Bruno Senna’s Suzuka qualifying session ended at the earliest possible point: the end of Q1. The Williams driver is knocked out at the first hurdle for the second time this season, having been baulked at the Casio Triangle chicane by Jean-Éric Vergne.
The Williams encountered the Toro Rosso at the second apex of the chicane, forcing the Brazilian to back off; he was duly demoted on the timesheets by Michael Schumacher, who had started his own final lap with four seconds to spare.
“Well, what’s going to happen?” Senna told a hoard of reporters. “He’s going to get a penalty, probably, but that’s not going to change anything for me tomorrow. Few places are harder to overtake at than here but, hey - been there, done that. So we just need to keep things up for tomorrow.”
Vergne also shared his side of the story:
"As for the incident with Senna, I was catching Glock on my flying lap and I had to slow because of that. I saw Bruno was coming very quickly and unfortunately he caught me at the chicane, where there is not much room, but I knew I had to let him past and moved as much to the outside as I could - even though I knew I would not be in the best position to come out of the corner. After that, he slowed a lot and I had to pass him again on the straight, otherwise I would not have set a proper time."
Senna’s first Q1 elimination of the year came in Barcelona, as he spun into the gravel while team-mate Pastor Maldonado sealed an historic pole position.
Post-qualifying development:
Vergne handed three-place drop for Senna block
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Jean-Eric Vergne
Bruno Senna
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:30.839 | 11 |
| 2. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:31.090 | 15 |
| 3. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:31.290 | 14 |
| 4. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:31.700 | 16 |
| 5. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:31.898 | 20 |
| 6. | S. Perez | Sauber | 01:32.022 | 20 |
| 7. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:32.114 | 17 |
| 8. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:32.208 | 18 |
| 9. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:32.327 | 17 |
| 10. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | no time | 12 |
| Full results | ||||
| Bruno Senna | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Bruno Senna photos | |||
| Jean-Eric Vergne | |||
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| More Jean-Eric Vergne photos | |||
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