Interlagos more than lived up to its reputation for drama and high jinks during Saturday’s marathon qualifying session.
ITV.com/F1 columnist James Allen found it hard to single out one star performer this time, so instead shared the honours between Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil.
James reckons we should be in for a fascinating Barrichello/Webber duel for victory, while Jenson Button may have to limit his ambitions to minimising Barrichello’s points gain rather than clinching the title.
What an unbelievable qualifying session! I was all for calling it off during the long delay after Tonio Liuzzi shunted the Force India car in Q2, but what drama would have been denied to us if that had happened.
When the session restarted and a dry line began to appear through Q3, everything changed.
Cars like the Williams, which had been very fast on wet tyres on a fully wet track, didn’t get the intermediate tyre up to temperature, while Jenson Button got his tyre management all wrong in Q2 and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Once again qualifying has been his downfall. He will have to have an epic race tomorrow to clinch the title.
Starting 14th on the grid, he has a solid amount of fuel and will go to lap 29/30, which gives him maximum flexibility to respond to conditions and track position. He has the option of stopping only once or doing two stops.
Rubens Barrichello, who will pit around lap 20, did an awesome job to grab pole position, even if he is carrying less fuel than Mark Webber, who qualified just behind him in second place.
The pair were trading fastest laps and it was great entertainment.
Webber did pretty much an identical job to Barrichello when you compare the fuel loads; he was only a tenth slower but has 5.5kg more fuel, which is worth just over a tenth.
Webber will pit on lap 22/23 and those extra two or three laps could be critical.
But the Aussie may attack sooner than the pit stops; he has nothing to lose as he is no longer in the title race.
This makes him a very dangerous opponent tomorrow and Barrichello will be wary of him off the start line and into turn one.
This is Webber’s shot at redemption after a poor Suzuka and a run of no-shows lately.
He doesn’t have to worry about helping his team-mate Sebastian Vettel as the German is back in 16th place.
It will be a huge scrap between Webber and Barrichello. If it’s dry, I fancy Webber because he has the better strategy and the faster car.
In the wet it’s harder to call, and I yield to no one in my admiration for Barrichello’s ability in wet weather and especially in changeable conditions.
I also think he will feel inspired tomorrow. He has never won his home race and what better time could there be to do it?
Adrian Sutil was one of the real stars of qualifying.
Again the rain was a great leveller, but the Force India is competitive in this second half of the season, especially on this kind of track, and Sutil is good for his third place.
Why shouldn’t he drive through to a podium tomorrow, when most of the cars you would expect to challenge like the McLarens, Button and Vettel are at the back of the field?
Sutil has the same strategy as Webber and so is looking very good.
Kimi Raikkonen is the one he will have his eye on: his old nemesis, who has thwarted him in the past.
The Ferrari wouldn’t have been near the front in the dry, but if anything Kimi could have been further up based on the pace he was showing in the wet.
Jarno Trulli will be strong too. If it is very wet in the race, I fancy Nico Rosberg to have a crack at a podium.
He was very quick in the full wet conditions this morning and in the first part of qualifying.
Will Button clinch the title tomorrow? I think Rubens will score at least eight points, so Button needs a fifth place to be in with a shout.
It’s possible, but it will be very hard. Any points scored will make his task in Abu Dhabi easier, though.