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The big news
prior to qualifying was that Webber would be out of qualifying as the Red
Bull team would not have enough time to repair his car after his practice
crash. Webber will also have to start the race from the pitlane making Red
Bull's hope of challenging Brawn for the Constructors Championship that much
harder. For the AT&T Williams team qualifying is a bit of an unknown after
their practice pace with Nico Rosberg finishing in third but Kazuki Nakajima
was down in fifteenth. Kazuki was in his car and ready to go.
 The opening twenty minute period would commence under a sunny sky with the
track temperature at 40 degrees Celsius. Toyota would be looking at having
there cars at the front after qualifying given that it is their home race.
Buemi would be first out followed by Liuzzi and the Alguersuari. Button was
next out running on the harder tyre. He was followed by Fisichella, Trulli,
and Glock. Buemi would get it all wrong spinning at the Degner corner after
he ran wide on the first part of the corner. He was able to get going again.
While this was going on Liuzzi would set a time of 1m:33.585. Both McLaren's
were out joined by Grosjean and Barrichello.
Nico would take to the track as Buemi pitted. Alguersuari was now fastest
with a 1m:33.14 while Button moved into second, 1m:33.198. Kazuki was now on
the track as Fisichella moved into fourth. Trulli was now fastest with a
1m:31.810 while Glock moved into second, 1m:32.332. Trulli's time was set on
the harder tyre while Alguersuari was now third. Everyone except Buemi were
out on the track as Button moved into second followed by Grosjean. Raikkonen
was now fourth, 1m:32.247. Hamilton was now sixth and Kovalainen eighth.
Nico's first lap would see him up to fourth, 1m:32.213, while Vettel would
go fastest with a
1m:31.628. Kazuki was on the softer tyre for his first run and would finish
in seventh, 1m:32.258.
Barrichello was now second, 1m:31.754, but this became third as Trulli again
went to the top of the times with a 1m:31.080. Vettel was again fastest with
a 1m:30.979 while Kovalainen had spun at the Degner corner. Glock was third
from Barrichello, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, and Kazuki. Nico was now down
in twelfth as Vettel went to the top of the times with a 1m:30.883, running
on the harder tyre. Nico was back on it going third with a 1m:31.286.
Heidfeld was now fourth followed by Kubica. Alguersuari was up to fifth
pushing Kubica to sixth. Kazuki was now twelfth and had pitted. Kovalainen
was now seventh, 1m:31.649, as Hamilton vaulted up to second, 1m:31.056.
Nico had also pitted as more drivers took the softer tyre for their second
runs. Trulli was out on the track currently in third with five minutes
remaining. Barrichello and Button were now tenth and twelfth. Kovalainen was
eighth from Glock. Buemi had yet to set a time as Alonso improved to be
fifth, 1m:31.401. Vettel had not come back out while Buemi was back out
looking to set a time. The rest of the field were out on the track with two
minutes thirty remaining. Raikkonen was now fifth, 1m:31.339. Kazuki was
down in fourteenth while
Hamilton was going faster. One driver who was going faster was Buemi who
moved up to fourth, 1m:31.242. Nico was now fifth and Kazuki fifteenth.
 Button would improve to be third followed by Trulli, Buemi, and Barrichello.
Nico was now seventh as Kazuki failed to improve from his seventeenth. The
period would end with Vettel still fastest from Hamilton and Button.
Kovalainen would improve to be twelfth. So those not making the cut were
Fisichella, Kazuki, Grosjean, and Liuzzi. The order was Vettel from
Hamilton, Button, Trulli, Buemi, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Nico, Sutil,
Alonso, Kubica, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Glock, and in fifteenth Alguersuari.
The fact that Kazuki failed to make it into Q2 is not surprising. Now it was
down to whether Nico can make it into Q3. |
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The fifteen minute second period would see Raikkonen out first running on
the softer tyre. Nico was out early along with Kovalainen, Kubica, and
Alguersuari. Both Brawn cars would come out with Nico running on the harder
tyre. Vettel was also out on the track followed shortly after by a rush of
drivers. Only three drivers were still in their pits as Raikkonen set a time
of 1m:31.195. But the period would be red flagged when Alguersuari crashed
heavily again at the Degner corner. He ran wide and off onto the gravel. He
would at speed hit the tyre barrier front on damaging the front end badly removing the
front wing and both front tyres.
Everyone would pit while Alguersuari would slowly get out of his car with
the help of medical staff and was driven back to the pits for a check up.
The Torro Rosso was craned away with eleven minutes left in the period.
Kazuki spoke of his qualifying by saying: "Today in the dry we didn't get
the best out of the car .. a shame". He was asked if it was a car or driver
problem. He responded: "I am not sure as my team-mate made in into the next
period. We will have to see."
 The period would recommence with the Toyota's out first, Trulli leading.
Button was out running on the softer tyre. He joined Hamilton, Heidfeld,
Nico, Buemi, Sutil, and Barrichello. Nico was on a quick lap along with
Trulli. Vettel and Alonso had yet to come out while Nico's middle sector was
very slow while Trulli set a time of 1m:30.737 to go fastest. Team-mate
Glock was to join Alguersuari in having crash again seeing the session red
flagged. Glock had gone off at the beginning of the pit straight in what was
a heavy crash. The medical crew were on the scene as Glock remained in the
car. There was seven minutes forty nine seconds remaining with only two
drivers having set a time.
Glock was still in his car as an ambulance arrived. Glock would finally be
removed from his car using the drivers eat and taken away in the ambulance.
He gave the thumbs up to the crowd. His Toyota was craned away while reports
came back saying that Glock had a wound on his leg. The session would
restart in a few minutes and it would be a very busy time for the drivers
with no one having had the opportunity to have a go. Alonso was waiting at
the end of the pit lane with Nico right behind him, again on the harder
tyre. Alonso was on the softer tyre. Both these drivers were out to set an early lap time. Both
McLaren's were out on the track.
It looked like the other drivers were going to have just a single run as
Vettel came out with five minutes remaining. Alonso was now third with a
1m:31.638 while Nico went fourth with a 1m:34.030, a very slow time. Buemi
had left the pit lane along with Kubica. Hamilton was on a quick lap going
fastest with a 1m:30.627. Kovalainen was fourth as Alonso pitted. Nico was
fifth after an improved lap of 1m:31.482. This would be sixth as Vettel
moved into third, 1m:30.928. Everyone was now out on the track as Hamilton
pitted. Buemi was up to fourth, 1m:31.103, while Vettel went fastest with a
1m:30.341. Nico was seventh with Raikkonen fifth from Kovalainen.
With the end of the period there were a lot of drivers on their final flying
lap. Nico had pitted while Heidfeld moved into seventh. Button was now
fourth and Barrichello sixth. There was parts of a car on the run down from
the Spoon curve and we would see Buemi come in minus his front wing. Those
not making the cut were Nico, Alonso, Kubica, Glock, and Alguersuari.
Replays showed Buemi putting his car heavily into the barrier and it was
surprising that he made it back to the pits. The top ten was Vettel from
Hamilton, Trulli, Button, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Buemi, Sutil, Kovalainen,
and Heidfeld. But with Buemi's accident it would be unlikely he will be able
to make it into Q3. |
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With the end of Q2 there was
some confusion as to who had made it through with some teams feeling that
drivers had set their times while a yellow flag was being shown. Nico would
stay in his car feeling that he had made it through. But with the start of
the final qualifying period it would be Sutil, Hamilton, Kovalainen,
Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Buemi, Vettel, Button, Barrichello, and Trulli who made
it through. Buemi was still in the pits while the his car was repaired. But
in a an accident the same as those of Webber and Alguersuari Kovalainen
would crash his car at the Degner corners.
Like the others he would run wide at the corner and off into the gravel
where he would crash into the tyre barrier ending his qualifying. Again the
red flag was shown ruining several drivers laps. It was now confirmed that
Buemi would not be taking part in the final period seeing him finish in
tenth. Kovalainen would be ninth as he would take no further part in
qualifying.
With six minutes forty nine seconds remaining it would be a very brief
battle for pole. Raikkonen was first out and would set the first time, that
of 1m:33.010. Hamilton would take to the track on the softer tyre for his
run while at the front it was now Vettel who was fastest with a 1m:32.160.
Trulli would move into second with a 1m:32.220 while Heidfeld was in third.
The BMW driver would be passed by Hamilton who was now third. Sutil would
finish the period in fourth followed by Barrichello, Heidfeld, Button, and
Raikkonen in eighth.
A very chaotic qualifying for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix with several red
flags as well as some uncertainty as to whether drivers times should have
been allowed. As for the AT&T Williams team the results were about what one
would have expected now the race comes down to strategy but again it is
going to be difficult for either Nico or Kazuki to achieve a points scoring
result. |
