Webber Takes His First Pole of the Season in the Japanese Grand Prix

Mark Webber is giving Japanese fans quite a farewell by taking pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. It is his first pole position of the season, and the first time that he has out-qualified teammate Sebastian Vettel this season as well. It also continues this season's streak of MercedesMercedes-BenzGermany, 1924 > present197 models
9852 photos
33 videos
and Red BullRed BullAustria, 2004 > present12 models
1049 photos
3 videos
being the only two teams to be on pole. 

Vettel was second fastest in Q1 and fastest in Q2, but his KERS broke in Q3, which was enough to slow him by 0.4 seconds over Webber. The team was able to fix the problem during the Q3 session, but he improved his time with the repaired car, but was still 0.174 seconds too slow.

During the Q1 session, Jean-Eric Vergne’s rear brakes caught fire. He parked the car at the end of the hairpin, and the session was briefly stopped to extinguish the flames and move the car.

The Q2 session was close with Vettel as the clear leader with a quarter second lead, but the drivers from second to tenth fastest were grouped within about 0.3 seconds off of each other.

Lewis Hamilton came in as third fastest in Q3 0.164 seconds behind Vettel. Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa round out the top five.

Fernando Alonso was a big fight ahead of him tomorrow in Japan. He qualified in eighth place, and to stay in the championship, he has to finish in eighth or better tomorrow if Vettel wins.

Webber and Vettel on the front row certainly sets up an interesting race. The two men are cordial, but there is certainly no love lost between them.  Earlier in the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix Vettel ignored team orders during the race to stay behind Webber. With Webber leaving the team next season, do not expect him to just move over for his teammate.