Button Starts In 7th At Suzuka

03 October 2009

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Crash strewn qualifying leaves Button in 7th

Sebastian Vettel is on pole for the Japanese Grand Prix with championship leader Jenson Button back in seventh after a crash littered Suzuka qualifying session. Jarno Trulli starts in the other front grid place and Lewis Hamilton ii third on the grid, Rubens Barrichello Button's Brawn team-mate and main title rival is fifth.

Button now faces a battle if he is to clinch the title in Sunday's race, needing to finish five points clear of Barrichello to claim the championship in Japan, with two more grands prix to come. While Vettel, currently in third place in the drivers' championship also  still has an outside chance of taking the title.

Final qualifying positions could change as stewards may well investigate a contentious yellow-flag period towards the end of the second qualifying period, though the FIA have not confirmed this.

Four crashes interrupted a dramatic qualifying session including two heavy-impact accidents at high speed on a circuit where drivers had little dry running after Friday's heavy rain.

Toyota's Timo Glock who qualified 14th was airlifted to hospital with an "abrasion to the left upper leg" and may not be fit to race Sunday, while Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari was given the all-clear after a medical check-up. Sebastien Buemi and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen were involved in off-track incidents as they lost control over the fast, technically-challenging figure-of-eight track.

Brawn had made a change to the suspension on Button's car just before qualifying,, Meanwhile Mark Webber sat out qualifying after crashing at the Degner Two [Turn Nine] during the final practice session on Saturday morning, which left Red Bull unable to repair his car in time. Webber will begin Sunday's race from the pit lane, representing a serious blow to Red Bull's hopes of maintaining their constructors' title challenge.

Alguersuari will start in 15th, after crashing at the same point where Webber lost control - the gravel trap again failed to do its job.

Renault's Fernando Alonso, will start in 12th, while Buemi qualified 10th, just behind Heikki Kovalainen in 9th. Giancarlo Fisichella will start 16th on the grid as he continues to grapple with his relatively new drive, the Italian again failing to make it through the first qualifying session for Ferrari after three attempts.

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