Nico Rosberg achieved his second successive pole position at the iconic Suzuka circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix, as a spectacular accident for Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat brought a premature end to qualifying.
Rosberg was fractionally faster than his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton during the first runs in Q3, taking provisional pole by a small margin of 0.076 seconds.
Rosberg had just improved by 0.007 seconds in the first sector when Kvyat put a wheel off the track turning in to the kink on the approach to the hairpin.
His Red Bull was spat off into the barrier on the outside, tearing off the left-hand side of the RB11 before digging into the gravel trap and rolling over.
The Russian walked away from the wreckage but the accident brought out the red flags and halted any hopes for Hamilton of striking back, thus Rosberg confirmed his first pole since May’s Spanish Grand Prix, and only his second all season.
The Williams of Valtteri Bottas set the third quickest time, just under four tenths adrift of Hamilton, and ahead of Singapore Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel.
Felipe Massa made a mistake at the chicane on his best lap and ended up fifth, just 0.010 seconds clear of Kimi Raikkonen, who complained of too much understeer in his Ferrari.
Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean rounded out the top eight, ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez and Kvyat, who both failed to set a time in Q3.
Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, and Pastor Maldonado all failed to make the top ten shootout after a close battle at the end of Q2.
Hulkenberg lost out to Grosjean by 0.112 seconds, dropping the crucial time in sector one, while Sainz was slow in sector two (the Degners, the hairpin and Spoon), which meant he missed the cut by almost two tenths.
Maldonado was just 0.044 seconds further back in P13, followed by Fernando Alonso in the best of the McLarens, and Max Verstappen, who failed to take part in Q2 after stopping on track in the first part of qualifying when his Toro Rosso broke down with electrical problems.
Verstappen’s stranded car on the exit of the hairpin spoiled any hopes Jenson Button’s McLaren had of making it through to Q2.
The 2009 world champion earlier complained of problems with in correct engine settings on his first run, which required him to pit.
After aborting his second run because of the yellow flags, Button told his team firmly on the radio: “in the position we’re in we cannot make any mistakes” after winding up P16, just under two tenths adrift of team-mate Alonso.
Sauber suffered an even worse session, as both drivers had to abort their final flying laps.
Felipe Nasr complained: “I was on a good lap!” after qualifying P18, less than a tenth behind team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who spun under braking at Spoon Curve on his first run, after clipping the artificial grass with his right-rear wheel.
Will Stevens won the private battle of the Manor Marussias by default, after team-mate Alexander Rossi was late joining the session then also had to abort his flying lap due to the yellows.
Qualifying positions, Suzuka:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m32.584s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m32.660s
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m33.024s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m33.245s
5 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m33.337s
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m33.347s
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m33.497s
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1m33.967s
9 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes
10 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault No time
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault 1m34.453s
12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1m34.497s
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m34.785s
14 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault No time
15 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m35.664s
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.673s
17 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m34.390s*
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.760s
19 Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 1m38.783
20 Alexander Rossi Marussia-Ferrari 1m47.114s
*Three-place grid drop due to a collision with Felipe Massa at the Singapore Grand Prix
Nico Rosberg was very pleased to take pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix and hails a ‘perfect car’. Autosport.com has the details.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was delighted to clinch pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix and prove that last week’s slump in form for the team at Singapore had been a one-off.
“Very happy, great day today,” he said. “Good comeback also for the team – it’s fantastic after such a difficult weekend in Singapore to be back to our normal strength today, a strong performance today from the team.
“Great car, so very thankful for that. The team really turned things around and optimised things for this track.
“As for me, I pretty much nailed my laps so really pleased with the way that it went. Great position to be for tomorrow.
“At times today I had the perfect car for sure, and that’s why it was a great pleasure to drive it. Suzuka is the ultimate track and to have a good car here is just awesome.”
Despite having the perfect car, Rosberg’s Q3 lap of 1:32.584s wasn’t quite good enough to beat his 2014 pole-winning time of 1:32.506s.
“I’m sure the track was surely not as good, not much rubber down there, and beyond that I’m not sure what the reasons are,” he said. “But as for everybody we didn’t have the perfect preparation so there may be a few surprises tomorrow.”
Daniil Kvyat lamented a long night of work ahead for Red Bull’s engineers after demolishing his car in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying
Having walked away from a huge crash unscathed, Daniil Kvyat was quick to apologise to his Red Bull mechanics following qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Kvyat qualified 10th at Suzuka on Saturday, but the final session was red-flagged after the Russian touched the grass heading into the Hairpin, smashing into the barriers before his Red Bull flipped and eventually came to rest, shorn of much of its backend.
The 21-year-old confirmed from the cockpit that he was unharmed and, after heading for precautionary medical checks, Kvyat was quick to look ahead to Sunday’s race, which could see him start from the pit lane.
When asked for an update on his condition, Kvyat told Sky Sports: “Good, thanks. It’s okay… more disappointment than pain.
“Just a rookie mistake, I put two wheels on the grass. There was no run off area and it was quite logical I think.
“It [the car] looks really bad, I must say!
“I’m sorry to the guys because it’s been a tough couple of races and with this accident its extra work for the guys. We’re starting P10 – I don’t know what will happen now, I have no idea.”
Nico Rosberg was in position to take advantage of the session’s early exit, having pipped Lewis Hamilton to the top of the timesheets.
The German started last year’s Suzuka showpiece from pole, but lost out to his Mercedes colleague in the race.
Source: Eurosport
After suffering a big crash in Q3, Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat will start the race from the pitlane. Reuters has the news story.
Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat will start Sunday’s Japanese Formula One Grand Prix from the pitlane after turning his car into the biggest wreck of his career.
“Clearly, we will have a very long night producing a car for him to race tomorrow,” said team principal Christian Horner after the Russian’s accident brought a premature end to qualifying.
“He will have to start from pit lane and has nothing to lose so he will be running an aggressive race.”
Kvyat was unhurt in the crash, given a clean bill of health after a trip to the circuit medical centre and then sounding remarkably upbeat as he chatted to reporters in the team hospitality.
“I am OK, and you?,” he enquired cheerfully.
“I think they told me it (the impact) was about 20G or something, I thought I could do better than that.”
With Formula One already in a sombre mood on the paddock’s return to Suzuka a year on from French driver Jules Bianchi’s ultimately fatal accident, another big crash made for a tense moment.
Kvyat got a rear wheel onto the grass as he approached the hairpin, losing control as the car veered sideways and then slammed into the wall before flipping — “a rolling procedure” he called it — and coming to rest with the left side wheels ripped off.
“I wouldn’t say the car looked great,” he said. “So I will be supporting them (the mechanics) tonight, I am not as good as they are at building the car but I will try to stay with them as long as I can tonight.
“I mainly feel sorry for them. But it was a missed opportunity because the lap wasn’t looking too bad until then.”
Kvyat, in his first year with Red Bull after a season at sister team Toro Rosso, had to rack his brains for a bigger accident at any previous stage of his career and failed to come up with one.
“By far the hardest for sure,” he said, estimating his speed at around 180-190kph at the time he lost control. “I never had a car crash until now. Maybe in karting but I never rolled a car before.
“Unfortunately there is a first time for everything.”
Championship leader Lewis Hamilton bemoans costly Daniil Kvyat crash in costing his chance of grabbing pole position at Suzuka. Eurosport has the full details.
Lewis Hamilton bemoaned Daniil Kvyat’s crash in the final stages of qualifying after he missed out on pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Defending world champion Hamilton was beaten to top spot on the grid by Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who took pole with a time of one minute and 32.584 seconds.
Hamilton (1:32.660) was denied a final flying lap in the last minute of the session as Red Bull driver Kvyat ended the session prematurely with a huge shunt into the barriers.
“That final lap had started so well – I was already a tenth and a half up by turn seven and getting excited,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“When the red flag came out I was like ‘nooo’.
“The start will be key tomorrow [Sunday] because you can’t follow here and it is going to be very, very hard to pass.”
Mercedes’ one-two came a week after Hamilton and Rosberg had qualified fifth and sixth respectively at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Both drivers missed the podium in the subsequent race, Rosberg finishing fourth while Hamilton was forced to retire.
“The guys worked incredibly hard to understand last week and it’s definitely great to be back up here – the car feels like normal this weekend which is great,” Hamilton added.
“It was an exciting qualifying. I was enjoying the battle with Nico, shame we didn’t get to finish it ourselves.”
Meanwhile Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, who qualified 15th, has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for parking “in a potentially dangerous position”.
Max Verstappen has been handed a three-place grid penalty for Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix for what the stewards called parking “in a potentially dangerous position”.
Verstappen left his Toro Rosso stranded on the exit of the hairpin after it suffered a complete electrical failure towards the end of the opening qualifying session at Suzuka.
Explaining their reasoning behind the penalty, a statement from the stewards read: “Car #33 [Verstappen] experienced a sudden power loss at the exit of Turn 11.
“The driver initially moved to the left side of the track towards a safe position and when it was about to stop, moved to the right on to the racing line where it eventually stopped.
“This caused double yellow flags to be shown and endangered oncoming drivers.”
Asked how he ended up in such a strange parking position, with his car at a right angle to the track, Verstappen explained: “I was almost on the right side and then I lost all electricity and I was already at quite a low speed.
“I couldn’t pull the clutch, and as soon as I was turning right I was just stuck in gear. I wanted to go forward but couldn’t pull the clutch.
“I was basically stuck in gear.”
After qualifying 15th, Verstappen will provisionally drop to 18th, although he is set to move up a place as Daniil Kvyat will start from the pitlane following his heavy crash at the end of Q3.
The penalty will only serve to add to Verstappen’s frustration as the 17-year-old was already annoyed by his car’s latest failure.
Source: Autosport.com