The race stewards in Suzuka have gone a bit poer-mad and penalised no less than five drivers, including both Brawn GP men, over the incident in the qualifying session when Sebastien Buemi left the track towards the end of Q2.
The penalties were handed out after Buemi left the track at the exit of turn 15, glancing the wall and leaving debris behind from his car. The stewards adjudged that Buemi deserved a penalty for continuing to the pit lane despite the damage to his car, while four other drivers were guilty of not slowing down enough through the yellow flag zone caused by the crash.
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will both drop back five places, along with Renault's Fernando Alonso and Force India's Adrian Sutil, leaving the grid utterly jumbled from where it was at the end of qualifying.
The punishments will also renew Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel's hopes of mounting a title challenge, with the German driver starting from pole and the Brawn cars now down in 9th and 11th.
The result has also seen some drivers benefit. Nico Rosberg has moved up from 11th to 6th, while Jamie Alguersuari will now start from inside the top ten for the first time in his F1 career.
A provisional grid has been published, but the FIA have confirmed that a final grid will not be published until Sunday morning, after confusion erupted as to in precisely which order the penalties to the different drivers should be applied. The regulations state that "grid position penalties will be applied to the drivers in question in the order the offences were committed", but circulated grid lists have, for example, listed Jenson Button as starting anywhere from 9th to 12th.
| Possible Japanese GP Grid | ||
| Pos | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault |
| 2 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes |
| 4 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari |
| 6 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota |
| 7 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber |
| 8 | Adrian Sutil* | Force India - Mercedes |
| 9 | Rubens Barrichello* | Brawn - Mercedes |
| 10 | Jamie Alguersuari | Toro Rosso - Ferrari |
| 11 | Jenson Button* | Brawn - Mercedes |
| 12 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari |
| 13 | Heikki Kovalainen** | McLaren - Mercedes |
| 14 | Sebastien Buemi* | Toro Rosso - Ferrari |
| 15 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota |
| 16 | Romain Grosjean | Renault |
| 17 | Fernando Alonso* | Renault |
| 18 | Vitantonio Liuzzi** | Force India - Mercedes |
| 19 | Timo Glock*** | Toyota |
| 20 | Mark Webber*** | Red Bull - Renault |
* - Given five place grid penalty for the Buemi incident
** - Given five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox
*** - Will start from pit lane, if at all
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