I do wonder if the drivers knew they were supposed to stay on the track, although - I think it was DC - said they haven't been able to push themselves to the limit so much in practice because of the rain so they did it in qualifying and had a lot of interesting incidents.
I hope Glock is okay.

And there have been lots of penalities! Can anyone give us the actual grid once all the penalities are taken into account? The BBC didn't even have it right on their qualifying re-run at about 3 o'clock today.
I don't think that Button and Barrichello and other drivers that 'failed to slow down under yellow flags' deserved to be penalised because they hadn't even set a time yet. The rule is that you can't improve on your previous time in that sector isn't it? And they didn't have a previous time because it was their first flying lap. What is it that they were supposed to do? Not set a time?
I agree with Buemi's though, he should not have driven that car back to the pits in that state.

Opinions?

Those drivers were risking a huge crash there, as they drove with full throttle through the accident area. They got penalties well-deserved.

Grid will be known 4 hours before the race - provisional looks like that:

Quote:

The FIA has said the final grid will be announced on Sunday morning in Japan. There is some confusing as to what order penalties were issued in, which could alter the starting order. In the meantime this is the expected grid: 1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault – 1′32.160 2. Jarno Trulli, Toyota – 1′32.220 3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes – 1′32.396 4. Nick Heidfeld, BMW – 1′32.945 5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari – 1′32.980 6. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes – 1′32.660*** 7. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes – 1′32.466*** 8. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota – 1′31.482 9. Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes – 1′32.962*** 10. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes – no time* 11. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari – no time**** 12. Robert Kubica, BMW – 1′32.341 13. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari – no time 14. Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari – 1′31.704 15. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota – 1′31.718 16. Romain Grosjean, Renault – 1′32.073 17. Fernando Alonso, Renault – 1′31.638*** 18. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India-Mercedes – 1′32.087* 19. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault – no time** Penalties *five-place penalty for a gearbox change **will start from pit lane ***five-place penalty for failing to slow down sufficiently under yellow flags ****five-place penalty for driving an unsafe car back to the pits The penalties were applied in the following order: 17:52: Alonso (drops to 17th) 18:05: Barrichello (drops to tenth, Button sixth, Kovalainen eighth, Buemi ninth) 18:07: Button (drops to 11th, Barrichello ninth, Kovalainen seventh, Buemi eighth) 18:08: Sutil (drops to ninth, Barrichello eighth, Kovalainen sixth, Buemi seventh) 18:54: Kovalainen (drops to 11th, Sutil eighth, Barrichello seventh, Button tenth, Buemi sixth) 19:18: Buemi (drops to 11th, Sutil seventh, Barrichello sixth, Button ninth, Kovalainen tenth) Not starting: Timo Glock, Toyota

This is different again to what the BBC had. The BBC had Heikki starting in 11th and Button in 12th (which is the only two I remember).
And is Glock not starting? I heard he might be okay to start.

nah glock is gone...they want him to be fully fit for the brazillian gp
so many accidents yesterday in quali...and heaps of penalties too so its really confusing now
looking forward to the race

Quite a boring race...
Rosberg's P5 is under investigation for his behaviour during the SC periodo following Alguersuari's accident.

Possibly one of the worst races of the season.

We can blame aerodynamics. Lap 12-13, Sutil is fighting against Heikki for 8th position, and Heikki is racing in 1,35. Button is behind them with no option to get closer. After the incident, Button was racing in 1,33 almost 1,32!

I expected much more from it, but anyway, the Championship is still open, and the fight between McLaren and Ferrari is going to be very close. I think we can beat them and getting that 3rd position in the WCC, it would be a very good result for this ''awful'' season. We have achived one point more than them, so at the end the result today has been positive. Hamilton can even be 4th, and I hope Heikki can finish inside the top-10 with 2 good races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Shame on Heikki's gearbox, I am sure he could have fought for top-5, but starting 11th, points were the maximum, and the 'fight' with Sutil finished with that option.

Yes, he did his best sector time before entering the pits during the SC period. Yesterday the FIA penalized Barrichello, Button, Alonso and Sutil for the same reason... so this is another case where the FIA behaves differently in the same circumstances.

I think this was done so as to keep Vettel still in contention for the title. (even if it's quite difficult for him anyway...if he hadn't crashed in Melbourne and Monaco, now he would be in a better position)