2016 Japanese Grand Prix grid

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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Row 11. Nico Rosberg 1’30.647
Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton 1’30.660
Mercedes
Row 23. Max Verstappen 1’31.178
Red Bull
4. Daniel Ricciardo 1’31.240
Red Bull
Row 35. Sergio Perez 1’31.961
Force India
6. Sebastian Vettel* 1’31.028
Ferrari
Row 47. Romain Grosjean 1’31.961
Haas
8. Kimi Raikkonen** 1’30.949
Ferrari
Row 59. Nico Hulkenberg 1’32.142
Force India
10. Esteban Gutierrez 1’32.547
Haas
Row 611. Valtteri Bottas 1’32.315
Williams
12. Felipe Massa 1’32.380
Williams
Row 713. Daniil Kvyat 1’32.623
Toro Rosso
14. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’32.685
Toro Rosso
Row 815. Fernando Alonso 1’32.689
McLaren
16. Jolyon Palmer 1’32.807
Renault
Row 917. Kevin Magnussen 1’33.023
Renault
18. Marcus Ericsson 1’33.222
Sauber
Row 1019. Felipe Nasr 1’33.332
Sauber
20. Esteban Ocon 1’33.353
Manor
Row 1121. Pascal Wehrlein*** 1’33.561
Manor
22. Jenson Button**** 1’32.851
McLaren

*Three-place grid penalty for collision with Rosberg
**Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
***Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
****35-place grid penalty for power unit component change

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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36 comments on “2016 Japanese Grand Prix grid”

  1. Well, that was a great quali.

    Bug that Sky interview on the radio was horrible. It should be ditched, just like that ridiculous quali format.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      8th October 2016, 8:08

      Quite. it just doesn’t feel right when the media speak to the drivers when they are in the car. Just leave them in peace some of the time! They are under enough pressure from what the team tells them.

      Anyway, Good performance by Rosberg and Hamilton. Great by both Hass drivers too! Shame for Williams but Bottas did a really good job from 11th last race. I feel he should be able to do a decent job again as he will start on a fresh set of tyres.

    2. @paeschli Don’t think it was anything to do with Sky, it was on the world feed so it will have been FOM.

      But I don’t think it added anything and it sounded very stilted. A guy’s just taken pole position, the next thing we want to hear is not some random guy begging him not to swear.

      1. Ha ha @keithcollantine

        Indeed. The most emphatic part of that interview was that: “Please don’t swear” (or this new format of interview will be called off).

    3. What happened there? On our TV channel we couldn’t hear that?
      Great qualification session indeed.

      1. On Rosberg’s in-lap at the end of Q3, Johnny Herbert (I think, voice clarity was poor) got on the radio to interview Rosberg. As @keithcollantine mentioned, it was most likely by FOM, since I heard it on the C4 telecast.

    4. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
      8th October 2016, 13:01

      Actually I feel interviews like that are a great addition to the coverage. They should be done mid race too.

      1. That might be the only place the media can get a word out of Hamilton! :-D

        1. The mid-race interviews during pace-car in Indycar are quite comon, no? Maybe liberty’s influence already then?

      2. @peppermint-lemon

        They should be done mid race too.

        A thousand times no! I hate when they do that in other championships.

        1. Oh my. Does that really exist in other series?

      3. @peppermint-lemon I hope that was a joke!

  2. Vettel getting outqualified by an almost 37-year-old will not go down well with Maurizio. Good effort from Kimi though, thought he was driving the MP4-20 for a moment there!

    1. People were too quick to write Kimi off. He is still quick enough to challenge for points. Vettel needs to step up,

    2. Remember how old Mansel or Prost were in 92 and 93? With cars that u actually needed muscles to drive? What is this only embryo drivers can drive attitude? In today time with these cars that one skinny kid can drive why Rai would not be able to drive them fast?

      1. @dex022 The oldest F1 drivers were in the 50s when I’m sure you needed plenty of muscles (and balls) to drive fast – those guys wouldn’t have been as successful in modern cars. Modern F1 is a quite different, the overall performance level is vastly higher, higher power, more torque, greater downforce – and the margins are much smaller (gaps between teams and drivers on the grid are down to hundreds and tenths rather than whole seconds). This means everything has to be optimised and from their early 30s most drivers will be in decline to some extent because of reducing physical ability (and not just strength). A good driver can overcome it for so long with his ability but the point comes when a driver will be too far from the optimum that a younger driver is required.

    3. One of Kimi’s best qualis in 2016 so far (if not the best) Vs. a regular one from Seb.
      But Kimi should still outqualify Seb in ALL the remaining qualis to beat him.
      Kimi is doing better than expected, while Seb is doing worst (plus some bad luck). Nevertheless, I think Maurizio will keep looking at the bigger picture.

  3. Excellent times for Rosberg, Raikkonen, Verstappen and the Haas boys! Big kudos to Palmer too! Hamilton never seemed to match Rosberg’s pace, let’s see tomorrow if there is some rain. McLaren was barely better than last year.

  4. Brilliant Qualy. Was like being back in ’12 again.

  5. Ros is on it this season,he really,really wants it. Ham as ever very close,really nothing to chose between them.

    1. More often than not there is little difference between them. They are both very good racing drivers. Over the last 2 years the biggest difference has been Lewis’ ability to win key moments under pressure. Hopefully from Nico’s point of view that has changed.

      1. I think Ham has much more exp it race and title capable cars. Let’s not forget Ham was in title winning car from very start in 07 and he actually got Ron support over the two time world champion. Ros similar like JB for example drove mediocre cars most of the time until Merc buyout of Brawn GP and that car was also mediocre up until 12 or 13. Ham may as well be just slightly faster or even not but he simply had pressure situations for race wins or titles much more then Ros. That is why we saw Ros crumbles under pressure sometimes in 14 and 15. This year Ros has been more stable so he is in good position to win WDC in the end.

        1. I really don’t see it as Rosberg being more stable. At times he’s looked even more inconsistent than previous seasons. Spain, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Germany and even Malaysia he was questionable. He’s in a good position mainly due to his relative fortune in terms of reliability vs his teammate.

          1. True but all he can do is HIS job. Lewis got poor starts at Australia and Bahrain. He had a bad Qualifying at Baku and was dominated at Singapore. Yeah Lewis has had bad luck but Rosbergs car broke down at Abu Dhabi in 14, Monza 15, Silverstone 14 he had to take a grid pen at Austria. Its sport, your going to have bad luck and good luck. Thats just the wat it goes sonetimes.

        2. @dex022 Totally agree with your analysis. I would add that Nico had also to face a little bit of aversion from media, FIA and, imho, Mercedes Team itself.

  6. If tomorrow’s race is half as good as today’s qualy, its going to be a good race.

  7. Ferrari out qualifies RbR in a out right chassis track by small margin. I dont think its down to engine considering RBR was ahead in tracks like silverstone- Germany etc but this is really a surprise yesterday most of people thought RBR fights with Merc but on dry them starting behind one ferrari

    1. Max said the setup of both cars were a little off

  8. Kimi… Mercedes…. you know about those red flying starters….

  9. Ferrari seem to have been sand-bagging the practice sessions, since I was expecting Red Bull to be harassing Mercedes in qualy. Kimi and Verstappen on row 2 might prove to be entertaining.

    Haas have also impressed, if you consider how they’ve out-qualified the Mercedes-powered Williams.

    McLaren had a poor qualifying, and one can only hope for some Alonso magic to save them face in front of Honda management.

    Jolyon Palmer in Q2, beating his teammate and both McLarens. He does seem to be walking the talk, finally.

  10. Mclaren – Japanese Grand Prix 2015
    1) ALO – P14
    2) BUT – P16
    Gap to leaders – 2.1 seconds

    Mclaren – Japanese Grand Prix 2016
    1) ALO – P15
    2) BUT – P17
    Gap to leaders – 2.1 seconds

    Take a bow Mclaren .. take a bow (slow clap)

    1. Nice stat. McLaren surprised me in a not good way. I was sat here thinking of Alonso sneaking into Q3 before qualy started :-D

    2. @todfod – do you have the speed trap figures for qualifying? Where were McLaren relative to other teams?

      1. Don’t have speed trap figures. But another interesting stat is that Alonso’s quickest time in qualifying in Q2 today was still slower than Rosberg’s pole position time of last year.

    3. I’ve been wondering for a while Now Why f1fanatic seems to Think McLaren are on a Mighty upswing- they are just as much of a Joke as ever

  11. Go Haas! Seeing as this track is somewhat similar to COTA (esses, high speed turns, elevation changes) I hope they can carry this performance over to the home race!

Comments are closed.