Sebastian Vettel was Toro Rosso’s little ray of sunshine on a day where the F1 circus was never going to see the real sun, ever since rain began to fall late on Friday night. When the race circuit is halfway up a mountain you have to expect these things. Whenever it rains in Formula One, those with more modest performance packages are always delighted as the wet track evens out the different levels of grip, engine power and other parameters so that, surprise surprise, the driver actually takes on a more important role than ever.

Despite never having driven the STR2 in the wet, the young German driver took his all the way to Q3, the elite part of the qualifying session where just the ten fastest drivers get to fight for the top places on the grid. The team even tried a last minute strategy change to improve Vettel’s chances, but in the end there just was not enough time left for it to pay off.

However, his drive to ninth place will actually be rewarded with a spot on the fourth row of the grid in eighth spot, as Nico Rosberg in the Williams, who finished sixth, will drop back to sixteenth because of a pre-qualifying engine change.

Seb was delighted, even bursting into French for the benefit of Radio Montecarlo, who interviewed him after he stepped out of the car. “C’est magnifique” said the multilingual driver.

Magnifique indeed and his arrival in Q3 also earned him around US$40, as one of his crew bet him he would not make it. Naturally, the entire team would have spent last night doing a rain dance and maybe praying to the gods on Mount Fuji to ensure more bad weather come 1.30 tomorrow and the start of the Japanese Grand Prix.