Nico Hülkenberg will start 15th at Suzuka, taking a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Despite a crash in final practice on Saturday morning, which left Force India with much repair work, the German still qualified in the top ten.
“The build-up to qualifying was quite intense because the guys were working hard to repair my car after the accident this morning,” he explained. “It was not a big impact, but the angle was unfortunate and there was quite a lot to fix – so all credit to the boys who got me out with enough time to set a time in Q1.
“The car felt good straight away and we made it through to Q3, which was always the target. We then took a strategic decision to save tyres, so I didn’t set a time. That opens up the strategy for tomorrow, especially because we knew I would get a five-place grid penalty for changing the gearbox. There’s still a chance to get points tomorrow if we can make our strategy work.”
Team-mate Paul di Resta was eliminated in Q2 and starts 11th on Sunday.
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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 | ||||
| Nico Hülkenberg | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Nico Hülkenberg photos | |||
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