Motor Sport / Chris Ryan / 04 October 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Sebastian Vettel has his fourth pole of the year and will be fighting for his last chance at the driver's championship title at the Suzuka Grand Prix, writes Marissa van Uden.

He has an excellent chance at winning Suzuka, with a brilliantly fast car on this circuit. He shares the front row with Jarno Trulli in the Toyota.

Lewis Hamilton's McLaren is in P3, Adrian Suthil's Force India is in P4, followed by Rubens Barrichello's Brawn (P5), and Nick Heidfeld's BMW-Sauber (P6).

Driver's championship contender Jenson Button starts from P7. He needs to earn only five points more than Barrichello in Sunday's Grand Prix to take the championship victory. Kimi Räikkönen, who has lost his Ferrari seat to Alonso for next season and is looking for a new team, starts from P8 ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in P9.

Saturday's qualifying was interrupted several times as a handful of cars left the track at the long, unforgiving right-hand bend at the second Degner corner. Kovalainen, under pressure as he fights for his seat at McLaren, also lost his car here in the first qualifying session. Sebastien Buemi, who is driving this circuit for the first time in an F1 car, was very quick during practice and qualifying, but he slipped into the same gravel trap and damaged his rear wing. He managed to put the Torro Rosso back on the track and made it into Q2, but after a second accident he starts from P10.

This same stretch of track sent Jaime Alguersuari into the tire wall in Q2, resulting in a red flag. Shortly after timing was restarted, Timo Glock crashed at the same bend and was airlifted to hospital with a leg wound. He is, however, still expected to race tomorrow.

It appears that the possible winners for Sunday's Suzuka Grand Prix may be narrowed down by those who are able to push their cars yet still remain on the track at this corner. Webber also lost his Red Bull here during Friday practice, and the need for a replacement chassis meant he was unable to take part in qualifying and may be starting from the pit lane.

In addition, almost half of the drivers are driving an F1 car around this circuit for the first time, including Lewis Hamilton. The circuit was dropped from the calendar in 2006 because the facilities were not up to standard. This means only the seasoned drivers have experienced driving this technical circuit.

The rest of the grid are Nico Rosberg's Williams (P11), Fernando Alonso's Renault (P12), Robert Kubica's BMW-Sauber (P13), Timo Glock's Toyota (P14), Jaime Alguersuari's Torro Rosso (P15), Giancarlo Fisichella's Ferrari (P16), Kazuki Nakajima's Williams (P17), Romain Grosjean's Renault (P18), Vitantonio Luizzi's Force India (P19), and Mark Webber's Red Bull.