Sebastian Vettel will be on Pole in Suzuka for the fourth time in a row. After recent disappointing performances, Red Bull stormed back into form by locking out the front row, with Mark Webber behind his German team-mate. The stable McLaren, Jenson Button, was clearly undeterred by Lewis Hamilton's decision to move to Mercedes next season as he made his way to third on the grid.
Kamui Kobayashi wowed his home fans and will hope to build from his fourth place start in tomorrow's race. Romain Grosjean sits fifth in the middle of a Sauber sandwich, Sergio Perez continues to prove why McLaren have chosen him for next season in replace of Hamilton by getting sixth.
Fernando Alonso had another quiet qualifying session but will no doubt get another notorious good start to push further than seventh. Kimi Raikkonen made it to eighth with Hamilton, maybe a little buoyed by his news statement, having to start in ninth. Nico Hulkenberg was the final driver to make it into Q3 but decided not to set a time and therefore begins tenth.
Felipe Massa just missed out on Q3 in 11th with Paul Di Resta, a little disappointed a not getting a look in at McLaren, starts 12th. Michael Schumacher struggled to get into Q2 in his first session since re-announcing his retirement but he did get to 13th, however his ten place grid penalty following his crash in Singapore means he starts on the back row.
This means that Pastor Maldonado gets pushed up into 13th with the other Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg, 14th. Daniel Ricciardo also gets pushed up to 15th. The drama in Q1 saw Bruno Senna miss out but this was due to him being blocked by Jean-Eric Vergne. The Toro Rosso took his place in Q2 but received a three place grid penalty, meaning he starts 19th. Senna will now start in 16th with Heikki Kovalainen taking the other 'Q2' place.
Timo Glock becomes the best of the rest in 18th ahead of Vergne. Pedro De La Rosa made a good qualifying time to finish ahead of most of his nearest rivals and will start 20th. Pic is in 21st with Vitaly Petrov, who initially qualified in 23rd place, will now start 22nd. Unsurprisingly, Narain Karthikeyan partners Schumacher on the back row.
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