> Japanese Grand Prix 2007

One of the most excting races this season. this is a new track and most of the drivers havent raced here.

Ferrari dominates first practice at Fuji

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace on Formula 1’s return to Fuji after a 30-year absence, leading a Ferrari 1-2 in Friday's first practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Italian team overcame McLaren’s early advantage to dominate the second half of the session, with first Felipe Massa and then Raikkonen making the running at the top of the timing charts.

The Finn set a best time of 1m19.119s on his final flying lap to edge out Massa by nearly four-tenths of a second.

For most of the session Lewis Hamilton was the quicker of the McLaren drivers but in the closing minutes Alonso got the upper hand to snatch third.

The Spykers were the first to hit the track in earnest, Adrian Sutil putting his extensive Fuji knowledge to good use to set an early benchmark of 1m22.377s.

The Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli then briefly traded places at the top of the order, before Hamilton blew their times into the weeds with a 1m20.416s on his first flying lap.

The Briton improved to 1m19.976s next time around, then lowered each of his best sector times on his next two circuits while being unable to string together a better overall time.

Initially Alonso was unable to match his team-mate, posting a 1m20.659s to go second fastest, although he steadily narrowed the deficit as the morning went on.

Any ideas that the session would be a McLaren benefit were soon dispelled by Massa, who ventured out at the half-hour mark and took three laps to demote Hamilton with a 1m19.811s.

In short order the Brazilian moved the target to 1m19.528s, while Raikkonen went second fastest and tightened Ferrari’s grip on the session.

Like Alonso, Kimi took longer to get into the groove than his team-mate but ultimately proved quicker, moving to the top of the charts with six minutes remaining courtesy of a 1m19.333s before finding another two-tenths on his final lap.

Alonso wound up 0.548s shy of Raikkonen with Hamilton a further 0.14s adrift in fourth place.

Williams again showed promising pace, Nico Rosberg scooting up to fifth in the closing stages and team-mate Alex Wurz taking seventh.

The pair were split by Robert Kubica in the quicker of the BMWs, while Trulli managed eighth at the track owned by his Toyota team.

Sutil served further notice of his talent by finishing ninth fastest in the improved (but hardly fancied) B-spec Spyker.

Assisted by a switch to soft tyres while most of his rivals remained on the harder compound, the young German briefly vaulted up to fifth place before being shuffled back four places.

Another man to impress was Anthony Davidson, who rounded out the top 10 for Super Aguri at the Japanese team’s home event.

His team-mate Takuma Sato had a less than ideal start to his home grand prix, spending the first hour in the garage while his mechanics worked on the rear of his car.

Compatriot Sakon Yamamoto’s Spyker and Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso also succumbed to mechanical problems, although the German managed to get back out again before the end of the session.

Interestingly, despite Fuji’s mile-long main straight, the early indications are that a low-downforce set-up is not the best compromise for a fast single lap time – although it may well be a different story in the race, where the ability to overtake (or resist being passed) will be key.

The fastest cars through the speed trap were the four Red Bull-owned entries, with Mark Webber registering 335kph / 208mph, followed by David Coulthard (332kph / 206mph), Tonio Liuzzi (328kph / 204mph) and Vettel (325kph / 202mph) – but none of these four featured in the top half of the timesheet.

By contrast, Raikkonen was only eighth fastest in a straight line (321kph / 199mph), but 1.7s quicker than the best of this quartet (14th-placed Liuzzi) around the 2.8-mile lap.

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m19.119s

2. MASSA Ferrari 1m19.498s

3. ALONSO McLaren 1m19.667s

4. HAMILTON McLaren 1m19.807s

5. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.058s

6. KUBICA BMW 1m20.297s

7. WURZ Williams 1m20.411s

8. TRULLI Toyota 1m20.483s

9. SUTIL Spyker 1m20.516s

10. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m20.601s

11. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m20.686s

12. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m20.718s

13. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.728s

14. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m20.808s

15. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m20.828s

16. FISICHELLA Renault 1m20.851s

17. SATO Super Aguri 1m21.186s

18. WEBBER Red Bull 1m21.437s

19. BUTTON Honda 1m21.541s

20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m21.854s

21. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m22.436s

22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m22.902s

Practice 2: Lewis heads McLaren 1-2

McLaren turned the tables on Ferrari in Friday’s second practice session at Fuji, as Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time to head a 1-2 for the Woking squad.

Hamilton, who is clinging on to a wafer-thin two-point lead over Fernando Alonso in the title race, maintained a slight edge over his team-mate throughout the session and finished 0.2s ahead.

Felipe Massa was the Ferrari standard-bearer in third, but trailed Hamilton by some three-quarters of a second.

Morning pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen was relegated to fifth as Jarno Trulli split the Ferraris at the Toyota-owned circuit.

Whereas at most races the front-runners sit out the early stages of practice sessions, this time they wasted no time in getting down to business as they sought to learn more about the unfamiliar track.

After briefly trading the fastest time with Alonso, Hamilton laid down an initial marker of 1m19.978s and the world champion clocked a 1m20.124s.

After 15 minutes Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella went fastest on soft tyres, only to be immediately demoted by team-mate Heikki Kovalainen even though the Finn was using the medium compound.

It wasn’t long before Hamilton reclaimed the top spot with a 1m19.391s and then improved to 1m19.198s.

Driving very hard and using every inch of available road and a bit more, Lewis went on to eclipse Raikkonen’s morning benchmark by 0.4s with a 1m18.734s lap shortly after the half-hour mark.

Alonso got down to 1m18.948s, while the Ferraris seemingly had no answer to their rivals’ pace.

It wasn’t for the want of trying, Massa in particular looking a little ragged and going off twice on one lap as he sought to extract more speed from the F2007.

There were few improvements in the second half of the session as teams concentrated on race preparation and the track temperature dropped significantly.

Trulli and Raikkonen set almost identical times in fourth and fifth, shuffling the Renaults of Kovalainen and Fisichella back to sixth and seventh.

After struggling for much of the day, David Coulthard vaulted up the order near the end to take eighth for Red Bull ahead of Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber).




Japanese GP free practice session 2 times

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m18.734s
2. ALONSO McLaren 1m18.948s
3. MASSA Ferrari 1m19.483s
4. TRULLI Toyota 1m19.711s
5. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m19.714s
6. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m19.799s
7. FISICHELLA Renault 1m19.926s
8. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m19.949s
9. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m19.969s
10. KUBICA BMW 1m20.069s
11. WEBBER Red Bull 1m20.069s
12. WURZ Williams 1m20.263s
13. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.270s
14. BUTTON Honda 1m20.336s
15. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.462s
16. SUTIL Spyker 1m20.736s
17. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m20.869s
18. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m20.985s
19. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m20.997s
20. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m21.007s
21. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m21.305s
22. SATO Super Aguri 1m21.352s

This is becoming standard..... Ferrari are fastest in first practice and then McLaren are fastest in 2nd practice !!

leaves team selection totally confusing

so btw who manages to outpace on the actual day? the 1st practice or 2nd practice guys

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Ten-place grid penalty for Rosberg

Williams driver Nico Rosberg will drop 10 grid places from wherever he qualifies at the Japanese Grand Prix due to an unscheduled engine change.

Toyota engineers diagnosed a problem with the V8 power plant after it was returned to the factory in Cologne following the Belgian GP.

Rosberg will therefore be given a fresh engine before Saturday’s action, which means he will incur an automatic grid relegation.

It is a major blow for the German, who has scored points in each of the past four races and recently passed team-mate Alex Wurz for ninth in the drivers’ standings.

Source: itv-f1

Sato: Aguri needs rain to shine

Takuma Sato is hoping that predictions of rain during this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix prove accurate, as he believes home team Super Aguri could pull off a surprise result in tricky conditions.

Current forecasts suggest that showers will affect the Fuji circuit on both Saturday and Sunday.

"Knowing Fuji and around here, already this morning we had quite strong summer-like sunshine with the humidity and this afternoon it was as though it was going to rain at any minute, so I think it will be tricky, but I think everything is welcome," Sato said.

"I think more changeable weather conditions or anything gives [Super Aguri] a great chance even though one's in a risky position as well.

"As our team is always challenging, attacking all the time, it is very suitable for us."

Sato admitted that Super Aguri would probably struggle to make a mark unless rain hit, as the team is now falling behind its larger rivals as their development programmes take effect.

"Looking at the test [at Jerez last week], I think our performance wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be, and coming back to Japan, we wanted to be very competitive but it's obviously very difficult because it's such a small team," he said.

"The development speed wasn't as good as other teams, so we have to do something – tweaks, whatever we can do."

But he is confident that he can capitalise if quirky circumstances arise in the race, as he did when he came through to sixth in the chaotic Canadian Grand Prix in June.

"Before we went to Montreal, really nobody – not even us – was expecting to have such an exciting race and why not here?" said Sato.

"I think everything is open, but looking realistically, it's going to be a very, very tough race for us, so we need something – a little change – that always gets us into an exciting situation."


Source: itv-f1

McLaren outpaces Ferrari for front row in Japan

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