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Schumacher tops rain-hit practice in Japan World champion Michael Schumacher finished fastest after the opening day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix as rain limited running at the Suzuka circuit.
Schumacher completed just five laps of the one-hour afternoon session on his way to a best time of one min 45.388 secs in his Ferrari to finish 0.714 secs ahead of second-placed Italian Sauber driver Giancarlo Fisichella.
Heavy overnight rain left the track sodden and just 17 drivers set times in the first session. A brief respite in the bad weather saw drivers set times early in the second session before another downpour virtually ended the running.
"It was impossible to drive in these circumstances," Schumacher said. "It was quite difficult and I went off after aquaplaning so it's tricky out there but that's the way it is.
"From our point of view we are lucky the championship is already decided because imagine you have the championship still in place and you have to fight and you have to think about the conditions -- that would be very tense.
"As it is now, it's fairly relaxing. I can take it as it comes. You cope with circumstances and drive according to your abilities."
Fisichella called for qualifying to be cancelled if the conditions do not improve on Saturday.
The Italian said: "It was impossible to drive so if tomorrow we have the same condition then it is not possible to drive.
"It looks like that will happen because the typhoon is coming and it will be worse than today."
Finn Kimi Raikkonen finished third fastest for McLaren-Mercedes and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello finished fourth fastest with a time one-and-a-half seconds slower than his German team-mate Schumacher.
Scot David Coulthard finished fifth fastest in the second McLaren with German Jordan duo Timo Glock and Nick Heidfeld sixth and seventh and home hero Takuma Sato, of BAR-Honda, eighth.
British BAR test driver Anthony Davidson finished ninth fastest and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, in only his second race for Renault, completed the top ten but was more than four seconds off Schumacher's lead pace.
Glock ran wide at the second curve after five minutes of the session then spun at the hairpin after 12 minutes before spinning again at turn six and taking a trip across the gravel before returning to the pits.
Schumacher went off track at the hairpin curve, Fernando Alonso spun at the Degner Curve and Felipe Massa spun into the gravel at the end of the S Curve and failed to set a time but all were able to return to the track.
Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner was not so lucky, and he was forced to climb out of his Minardi car after spinning at turn six and ending up beached in the gravel trap.
With 20 minutes of the session to go the track action ground to a halt as heavy rain began to fall again and Jaguar test driver Bjorn Wirdheim and Toyota pair Ryan Briscoe and Olivier Panis failed to set times.
Schumacher finished fastest in the earlier session with a time of one min 47.906 secs to lead Fisichella by 0.456 secs as most drivers stayed in the pits with rain falling persistently on the already sodden track.
Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner spun his Minardi and continued but Brazilian Felipe Massa lost control of his Sauber on his late flying lap and crashed gently into the barriers at the Degner Curve. The track is directly in the line of Typhoon Ma-on, which is sweeping up Japan from the south and is due to hit Suzuka with extremely heavy rains between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm local time (0000-0600 GMT) on Saturday. The sport's governing body, the FIA, are currently monitoring the typhoon situation and have yet to decide on a procedure to decide the grid if Saturday's qualifying session is cancelled. But the line-up would most likely be based on the finishing order from the last race in China, leaving Barrichello on pole alongside Jenson Button with Schumacher down in 12th. "It's very dangerous because with so much aquaplaning on the straights if someone spins on the straight it could be pretty disastrous," said BAR driver Jenson Button. "I hope it's going to clear up because I don't think any driver is going to want to race in these conditions." |
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