2004 Japanese GP Sunday Final Qualifying

By Andrew Hooper
October 10 2004

	Japanese GP Saturday Final Qualifying
	The final qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix would see the track conditions favouring those drivers who were to run late in the session. This would include BMW WilliamsF1 driver Ralf Schumacher. On his second race back after injury Ralf will start the race from second grid position. For team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya he would use dry weather tyres on a track that difficult. He would set the quickest time but as the other drivers went out he would drop down the order to finish in only thirteenth, four seconds slower than the eventual pole time. Again pole would be secured by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, his 63rd. Michael was able to use the drying track to his benefit as he would set a time of 1m:33.542, to be 0.4 ahead of brother Ralf. In third was Jaguar's Mark Webber, followed by the BAR's of Takuma Sato and Jenson Button in fourth and fifth. The pace setter of the earlier qualifying Toyota's Jarno Trulli would finish in sixth even though he was the last driver to run. Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella was in seventh. The top ten would be made up of McLaren's David Coulthard in eighth, Renault's Jacques Villeneuve ninth, and Toyota's Olivier Panis tenth. As the track dried the session would see drivers set faster times. Such was the case with Juan Pablo who was to take provisional pole until Renault's Fernando Alonso went faster by almost a second. Renault team-mate Villeneuve would move into the top spot. But just as quickly he was beaten by BAR's Jenson Button who went 1.1 seconds quicker. Coulthard would move into second position. For Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello his lap would see him surprisingly some 3.5 seconds slower than Button's time. Fisichella would move into second position. For Takuma Sato he would move in first position, been 0.260 seconds quicker than BAR team-mate Button. As the final series of drivers went out on their runs Jaguar's Mark Webber would go fastest but Ralf would quickly take away the top spot. Michael Schumacher would go even faster to jump ahead of his brother. The final runner Jarno Trulli was not able to benefit from been the last driver on the track and could only manage sixth. With the teams having little track time the result of the Grand Prix could come down to who has best setup their cars to match the conditions of the race. With Ralf in second his chances are looking promising.
	Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:33.542 2. R.Schumacher WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:34.032 + 0.490 3. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:34.571 + 1.029 4. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:34.897 + 1.355 5. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:35.157 + 1.615 6. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:35.213 + 1.671 7. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:36.136 + 2.594 8. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:36.156 + 2.614 9. Villeneuve Renault (M) 1:36.274 + 2.732 10. Panis Toyota (M) 1:36.420 + 2.878 11. Alonso Renault (M) 1:36.663 + 3.121 12. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:36.820 + 3.278 13. Montoya WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 1:37.653 + 4.111 14. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:38.258 + 4.716 15. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:38.637 + 5.095 16. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:41.953 + 8.411 17. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:43.533 + 9.991 18. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:48.069 + 14.527 19. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) No Time 20. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) No Time

Click image for HP F1 Site