Second place for Michael Schumacher and fourth for Rubens Barrichello at the end of the first day of practice for the penultimate grand prix of the year. It looks good on paper, but the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team and its drivers are not under any illusions about the performance level of their package. The apparently good times are due mainly to different approaches taken to the two hours of track time by the teams. Ferrari’s weather forecast turned out to be a touch more accurate than that of its rivals. They all expected rain early in the afternoon and therefore did more running on new tyres in the morning. Michael and Rubens did things in reverse and completed a high number of dry laps in the afternoon on new tyres, as the rain arrived only towards the end of the second hour. Even if this performance can therefore be seen as optimistic, both drivers were happy with the balance of their cars and the general performance level of the F2005 package.

Some elements of today followed the usual Friday pattern with team third drivers dominant: Ricardo Zonta was quickest for Toyota, while Pedro de la Rosa was third for McLaren-Mercedes. Fifth was Kimi Raikkonen, unfortunately following a “tradition” his team would like to see the back of, as the Finn will be penalised ten places on the starting grid, for the fourth time this year, after he suffered an engine failure in the morning. Rounding off the top six is the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher.

Jean Todt: “I am happy to be in Japan, a country which continues to fascinate me and is one of the most important markets for Ferrari. We are on Bridgestone’s home turf and, over the past few days, we have had several interesting meetings in Tokyo with them, at various levels, to study the current situation and plans for the future.
 

"As for today, here at Suzuka, it is clearly even harder than usual to assess the true level of everyone’s strengths, given the different work programmes carried out over the two hours. We went through the usual routine of trying the two types of tyre Bridgestone has brought here. For the first time here and it will also be the case in China, the F2005 cars have worn the logo of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, an event which is particularly close to our hearts.”

Michael Schumacher: “Driving at Suzuka is always good fun, however, I find it difficult to judge how we went today. We will have to study the data in depth. We definitely did better in the second session but the time difference is down to the fact that we were probably the only ones to run on new tyres before the rain came in the afternoon. But the times do not reflect our true position and there is no reason to think we can be stronger than in Brazil. The unpredictable weather could help our cause.”

Rubens Barrichello: “At first, with new tyres, the balance was not so good on the first lap. Then, I found quite a good balance towards the end of the day when my car was running on tyres that had already done a few laps. So, I am reasonably confident as regards the rest of the weekend, as what counts is how the car was at the end.”

Ross Brawn: “I think the times in the second hour reflect the fact we used new tyres then, when most of the other teams did that in the morning, expecting the rain to come a bit earlier than it did. We look in reasonable shape and the car is well balanced, but for both tyre companies, degradation seems quite high here at this track, so a lot will depend on how well the tyres hold up on Sunday afternoon.”

Free practice - First session: Rubens Barrichello: 16th 1.33.700 9 laps chassis 248; Michael Schumacher: 18th 1.33.886 9 laps chassis 249; Temperatures: air 26/23°C, track 31/27°C

Free practice – Second session: Michael Schumacher: 2nd 1.31.706 16 laps chassis 249; Rubens Barrichello: 4th 1.32.267 15 laps chassis 248; Temperatures: air 23°C, track 25/24°C