Unstoppable Sebastian Vettel Makes it a Dozen

Vettel just a day away from his second title?

Sebastian Vettel surprised the pack and took his 12^th pole position of the year, only nine thousands of a second ahead of Jenson Button.

Vettel has struggled this weekend, by his standards, and even found the barriers in the opening practice session. The German is only one point away from his second consecutive world championship and has made his life a lot easier.

Button had been the form man all weekend, going fastest in all of the practice sessions. The elder McLaren driver looks a home in Japan, with his new helmet design, and went faster than Vettel in the first sector. He equalled the Red Bull in the second sector, but it was the short final sector that caught Button out. His teammate Lewis Hamilton will be left wondering what could have been, after an incident in the final few corners of the lap.

Hamilton slowed down a bit too much and was jumped by Mark Webber, around the inside, as Michael Schumacher tried to get him on the outside. Webber made it through and on to his flying lap, but Schumacher was forced across the grass and neither himself nor Hamilton got to the line before the chequered flag. Despite the upset the McLaren made it in to third on the grid and sits two tenths ahead of Felipe Massa.

Massa out-qualified Fernando Alonso, by 0.082 seconds, for only the third time this season. Ferrari looked strong during the practice sessions, but perhaps it is more to do with Red Bull’s progression over the weekend rather than Ferrari going backwards. Webber was looking for a better weekend, after a tough Singapore, but only made it in to sixth with Schumacher just behind him. Mercedes had a tough start of the session, after an engine issue put Nico Rosberg out of all sessions.

One man who did make it out, in Q1, was Bruno Senna, the Brazilian crashed in the Saturday morning practice session. His Renault team worked hard and managed to get him out, with minutes to spare. Neither Renault completed a lap, but Senna will start ahead of Vitaly Petrov on the grid.

Home favourite, Kamui Kobayashi, gave the fans something to cheer about, as he made it in to the top ten. He didn’t complete a fast lap, after doing a sighter lap on some scrubbed harder tyres and then deciding to save his tyres. Kobayashi went on to the soft tyres, in Q1, which allowed him to momentarily top the time sheet. Tomorrow’s race will be rather tough for some of the drivers, with Sergio Perez and Paul di Resta both suffering from illness.

Posted by Sadhbh O'Shea - Follow her on twitter @SadhbhOS.

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