garage door in one shot. I barely noticed there were accidents until my wife said something about running late.
All I can say is fans like you do not deserve F1’s leadership.
[Reply]
rpaco Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Ah, obviously your wife is the racing fan, are you by any chance an interior decorator?
[Reply]
Treebeard
October 3rd, 2009 @ 11:27 am
Hi James
I believe your comment about Villeneuve being disqualified is slightly misleading as he went into the race under a suspended sentence which is why he got disqualified, I think without that he would have got a lesser penalty.
Although I do agree the drivers who set their fast times under yellow will suffer a grid penalty of some kind
[Reply]
john g
October 3rd, 2009 @ 2:06 pm
so, lewis to do a KERS jump on trulli, possibly vettel too, who isn’t always the best starter. vettel will come through for the win as his car is stronger. everyone else gets stuck in the trulli train, but heidfeld has fuelled longer (and is good enough to keep kimi behind) so nabs 3rd. sound good?
[Reply]
James H.
October 3rd, 2009 @ 8:31 pm
I agree Chris. Some tracks, like Suzuka, can’t be learned on a Playstation. Suzuka deserves respect, not modifications a la Eau Rouge. At least the lessons were relatively painless, so far anyway.
[Reply]

Vettel dominates a real car crash of a qualifying session

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