Japanese GP. FP3 Report. Toyota's Jarno Trulli snatched P1 away from the surprisingly rapid Sebastien Buemi as eight different teams filled out the top 10 in the first dry practice session of this weekend's Japanese GP and Mark Webber ruined his hopes of a decent weekend.Having spent much of the session ambling around the midfield, the lead Toyota car leapt to the top of the time sheets at the death to break the hearts of the Buemi fanclub.
Buemi surprisingly held his own for much of the session, repeatedly pumping in fast lap after fast lap, showing the Adrian Newey designed chassis is an excellent fit for the fast sweeps of Suzuka, as shown by Sebastien Vettel's solid 4th, albeit 0.6 behind young Buemi.
Nico Rosberg excelled to claim 3rd, with Kimi Raikkonen shrugging off a difficult week to claim a respectable 5th place ahead of a resurgent Adrian Sutil.
The title battling Brawn duo were next up with Barrichello and Button in 7th and 9th respectively, sandwiching Heikki Kovalainen. Button had a scare early on when he collided with Jaime Alguersuari on their installation laps, though fortunately neither car was excessively damaged, allowing Alguersuari to recover to an impressive 10th.
Renault endured a difficult session, with Romain Grosjean spinning off and Alonso fighting gearbox problems throughout. Young Grosjean will have been pleased however to have beaten Alonso in this session with his 11th to the Spaniard's 13th. Nick Heidfeld wound up an anonymous 12th where as Timo Glock completed a whopping 28 laps en route to 14th to make up for no running yesterday.
Nakas was typically rubbish despite the home crowd behind his every apex, though he was not as rubbish as Lewis Hamilton who was one position behind Nakas as he ended up 16th. Robert Kubica will have made Renault and Toyota re-evaluate offering him a contract as he finished 17th as Giancarlo Fisichella his now customary Ferrari 18th.
Mark Webber had an off with 15 minutes of the session to go meaning he didn't have chance to perform a low fuel/soft tyre run in anger, resulting in 19th. Vitantonio Liuzzi will be disappointed to prop up the field, particularly after his team mate's strong run to 6th.
With a field spread of just 1.4 seconds, expect to see a very tight grid as the action resumes shortly for qualifying.
| FP3 Report | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:31:709 | 24 |
| 2 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:31:771 | 26 |
| 3 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 1:32:343 | 28 |
| 4 | Sebastien Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1:32:414 | 19 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:32:445 | 26 |
| 6 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | 1:32:467 | 25 |
| 7 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn GP - Mercedes | 1:32:488 | 24 |
| 8 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:32:546 | 22 |
| 9 | Jenson Button | Brawn GP - Mercedes | 1:32:668 | 25 |
| 10 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:32:689 | 20 |
| 11 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1:32:717 | 25 |
| 12 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:32:736 | 21 |
| 13 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:32:742 | 21 |
| 14 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:32:749 | 26 |
| 15 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | 1:32:752 | 23 |
| 16 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:32:789 | 19 |
| 17 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:32:848 | 20 |
| 18 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari | 1:32:878 | 26 |
| 19 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1:32:930 | 15 |
| 20 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India - Mercedes | 1:33:167 | 18 |
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