Grand Prix of Japan, Practise Sessions 1 & 2

Robert Kubica grabbed the fastest time for BMW Sauber in a damp but
drying final free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji.

Toyota’s Timo Glock continued his strong Friday form to take second,
ahead of Kubica’s teammate Nick Heidfeld, while the title contenders
were edged down the timing screens as others improved late in the
session – leaving Felipe Massa (Ferrari) seventh and Lewis Hamilton
(McLaren) 11th.

The rain had largely ceased by the time the session started and the
track dried steadily throughout, although times remained seven seconds
down on Friday’s levels.

Glock, Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso), and Heikki Kovalainen
(McLaren) took turns to lead the way early on as drivers played it safe
on full wet tyres initially, before Hamilton tried intermediate tyres
with 18 minutes gone and duly moved to the head of the standings,
albeit only by 0.3 seconds.

Hamilton then briefly lost the top spot to Glock again, before Massa
moved to the front with a 1:25.709 lap 23 minutes from the end of the
session.

With conditions not improving enough to make dry tyres worthwhile,
the Brazilian would remain at the head of the order until the final two
minutes, when first Kubica, then Renault’s Nelson Piquet edged ahead.

Heidfeld also threw away in a late flying lap to beat both his
teammate and the Renault, but Kubica wasn’t finished yet – setting a
1:25.087 with his final lap of the session to end the hour on top.

Glock then improved to second moments later, just 0.084 seconds
slower than Kubica, with Piquet reclaiming third and edging Heidfeld
down to fourth.

Local favourite Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) leapt to fifth in the
closing seconds, with David Coulthard (Red Bull) also improving near
the end to complete the top six.

Massa was pushed back to seventh, followed by Mark Webber’s Red Bull, Fernando Alonso’s Renault and Vettel.

Unsurprisingly the session saw countless trips across run-off areas
– including a simultaneous excursion at Turn 1 by both Williams drivers
– but Jarno Trulli’s rotation at the Turn 6 hairpin and Kimi
Raikkonen’s quick spin out of the final corner were the only spins.

Force India had a troubled session, with brake problems and a
hydraulic leak respectively confining Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian
Sutil to the garage for much of the hour. They finally emerged with 10
minutes to go but remained at the back of the field.

Many teams also expect rain to feature in this afternoon’s
qualifying session, but predictions for tomorrow suggest that this
year’s Fuji race will be dry.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:25.087           19
 2.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:25.171 + 0.084   25
 3.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:25.415 + 0.328   19
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:25.474 + 0.387   24
 5.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:25.563 + 0.476   23
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:25.614 + 0.527   20
 7.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:25.709 + 0.622   15
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:25.785 + 0.698   20
 9.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:25.799 + 0.712   19
10.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:25.880 + 0.793   24
11.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:25.901 + 0.814    8
12.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:25.984 + 0.897   22
13.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:26.013 + 0.926   21
14.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:26.213 + 1.126   19
15.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:26.239 + 1.152   10
16.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:26.277 + 1.190   18
17.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:26.662 + 1.575   22
18.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:26.922 + 1.835   26
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:27.357 + 2.270   12
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:27.918 + 2.831   17

| Free Practise 2 – Glock On Top For Toyota

Timo Glock gave circuit owners Toyota a boost by setting a surprise fastest time in the second free practice session at Fuji.

In another totally dry session, Glock’s early 1:18.383
lap remained unbeaten in the latter part of the afternoon despite the
bigger names’ best efforts.

Singapore winner Fernando Alonso continued Renault’s
fine form to take a close second, 0.043 seconds behind Glock, with
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton only 0.037 seconds slower than the Spaniard in
third, as the top 18 cars all lapped within a second.

The session got off to a much busier start than morning
practice, with the McLarens leading the order early on before being
usurped by Felipe Massa’s Ferrari after 15 minutes.

Alonso then became the first to try soft tyres and looked set to go fastest, only to run wide at the final corner.

Force India had a brief moment of glory as Adrian Sutil
grabbed first place for around a minute before first Toyota’s Jarno
Trulli then Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel hit the front.

But it was home team Toyota who would lead the way for
the majority of the session, as Glock set a 1:18.383 on soft tyres just
after the half-hour mark to beat Vettel by nearly 0.4 seconds.

As had been the case in the morning, most of the quick
times were set relatively early in the session, so with few making big
improvements, Glock remained unchallenged. Alonso, Hamilton and Massa
all closed right in, but none of them managed to beat the Toyota’s
time, allowing Glock to end Friday practice as the pace-setter…(read full report here) 

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:18.383            44
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:18.426  + 0.043   41
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:18.463  + 0.080   40
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:18.491  + 0.108   40
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:18.725  + 0.342   39
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:18.734  + 0.351   39
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:18.734  + 0.351   36
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.761  + 0.378   23
 9.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:18.803  + 0.420   32
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:18.863  + 0.480   45
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:18.865  + 0.482   39
12.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:18.888  + 0.505   43
13.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:18.981  + 0.598   41
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:19.040  + 0.657   41
15.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:19.258  + 0.875   42
16.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:19.287  + 0.904   41
17.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:19.327  + 0.944   36
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:19.482  + 1.099   44
19.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:19.894  + 1.511   37
20.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:19.999  + 1.616   42

Who
stayed awake last night then to follow practise? I didn’t, the times
are just too awkward for a weekday! Qualifying and race day will be the
ones that count so until those are over, let’s save our judgements for
Sunday afternoon. It’s good to hear Kimi sounding so focused and
positive about it all:

| Friday Quotes – Ferrari

Kimi, 5th: "It seems very finely balanced with the lap
times all very close. This means it will be very important to have a
good qualifying otherwise you run the risk of being a long way back on
the grid. I think our car is going well on this track and even if there
is still some work to do to improve the handling, I am reasonably
satisfied.

"The harder tyres are very consistent, while the softer ones seem to
lose a bit of performance over a distance. They’re not bad on the first
lap and it’s a shame that on my last run, I locked the wheel and was
unable to do a good time. My weekend? I will try to do the best I can
for myself and for the team."

Kimi Still Motivated

"I haven’t lost anything. We had a good
start to the season but of course we made a few mistakes, a few bad
choices, and we never recovered.

"We should have won more races but we didn’t for many reasons. It
hasn’t changed my way of driving, or my hunger, or my racing because I
want to still win. I am the world champion and hopefully we can get
some good results and get back in.

"I have made mistakes, Ferrari have made mistakes – everyone makes
mistakes. We need to learn from them. But I have all the confidence in
the team, just as they have in me and both drivers. We win and lose as
a team."

"The car should be strong over all the remaining races. We try to win every race, so hopefully we can get things as we want
and can have a strong weekend without any issues. We should be in a
position at least to challenge to win.

"I think it is pretty close with McLaren, like it has been all year.
We are different teams but we seem to be very equal. It (also) depends
a bit on the weather where the teams are."

| Free Practise 1 – Hamilton Quickest From Massa

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton led the way at the end of a quiet first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix.

In dry and sunny conditions at Fuji, Hamilton beat title rival
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) to first position by 0.153 seconds, with their
respective teammates Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen completing
the top four.

Raikkonen was the first of the major contenders to emerge, setting
his first flying lap half an hour into the session, although a lock-up
and the need to get around Rubens Barrichello’s Honda on his first lap
meant he needed two attempts to claim first place.

The Finn briefly relinquished the top spot to Hamilton shortly
afterwards, but moved back ahead before the end of his run as the
McLaren lost time with a trip over the Turn 1 run-off area.

Hamilton took charge when he rejoined 20 minutes later, lapping in 1:19.062 to beat Raikkonen by three tenths of a second.

Massa then leapt to second, just 0.001 seconds behind Hamilton, but
that remarkably close situation only lasted a few moments before
Hamilton improved to a 1:18.910 – which would stand as the best lap of
the morning as no-one gained time on the final runs.

Kovalainen improved to third on his second run, with Raikkonen
falling to fourth as his early time proved to be his best of the
session.
Fernando Alonso (Renault) was the main challenger to McLaren and
Ferrari all morning and duly ended up fifth, ahead of his teammate
Nelson Piquet…(read full report here)

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)   1:18.910 +         23
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)   1:19.063 + 0.153   24
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)   1:19.279 + 0.369   20
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)   1:19.399 + 0.489   31
 5.  Alonso        Renault             (B)   1:19.473 + 0.563   30
 6.  Piquet        Renault             (B)   1:19.743 + 0.833   35
 7.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)   1:20.121 + 1.211   30
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)   1:20.160 + 1.250   26
 9.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)   1:20.182 + 1.272   34
10.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)   1:20.217 + 1.307   25
11.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)   1:20.288 + 1.378   26
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)   1:20.350 + 1.440   28
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)   1:20.620 + 1.710   24
14.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)   1:20.628 + 1.718   23
15.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)   1:20.657 + 1.747   33
16.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)   1:20.753 + 1.843   32
17.  Button        Honda               (B)   1:20.769 + 1.859   27
18.  Glock         Toyota              (B)   1:20.823 + 1.913   37
19.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)   1:20.905 + 1.995   24
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)   1:21.014 + 2.104   28