| Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com |
Mark Webber ended Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s qualifying supremacy as he beat the German to Japanese Grand Prix pole.
Vettel was hobbled by a loss of KERS on his first Q3 lap and was 0.4 seconds adrift of Webber’s provisional pole effort.
Kimi Raikkonen again struggled for qualifying speed, lapping 0.319s slower than Grosjean as he ended up five places adrift.
KR: “There were a couple of small mistakes, and we lost a few places from that, but the car is pretty much normal. I’m much happier than I was at the previous race even though the starting place is the same. We haven’t had very good qualifying lately, but we’ve still been up there in the races, so that’s what counts. Obviously I would have like to qualify higher but last time it wasn’t a disaster.”
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m30.915s
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m31.089s +0.174s
3. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m31.253s +0.338s
4. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m31.365s +0.450s
5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m31.378s +0.463s
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m31.397s +0.482s
7. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m31.644s +0.729s
8. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m31.665s +0.750s
9. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m31.684s +0.769s
10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m31.827s +0.912s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m31.848s Gap **
11. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m31.989s +0.699s
12. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m31.992s +0.702s
13. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m32.013s +0.723s
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m32.063s +0.773s
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m32.093s +0.803s
16. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m32.485s +1.195s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m32.875s Gap *
17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m32.890s +1.066s
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m33.357s +1.533s
19. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m34.320s +2.496s
20. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m34.556s +2.732s
21. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m34.879s +3.055s
22. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m34.958s +3.134s
Kimi Raikkonen – 9th: “The car has felt much better here than it has in recent races; even if we don’t have a better position on the grid for tomorrow. A small mistake on my quick lap cost me a little bit of time and it’s very close here, so a small amount lost can mean quite a few positions dropped. We’ll have to see what happens in the race, but the car has certainly been more to my liking this weekend so the position on the grid is not a drama.”
Romain Grosjean – 4th: “The Red Bulls have looked very strong and we knew it would be tight with Lewis [Hamilton] for P3, so I think we did a good job to take P4. The car feels much better than it did yesterday; especially on the hard tyres which we had been struggling with previously but were then fastest with in Q1 today. The team worked hard to address this overnight and we’ve shown great progress through the weekend once again. It’s a tight, technical circuit, the wind is still making things tricky and it should stay pretty hot, so it’ll be interesting to see what we can do in the race. I’m feeling pretty good.”
Alan Permane – trackside operations director: “Today went reasonably to plan with both drivers in the top ten for tomorrow’s race. Romain continued his good qualifying form and P4 on the grid is a good result, but agonisingly close to P3 once again. It was a very close qualifying session so to have Kimi start P9 is no big drama; especially as we know how well he can work through the field in race conditions. After missing some long runs on Friday, we spent more time on race preparation during morning practice and managed to unlock some extra pace in the car – especially on the primes – so we’re now very happy on both compounds. Yes, we did struggle with the hard tyres yesterday, but we’ve made a significant setup change which has certainly been beneficial in this area. Both drivers are much happier with their cars.”
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 