Japanese GP. FP2 Report. The rain failed to relent at all for the second Friday practice session over at the Suzuka track, meaning that the spectators were treated to a complete soaking, very little on-track action and another completely useless list of lap times. With a heavy downpour after FP1 soaking the Suzuka track completely, and steady rain falling for most of the 90 minutes, there never looked like being much chance of any serious running in the afternoon session.
And so it proved. We had to wait for over an hour for the first time to be set by the Toro Rosso of Jamie Alguersuari, and the track only got close to half-packed in the final ten minutes, with teams uneasy with the idea of ruining another set of precious intermediate or wet tyres in case of further rain for the race on Sunday.
In the end, Adrian Sutil topped the few times that were set, though seemed to do it on a lap when he ran extremely wide on the exit of 130R, taking to the tarmac runoff as he did so. Sebastian Vettel was second for Red Bull with the second Force India of Tonio Liuzzi in third.
Only two drivers completed more than a single figure-worth of laps, with Alguersuari completing 11 laps and Nick Heidfeld putting in 10 laps of running, only to end up last of the 17 runners that bothered to set a time.
The two title-chasing Brawn drivers stayed in the pits for the entire session, along with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.
A Friday then where very little has really been decided. The weather's intervention means that the true pecking order may not be known until tomorrow's qualifying session. With further showers expected for Saturday's practice session, the first dry laps the teams run this weekend may well be in qualifying. Which should make for a slightly crazy race.
The fans will certainly be hoping for some entertainment from a mixed-up grid order. After all, they got precious little of it today.
| FP2 Times | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | 1:47.261 | 5 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1:47.923 | 6 |
| 3 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India - Mercedes | 1:47.931 | 5 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:47.983 | 5 |
| 5 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | 1:48.058 | 8 |
| 6 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:48.691 | 9 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:48.693 | 5 |
| 8 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:48.737 | 7 |
| 9 | Jamie Alguersuari | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:48.802 | 11 |
| 10 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:48.861 | 6 |
| 11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:48.886 | 5 |
| 12 | Kamui Kobayashi | Toyota | 1:49.054 | 7 |
| 13 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1:49.382 | 7 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1:49.405 | 6 |
| 15 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari | 1:49.553 | 5 |
| 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 1:49.872 | 8 |
| 17 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:50.179 | 10 |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | No Time | |
| 19 | Jenson Button | Brawn - Mercedes | No Time | |
| 20 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn - Mercedes | No Time |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
