05.50 BST - Good morning, welcome to Qualifying here on Patty as we prove that, like any other well-oiled corporate machine of a website, it's important to have a contingency plan in place. For I am not The Head, I am The Elbow. Call this a minor substitution if you will.
05.55 BST - I'm being treated to the bizarre sight of Mark Webber standing in his civvies talking to the BBC presentation team shortly before qualifying. A quick look around the web indicates that he stuffed his car into the barriers in Practice (beautifully covered by The Hand I should add) and will miss out on the session. So it's probably a good job The Foot wasn't meant to terry this hour.
FIRST SESSION
06.00 BST - I bloody love Suzuka, it's so good to be back here. Some other news from Ledgy is that Tonio Liuzzi's gearbox is being worked on and he may struggle to get much more than one run in. Anyway, the light goes green and the local PA guy sounds very excited as....Sebastien Bwemmy takes to the track. As does Liuzzi, thanks for being utterly bloody useless Jonathan.
06.05 BST - We have action already as Bwemmy does the old 'too fast into Degner, run wide and spin into wall on outside' trick he must have learnt from watching the likes of Kimi and JPM in the past. Despite spinning backwards into the wall, he manages to get going again, but will need to pit to replace that damage. Button is on track and sets a lap which is only good enough for 2nd behind Algie. Trulli and Liuzzi then bump the pair of them, and Glock goes second behind his mate.
06.08 BST - Ted reports that the only damage to Bwemmy is to his rear wing. Button has gone 2nd with Grosjean third, Kimi 4th and Hamilton in 6th. Heikki's 1st lap is 8th and Boobens slots in 9th, but Sebvet justifies his position as the man Ledgy has tipped for the win this weekend by going quickest of all, with Rosberg in 4th.
06.12 BST - Trulli sets a rapid 1:31 flat to go to the top of the times, and then Heikki becomes the latest man to have a moment at the Degners, ending up pointing the wrong way down the road but incurring no damage. Vettel goes under the 1:31 barrier to regain his crown for now, and it seems everyone is needing a second lap here. Kubica has gone third, Boobens is up to 5th and Nando is 6th as Sebvet improves once again, and now Nicooooo is third. This session really could go either way, I wouldn't like to call which 4 drivers will join Webber out of Q2 (well, which 3 will probably join Buemi and Webber).
06.15 BST - Fisichella is being a donkey again, and is the slowest of the drivers to set a time so far. Kovy is up in 7th with Hamilton using the tow of a Findia into 130R to climb into second. Just noticed Algie up in 7th which is a stunning effort in the Toro Rosso.
06.18 BST - Grosjean improves but it's only good enough for 16th at the moment, tough times for the Franco-Swiss guy. We join Nando as he comes through the chicane at the end of the lap and moves up to 5th. Kimi then takes over that place with a lap including a purple middle sector. Bwemmy has got back out on track, and Glock improves to 9th. Alonso thinks his time is good enough in 6th as he pits, while Vettel's obviously is.
06.22 BST - Bwemmy does indeed get a lap in, and it's good enough for 4th! Fantastic effort from him, this track obviously suiting the Newey-designed machine. Button goes third and Barrichello 6th. Nakas is now in the last chance saloon, which is worrying for him. Buemi improves and retakes 5th. Kimi improves to 6th, and Nakas is only 17th. Heikki improves to 12th, and the entire field is covered by just 1.2 seconds. Sadly for Fisichella, Nakajima, Grosjean and Liuzzi, they are the unlucky ones in this little F1 lottery, as they join Australia'sMarkWebber on the sidelines.
06.25 BST - Apparently Degner is where Webber himself went off this morning, which goes to show how lucky Bwemmy is that his car wasn't more badly damaged, but nothing lucky about his lap for 5th. Also, fair play to his teammate Algie, who's made it into Q2 for the first time ever in 15th.
SECOND SESSION
06.30 BST - I made a passing reference to Newey cars before - his machines have won numerous Japanese Grands Prix in the past - Patrese in 92, Hill in 94 and 96, Hakkinen in 98 and 99, Raikkonen in 2005. Enough of that for now, they're off with Quali 2.
06.34 BST - Shorter session this one of course, and Kimi is the first man to set a time with a 1:31.195, and he'll be the only man to set a time for now as Algie has a sizeable off at Degner yet again, showing how useless that darn gravel trap is as he slides straight into the barrier. The Red Flag is obviously out, as they set about trying to remove Jaime from the car. No panic though, he seems absolutely fine, and eventually they manage to get the headrest off and he climbs out no problem. Obviously they'll have to shift his car and tidy up the area before they're off again.
06.38 BST - They've done their work pretty quickly, and the session gets back underway as we hear the latest 'Out in Q1' interviews with Nakas and Fisi.
06.45 BST - Straight out onto the track come the 2 Toyotas and Nick Heidfeld, followed by Bwemmy and Button. It's Nico however who has just set a purple first sector, only to be bettered by Trulli himself. Trulli then purples the mid-sector as well to go P1 by almost half a second, and what on earth are they up to here? Now Timo flies into the barrier on the exit of the final corner, and we have another Red Flag! That was a fairly big impact and ruined the lap that Nick Heidfeld was on which was looking very quick. A marshal takes the headrest off, and the medical chaps are trying to get Timo out of the car, although he seems to be getting out slowly.
06.50 BST - A couple of marshals are holding a screen infront of the debris fencing so the crowd can't see Glock being extricated, which is...not worrying as such but thought-provoking. He did take the steeering wheel straight off when he hit the wall so lets hope he's ok, but it was a pretty heavy impact with the barrier. This would usually be a good time to take stock of what's happened so far, but only Trulli and Kimi have set times so far.
06.55 BST - Algie has been given the all-clear at the medical centre which is nice, although it never seemed to be an issue anyway. These delays are eating into my post-qualifying nap time, which I find annoying, although at the moment my primary concern is for Timo Glock, who we're not seeing because the BBC are discussing and constantly replaying Algie's accident instead. He has apparently been removed from the car, put onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. We get a shot of him waving on the stretcher, which is always a nice tell-tale sign. The nose section of his TF109 looks pretty much intact, which is also a good sign as well. Toyota however apparently think he has a "leg wound".
06.58 BST - We get back underway. Please boys, keep it together this time. I need a nap.
07.03 BST - I wonder if these incidents are as a result of the lack of dry running and the fact the teams are on the limit when it comes to set-up and, as a result of these accidents, now also on the limit in terms of time. Nando is the first man out there (I'm going to Nandos later on for a meal incidentally), but he's not particularly quick sadly. He's a bit leary in the final chicane and almost swaps ends. Hamilton does a purple 1st sector, and a purple 2nd sector, and goes P1 by 0.11 of a second. A surprising number of guys still sat in the pits, surprising because another red flag would mean curtains for some of them.
07.05 BST - Kovalainen goes 4th and Rosberg 5th, before Vettel trumps them both by going 3rd, and finally the Brawns take to the track. Obviously the only cars not on track are Algie and Glock. Surprising that they've gone out this late given the gains some of them seem to be making on their second flying laps. Vettel is fantastically quick and goes P1 for the moment on a 1:30.341. Bwemmy goes 4th ahead of Kimi and Kovy, and Kubby goes 9th of 9.
07.09 BST - Heidfeld does a purple S1, but the Brawns are not fast in there. Kimi goes 4th, and we have yellow flags out because Bwemmy has had his second incident and his front wing is lying on the track on the exit of Spoon. Button and Barrichello go 4th and 6th despite the yellow flags, that could be an interesting call for the stewards. If it stays as it is (and it probably will), then Rosberg, Alonso and Kubica will join Alguersuari and Glock on the sidelines. The replays show that Bwemmy did indeed run wide on the exit of Spoon and scraped along the barrier, and then drove back to the pits with all sorts of damage and a puncture. Not cool.
07.14 BST - News on Timo is that he does indeed have a left leg wound, but other than that he's fine, but he's being helicoptered to hospital to get it checked. Bwemmy probably won't be able to take part in Q3, NOOOOOOO!
THIRD SESSION
07.18 BST - The final 10 then are Hamilton, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Sutil, Button, Barrichello, Trulli, Buemi and Vettel. Sutil does a purple 1st sector, obviously because he's the first man through on a flying lap. And seconds after I say I wouldn't be surprised if there was another crash, Heikki obliges by messing up Degner for the 2nd time in the session, bringing out another Red Flag that ruins the flying laps of everyone, not least Sutil and Heidfeld, who had set very quick sectors.
07.22 BST - So, Heikki delays my nap yet further. Thanks a bunch, you useless Finn. Bwemmy is interviewed and defends his bringing the car back to the pits. The session gets back underway YET AGAIN. Please guys, this time, just keep your cars on the bloody island will you?
07.30 BST - Kimi's engineer says something about 4 timed laps. He's the first man to set a time in this session in 1:33.010. Vettel however is absolutely flying, and moves onto Pole by nearly 9 tenths of a second. Trulli goes second just 6 hundredths adrift, and Ickle goes third in the BMW. Sut goes third in the Findia, only to be trumped by Hamilton who takes over that place. Boobens goes 5th and Button is 7th, and it all turns out to be a bit of an anti-climax.
07.35 BST - So it's Vettel on Pole in a very fast Red Bull. Trulli's low-fuel publicity run in the Toyota only nabs them second on the grid, and the world Champion is third. Another fantastic qualifying from Sutil in 4th in the Force India, while Boobens is the best Brawn in 5th. Heidfeld is 6th ahead of Championship leader Jenson Button. Raikkonen was the slowest runner to set a time, but only 0.82 off the pace of Vettel, be interesting to see the fuel loads. All in all, it promises to be an interesting race, especially if they're all over the place again like they were today. And it's a race you'll be able to follow live on Patty with me tomorrow morning from about 05.30 BST. If my alarms work. Until then, from me, it's cheerio.
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