Vettel dominates a real car crash of a qualifying session

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on a day when qualifying was stopped three times for accidents.

Jarno Trulli took a very strong second place for Toyota and Lewis Hamilton a rather surprising third for McLaren, given that the team wasn't expecting to go well here.

The Brawn drivers were fifth and seventh and it looks like they have fuelled the cars heavily anticipating that they will be given a penalty and moved back down the grid after a stewards' enquiry. Jenson Button did not slow down at the end of Q2, when yellow flags were waving out of Turn 14. There was debris on the track, Buemi's front wing, and Button set the fastest sector time of anyone. Barrichello was three tenths slower and may have lifted off, that will be for the stewards to decide.

The Brawns had no choice as they had left it until the end to go out and only had one lap on which to set a time.

There is a precedent here in Suzuka, from 1997. Jacques Villeneuve didn't lift off for a yellow flag (ironically at exactly the same place as Button's incident this year) in practice for the penultimate race. He was disqualified and raced under appeal but took no points.

It was a crazy session; the tone was set when Sebastian Buemi went off at Degner corner in Q1, but managed to recover to the pits. His team mate Jaime Alguersuari went off later and crashed heavily into the barriers, bringing out the red flag.

After the restart Timo Glock had a huge accident on the run out of the chicane down the hill to the start line. The car went underneath the advertising belt covering the tyre barrier. Glock has a small hip injury apparently and has gone to hospital for checks. Like the Toro Rosso, the nose of the car was intact.

In the final session Heikki Kovalainen crashed the McLaren also at Degner, smashing into the barriers. This is a very fast circuit and the walls and tyre barriers are reasonably close in certain places, but it seemed that the kerb on the outside of the first Degner was catching the drivers out. It caught Mark Webber this morning and he broke his chassis and couldn't take part in qualifying.

This is a shame for him because he would have been on the front row today. The Red Bull car was totally superior to the opposition here, Vettel fastest in Q1, Q2 and Q3 with ease.