Japan: Joy and Disappointment at Home

By Luke Stanton
October 8 2005

The Panasonic Toyota Racing team had delight as Ralf Schumacher took his Toyota to pole position in Japan for tommorow's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka- in Honda's backyard! The German set a time of 1m46.106s, to edge out Britain's Jenson Button in the B.A.R who will start second.

The rest of the Grid however is all shook up after a Suzuka full-scale wash out.

However, whilst one Toyota driver was flying high, the other suffered disappointment. Jarno Trulli spun off at Degner 2, thus setting no lap time and he will start at the back. But he's not alone; Jordan's Portuguese rookie Tiago Monteiro made exactly the same mistake, he also did not set a lap. What of the front runners? Well, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was the fastest, he will start 3rd. The Italian did a very good job a by the time of his lap the rain had become really bad, Michael Schumacher who will start 14th experienced so much standing water that he was forced to coast along the back straight at half throttle! His time: 1m52.676s. Michael Schumacher will between the Minardi's of Christijan Albers and Robert Doornbos.

The new World Champion Fernando Alonso only managed a time of 1m54.667s which put the Spaniard 16th...just ahead of the two Mclaren drivers! Finn Kimi Raikkonen lost the title to Fernando Alonso, and this weekend when he needs to help Mclaren win the constructors' crown, the Finn had another Mercedes engine failure in Friday Practice, so naturally Kimi wanted to get pole postion so he could get the best spot he could...which would be 11th. But yet again the Finn's luck runn out on the wet surface and he slowly went around to set a time of 2m.02.309s which put him 17th but the Mclaren ace will start 20th because of the drop. At least he set a time! team mate Juan Pablo Montoya didn't even bother to set a time, he'll start at the back with Trulli, Raikkonen and Monteiro.

Local hero Takuma Sato will start 6th on his last Japanese grand prix for the B.A.R team, but maybe not his last with Honda. If the rumours of a 11th secret team powered by Honda are true, the Japanese hero will be on the grid in 2006. He starts ahead of Brit David Coulthard in the Red Bull, who despite putting in a great effort, has once again been out-qualified by his young Austrian team mate Christian Klien who starts 4th. However with Alonso, Raikkonen, Montoya & Trulli so far back, could those times have been realistically possible? I don't think so. Mark Webber (Williams) will start 7th ahead of Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber), Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari and his fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa in his final 2 races for the Sauber team. With the rainy conditions India's Narian Karthikeyan will start 11th in his Jordan ahead of Antonio Pizzonia in the second Williams BMW, Albers, M.Schumacher, Doornbos, Alonso, Monteiro, Trulli, Montoya and Raikkonen.