Sebastian Vettel needs just one point at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix to claim a second successive Formula One world championship, but the Red Bull driver's weekend got off to the worst start possible as he crashed in Friday practice at the Suzuka circuit.
The German hit the tire wall on an area of the track known as the Degner curve but recovered to post the third-fastest time overall, with McLaren's 2009 title winner Jenson Button setting the pace with a lap of one minute and 31.901 seconds.
Button is the only driver who can still mathematically stop the 24-year-old becoming the sport's youngest double world champion, but the Briton would need to win the year's five remaining races without Vettel claiming a single championship point.
Vettel heads the standings with 309 points going into the season's 15th grand, 124 points ahead of second-place Button on 185.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard who Vettel would replace as the youngest two-time winner of the drivers' crown, went second-fastest with a time of one minute 32.075 secs.
"It wasn't a big mistake this morning, but in that moment I wasn't 100 percent awake and mistakes around here can be quite costly," Vettel told Formula One's official website.
"It wasn't a big impact, but it did some damage to the car, so it wasn't perfect. It did affect our run plan a little, but we had a solid afternoon.
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