2012 Japanese Grand Prix grid

2012 Japanese Grand Prix

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Row 1 1. Sebastian Vettel 1’30.839
Red Bull
2. Mark Webber 1’31.09
Red Bull
Row 2 3. Kamui Kobayashi 1’31.7
Sauber
4. Romain Grosjean 1’31.898
Lotus
Row 3 5. Sergio Perez 1’32.022
Sauber
6. Fernando Alonso 1’32.114
Ferrari
Row 4 7. Kimi Raikkonen 1’32.208
Lotus
8. Jenson Button* 1’31.29
McLaren
Row 5 9. Lewis Hamilton 1’32.327
McLaren
10. Felipe Massa 1’32.293
Ferrari
Row 6 11. Paul di Resta 1’32.327
Force India
12. Pastor Maldonado 1’32.512
Williams
Row 7 13. Nico Rosberg 1’32.625
Mercedes
14. Daniel Ricciardo 1’32.954
Toro Rosso
Row 8 15. Nico Hulkenberg* No time
Force India
16. Bruno Senna 1’33.405
Williams
Row 9 17. Heikki Kovalainen 1’34.657
Caterham
18. Timo Glock 1’35.213
Marussia
Row 10 19. Jean-Eric Vergne** 1’33.368
Toro Rosso
20. Pedro de la Rosa 1’35.385
HRT
Row 11 21. Charles Pic 1’35.429
Marussia
22. Vitaly Petrov 1’35.432
Caterham
Row 12 23. Michael Schumacher*** 1’32.469
Mercedes
24. Narain Karthikeyan 1’36.734
HRT

*Five-place penalty for gearbox change
**Three-place penalty for impeding Bruno Senna
***Ten-place penalty for causing a collision during the Singapore Grand Prix

2012 Japanese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    18 comments on “2012 Japanese Grand Prix grid”

    1. Could have a repeat of 2009 with penalties…

    2. Looks not terrible for Aloso since both Mclarens are behind him but Vettel is fearsome. I don’t know why Hamilton’s performance is suddenly disappeared. Well, at least Button can help him by giving 1 place.

      1. HAM said he had massive understeer. Strange to see the 2 McLarens down there.

        1. @palle Button actually did quite well but obviously he had his gearbox penalty :)

      2. Interesting you’re not more worried about Vettel, given how fast that Red Bull now is.

    3. Newey is back in control. That, combined with Ferraris wind tunnel problems and McLarens Hamilton goodbye motivation dip, probably hand the Championship to a top motivated Vettel.
      The Mercedes show of form can’t exactly do wonders for Hamiltons motivation either. Hopefully its because they are using all resources on next years car for him. Would be a pitty to see the championship fight next year with one of the grids top 3 drivers in a mediocre car.

      1. Mercedes have to start looking over their shoulders for Sauber. If the positions stay the way they are now, they’ll only be 10 points behind.

    4. Hope Kamu don’t get penalized. He is being investigated for supposed pit lane speeding but I fear the most about his lap time, he posted fastest lap of his qualy section having Kimi’s caution. Will they let it go if he slowed down sector 2 compared to previous laps or will they decided he did not slowed down enough due to his lap being the fastest?

      1. In his country and with the incident in SPA … i hope there’s no penalty

        1. Hate to point it out, but Kamui always has a poor start whenever in a good grid position. It happened in China and again in Belgium. Hopefully he nails Vettel at the start tomorrow, or at the very least Webber.

          1. If Webber has a perfect start he’ll be able to keep his position, if he has one of his normal starts, he looses 3 places before accelerating out of turn one. So together Kamui and Webber can keep Grosjean behind, while Perez can take off on the outside. It will be very interesting to watch Alonso and Raikonnen.

      2. Pit lane speeding usually only results in a fine. I’ve never heard of a grid penalty for it.

        1. You mean pit lane speeding in a “practice session”(includes qualifying “practice”).

    5. I really wonder if Alonso will try to attack Perez and Grosjean on that first lap.

      1. He will. Why not? Suzuka’s starting line to 1st corner is long enough for fast start Ferrari.

        1. He said he will attack, and not defend his 1st place in the drivers championship, but Grosjean is the “First lap madness king”… and Alonso is quite wise, so I believe in the event of a normal start, he will only attack Perez, Will keep my eyes locked on that 2nd and 3rd row at the start.

    6. Vergne has a 3-place penalty for impeding Bruno Senna

    7. Just heard from f1zone.net that Sebastian Vettel has been called by the stewards for allegedly impeding Fernando Alonso in Q3.

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