For the first time in the team’s history, they will start a grand prix inside the top ten after Sebastien Vettel, who has only been with the tram for the past few races after taking over from Scot Speed, qualified his Toro Rosso in a magnificent ninth place.

Then, due to the ten place demotion of Williams racer Nico Rosberg, who had qualified sixth, the young  German will move up a place and start from the fourth row if the Japanese grid!

"Definitely a good day and a great experience for the team to get to Q3 for the first time,” Sebastien said. “Fantastic! It was difficult not having any free practice this morning and it was the first time for me driving this car in the rain this afternoon. It feels good and I looking forward to tomorrow now. I think if I had managed that final run, I could have improved by up to two places but we went for a last minute strategy change which meant I lost the last lap. When you start high up the grid you expect a better than usual finish position. Hopefully there will be some more rain which would help us and then we will see how far we can go."