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After the
novelties of the Singapore night race, it was back to
the usual timetable today in Japan and the 180 minutes
of free practice were all run in dry and fine
conditions, although a few drops of rain fell
immediately after the afternoon session. Both Felipe
Massa and Kimi Raikkonen had a trouble free day,
completing a very high mileage, thus acquiring plenty of
data, all the more useful given that so much time at the
Fuji track last year was spent running in the wet. The
lap times between the various drivers were incredibly
close with only half a second splitting the fastest man
from the twelfth. The honour of setting the quickest
time actually went to Timo Glock, driving for Toyota,
the company that owns this circuit! Singapore winner,
Fernando Alonso was second fastest in the Renault, ahead
of series leader, Lewis Hamilton in the
McLaren-Mercedes. The current championship order
continued on today's time sheet, as Felipe Massa was
fourth for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro ahead of the other
F2008, driven by Kimi Raikkonen, with Mark Webber
completing the top six.
The few drops of rain that fell this afternoon could
well be a preview of the conditions we can expect
tomorrow according to some forecasts.
Two races in three hours of free practice: that's the
outcome in kilometres of the Friday of the Japanese
Grand Prix for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa actually completed a
total of 134 laps (70 for the former, 64 the latter,)
double the distance they will have to cover in Sunday
afternoon's race. "I realise this might sound boring,
but today was a usual Friday," commented Team Principal
of the Gestione Sportiva, Stefano Domenicali.
"Generally, it was quite good: we got through a lot of
work without any problems whatsoever, which is
important. It's difficult to say what the real pecking
order is as the times are very close and we don't know
how much fuel the drivers had on their various runs. We
expected to be competitive at this track and I think we
will be, as indeed will be our closest competitors. We
have a very simple objective for this weekend which is
to put the two red cars in front of everyone else. It
will be difficult, it will require us to do everything
perfectly and we will do our utmost to achieve that."
Felipe Massa: "I am pleased with this first day
in Japan. The balance of the car is very good, both on
the first timed lap and over a distance. The times are
very close and maybe I could have been a bit further up
the order in the afternoon session if I had not
encountered traffic on my last run on the soft tyres.
These seem to be very quick, which is no surprise, but
also very consistent. I really want to do well this
weekend and we will try and win and bring home the best
result possible for the two Championships."
Kimi Raikkonen: "It seems very finely balanced
with the lap times all very close. This means it will be
very important to have a good qualifying otherwise you
run the risk of being a long way back on the grid. I
think our car is going well on this track and even if
there is still some work to do to improve the handling,
I am reasonably satisfied. The harder tyres are very
consistent, while the softer ones seem to lose a bit of
performance over a distance. They're not bad on the
first lap and it's a shame that on my last run, I locked
the wheel and was unable to do a good time. My weekend?
I will try to do the best I can for myself and for the
team."
Luca Baldisserri: "After the unusual setting of
Singapore, we return to the usual Friday menu, looking
for the best set up on the car and comparing the tyres.
We were out on track a lot getting through so many laps
that we now have a lot of data to analyse to get the
cars as well prepared as possible for qualifying and the
race. We must pay particular attention to the
performance of the two types of Bridgestone tyre, which
today split the opinion between our two drivers. From
the time sheets, we can see that the performance is very
close between them, even if, when looking at the
results, we have to always take into account the unknown
relating to the amount of fuel on board. Overall, a
reasonably positive day."
Free practice - First session
F. Massa: 2nd 1.18.910 24 269
K. Raikkonen: 4th 1.19.339 31 270
Weather: air 21/22 °C, track 28/27 °C. Cloudy.
Free Practice - Second session
F. Massa: 4th 1.18.491 40 269
K. Raikkonen: 5th 1.18.725 39 270
Weather: air 21 °C, track 24/26 °C. Cloudy.
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