Hamilton on pole in wet Fuji

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Fuji Speedwayjp

Lewis Hamilton secured his Fuji pole today on a wet but drying track by putting in his fastest lap just ahead of the checkered flag. His timing was simply better than his competitors. Fernando Alonso is second after leading the complete 3rd session. Raikkonen follows with Massa aside of him.

The drivers experienced a very wet day at Fuji and all came out to drive with the wet weather tyres.

Ahead of the qualifying though, Rosberg already had an engine change and will receive a ten place grid penalty for tomorrow's race.

Q1 wasn't really a surprise to anyone as basically the expected drivers struggled to keep up the pace. As a result, Barrichello, Wurz, Davidson, Sutil, Sato and Yamamoto were out after the first 15 minutes.

As Q2 started there was a lot of action on track. Several drivers made this a testing session to adapt better to the changing conditions. It immediately emerged that several drivers and teams were struggling with their cars, especially both Toyotas and the Renaults who continuously turned laps but never during the session came in a position to go through to Q3.

While Hamilton comes out on top just ahead of Alonso, both Ferraris are in 3rd and 4th place. Jenson Button amazes with a 5th place while his teammate cannot improve on the 14th time. Sebastian Vettel is another surprise as he moves through with a 10th time compared to the immediate knockout for Liuzzi.

Q3 is about the same story with both McLarens and Vettel immediately on track. All three were already waiting at the end of the pitlane for the session to start. The other cars all followed shortly. The rainfall meanwhile dropped off and allows the drivers to try out intermediate tyres.

The final laps proved a tense battle, initially between Alonso and Raikkonen. Fernando came out ahead of both Ferraris but was beaten by his teammate one minute later. Hamilton could profit from the moment as the track was slowly drying through the session. With a margin as small as 0.010 seconds between the McLaren drivers it promises to be an exciting battle in the light of the championship.

Results

     
1L. HamiltonMcLaren1:25.489
2F. AlonsoMcLaren1:25.438
3K. RäikkönenFerrari1:25.516
4F. MassaFerrari1:25.765
5N. HeidfeldBMW1:26.505
6N. RosbergWilliams1:26.728
7J. ButtonHonda1:26.913
8M. WebberRed Bull1:26.914
9S. VettelScuderia Toro Rosso1:26.973
10R. KubicaBMW1:27.225
11G. FisichellaRenault1:26.033
12H. KovalainenRenault1:26.247
13D. CoulthardRed Bull1:26.247
14J. TrulliToyota1:26.253
15V. LiuzziScuderia Toro Rosso1:26.948
16R. SchumacherToyotano time
17R. BarrichelloHonda1:27.323
18A. WurzWilliams1:27.454
19A. DavidsonSuper Aguri1:27.564
20A. SutilSpyker F11:28.628
21T. SatoSuper Aguri1:28.792
22S. YamamotoSpyker F11:29.668