2011 JAPANESE GP: VETTEL SECURED ANOTHER POLE

 Vettel stole Pole from Jenson, Lewis asking himself why Button started to beat me.

Sebastian Vettel took his 12th pole position of the season at Suzuka, denying Jenson Button the top spot by just 0.009 seconds.After McLaren and Button had topped all three practice sessions, and Lewis Hamilton led Q2 and the initial Q3 laps, it looked like Red Bull might finally be beaten to a pole for the first time in 2011.

But Hamilton made error and will start third, alongside Felipe Massa, with Fernando Alonso fifth and Mark Webber sixth.Michael Schumacher starts seventh despite making the same mistake as Hamilton, with Bruno Senna eighth, Vitaly Petrov ninth and Kamui Kobayashi tenth even though all four failed to set a time. Their positions were decided by sector times as none of the four completed a lap.

It was a strange end to the session as McLaren had looked quickest and Hamilton emerging in qualifying as the favourite for pole. However, going in to the final chicane Hamilton was swamped by Webber on the inside and Schumacher on the outside, leaving him unable to cross the line in time to set a lap.

 P.         DRIVER                          TEAM                        TIME            GAP  
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1:30.466           
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1:30.475  + 0.009  
 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1:30.617  + 0.151  
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1:30.804  + 0.338  
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1:30.886  + 0.420  
 6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1:31.156  + 0.690  
 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             no time                
 8.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              no time                
 9.  Bruno Senna           Renault              no time                
10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       no time      
Q2 Fastest Time: L.Hamilton 1:31.612                         GAP
11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1:32.463  + 1.997
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1:32.746  + 2.280
13.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1:33.079  + 2.613
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1:33.224  + 2.758
15.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.227  + 2.761
16.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.427  + 2.961
17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       no time           
Q1 Fastest Time: K.Kobayashi 1:32.626                         GAP
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1:35.454   + 4.988     
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1:35.514   + 5.048     
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1:36.439   + 5.973
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1:36.507   + 6.041
22.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1:37.846   + 7.380     
23.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             no time                 
24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         no time                 
107% time: 1:39.109