the yellow flag area. He was allowed to keep the place on the grounds he had not used KERS or DRS as normal. After Button's gearbox penalty, this became third place, the best ever qualifying position from a Japanese driver at his home race. Grosjean's time was next fastest, in front of Pérez, Räikkönen and Alonso. Räikkönen was sixth, and Alonso said he could have easily been higher up the grid were it not for Räikkönen's spin. Hamilton, who qualified ninth, bemoaned a poorly handling car after a set-up change. Race It was a bright and sunny afternoon in Suzuka, for the race which started a 15:00 (local time). Every driver except Jean-Èric Vergne, Charles Pic and Michael Schumacher started the race on the softer compound 'option' tyres. There was a chaotic start to the race as collisions at the first turn brought out the safety car on the opening lap. Vettel led away from pole and Kobayashi had a faster start than Webber, who slotted in behind him in third. Meanwhile, Alonso was hit from behind by Räikkönen, as the front wing of the Lotus clipped Alonso's rear wheel, puncturing the tyre, sending him into a spin across the gravel and back near the track at the first corner. Räikkönen's teammate, Romain Grosjean, was too busy attempting to stay in front of the fast-starting Sauber of Peréz on his outside at the first corner, so he ran into the back of third-placed Mark Webber, spinning him round at Turn 2, breaking his own wing in the process. This crash had consequences for other drivers as well, as Bruno Senna attempted to slide into a disappearing gap on Nico Rosberg's inside in order to avoid the crash. This broke Senna's wing and forced Rosberg to retire from the race. Alonso was the other retiree from the crash, seen walking away immediately, as Webber, Senna and Grosjean all had to pit for new front wings. Webber was worst affected as he had to recover from the grass. It wasn't all bad news for all the drivers, though, as Button had made up five places to move into third, and Massa had moved up six places to fourth after they used some opportunistic weaving. At the end of the safety car period, and the beginning of lap 3, Vettel sprinted away from Kobayashi, quickly establishing a three-second lead and building on it.