Vettel supports qualifying decision

Torrential downpours initially forced the session to be postponed twice before race control made the decision to call it off, meaning that qualifying will instead take place before race tomorrow morning.

The German said that he fully understood why qualifying's postponement might be frustrating for fans, but said that he completely supported the race director's decision.

"I think the race directors did their best in sending the safety car out every 20 minutes to have a look, and it just didn't get better," Vettel said.

"So I think it was the right decision. I know it is not an easy decision to take, but in those conditions we we have no control of our cars. So it was absolutely the right thing to do.

"For the majority of people it's difficult to understand [what it's like in the car] - you just think, 'OK, put the rain tyres on and you'll be fine'. It's not as easy as that. The cars are very light, we only have 600 or 700 kilos, which is usually half of a road car.

"And the cars are very low, so it is very easy when there is standing water on the track to have aquaplaning, and then it becomes undriveable very fast.

"I think it was the right decision, and there was no chance for us - we would just be passengers, rather than controlling, and being able to push to our limits and to the limits of the car."

While forecasts suggest that there will be less rain over Suzuka on Sunday, there remains the possibility that the grid could be decided by some other means if the weather takes another turn for the worse.

Vettel said he is keeping an open mind about how the grid will be set.

"Obviously right now there is lots of opportunity for all sorts of different possibilities of what might happen with qualifying," Vettel said.

"What everyone is trying to do and hoping for is to have a normal qualifying, but time is limited. So we will see what the decision is, we will see the weather, because at the moment the rain is forecast until late tonight, or even tomorrow morning.

"But I think there is no reason to panic right now. Obviously what everyone is hoping for is a fair chance to qualify. But it's a new situation for most of us, apart from those who were racing in 2004, when I think they had qualifying and the race on the same day here. So we'll see."