The Suzuka Washout

       Last night I pondered if I should stay up for a couple more hours to watch the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying or go to sleep and watch the qualifying later.  I chose to go to sleep and it seems it was a good choice.  Heavy rain forced its postponement in the early hours of this Saturday Morning, the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying will take place on Sunday.  Qualifying will start at 0200 BST with the race start time unchanged at 0700 BST.  The other big news is that Lewis Hamilton has been penalised five places on the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix for changing his gearbox.


       The Red Bull's where once again the fore runners in the practise sessions with Sebastian Vettel leading his team mate Mark Webber in the first and second practises on Friday.  He didn't lead the third practise sessions due to the fact that only Jaime Alguersuari and Timo Glock managed to clock a time before the session was abandoned.  The Renualt of Robert Kubica was third in both practises, his was half a second of Mark Webber in the first session and four tenths in the second practises.

       The Mclaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton had opposing practises sessions on Friday with Lewis finishing 5th in the first session and 13th in the second compared to Jenson who finished 12th in the first and 6th in the second.  The grid penalty comes as another blow to Hamilton's title hopes, which have already suffered after he failed to finish in three of the last four races - twice because he damaged his car in failed overtaking manoeuvres.

       The Ferrari's looked poor in the first session with Massa in 11th and Alonso in 13th.  It looked like the rumours of Massa leaving Ferrari was affecting the whole team but they seemed to have pulled it together by the time of the second practise with Alsono and Massa posting the 4th and 5th fastest times respectively.  The remaining places in Q3 will be taking up by the Force India's and the Mercedes' cars and maybe Petrov in the other Renault.

      I predict Red Bull to lock out the front grid once again and Kubica should make the second row on the grid as well.  Alonso will join Kubica on the second row and the Mclaren's will be on the third row, but Lewis will be demoted to around 10th.  Hamilton and Vettel both really need to win this race and both will go for it with everything they have, I suspect that one of these two will win the race or both them won't finish.