Webber in top ten after Japanese Friday practice

The opening Friday practice session at Suzuka seeing the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers finish in ninth and fourteenth places, with Mark leading Antonio. Mark would have problems with his car that would limit his track time. But the big news of the session was the engine failure for McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. This would see him have to change his engine dropping him ten places on the grid for Sunday's race.

Under cloudy skies the start of the second session would see Jordan's third driver Sako Yamamoto take to the circuit first. He would be joined by several other drivers but the opening times would be set by Zonta, Yamamoto and Robert Doornbos. Pedro de la Rosa would move into second with a time of 1m:36.053. Red Bull's Viantonio Liuzzi would move ahead of the Spaniard with a time of 1m:35.847. But Pedro would improve his time with a 1m:35.582, to be back in second.

Toyota's Ralf Schumacher would move into third with a time of 1m:35.148. As the session progressed the chance of rain started to look more likely. Mark would set a time that would see him move into second. So with slightly over ten minutes of the session run the order was Zonta, Webber, de la Rosa, Pizzonia, Ralf Schumacher, Liuzzi, Villeneuve, Yamamoto, Doornbos, Karthikeyan, Trulli and Barrichello.

Zonta's time of 1m:30.948 was 2.351 seconds faster that the time set by
Ferrari's Michael Schumacher who had moved into second. The only drivers yet to take to the track were the two Renault's and the Red Bull of David Coulthard. Pedro de la Rosa was now in second with a time of 1m:33.107. Kimi Raikkonen was in seventh with a time of 1m:33.849. Zonta would improve his time with a 1m:30.824. For Liuzzi he would suffer problems with his Cosworth engine.

With fifteen minutes of the session run Zonta would again improve his time with a 1m:30.682. Raikkonen was now in second but was pushed down to third by
team-mate de la Rosa, when the Spaniard set a time of 1m:32.578. Pedro would improve his time with a 1m:32.193, but remained in second. Toyota team-mates Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli were in fourth and fifth. Michael Schumacher was now in second, 1m:31.716, while team-mate Rubens Barrichello was in fourth with a time of 1m:32.267.

As a a few drops of rain started to fall on the circuit both Renault's would come out. Alonso's first timed lap would see him in eighth, 1m:33.259, while Fisichella was in fifteenth with a time of 1m:34.507. As the rain continued to fall the track was to get even damper, seeing most drivers return to their garages. With just over twenty minutes of the session remaining Zonta, de la Rosa, Barrichello, Alonso, Felipe Massa and Tiago Monteiro were the only drivers on the track. Eventually it would only be de la Rosa and Zonta left as the other drivers left the track.

With fifteen minutes remaining even these two drivers would leave the track. Michael Schumacher would come back out briefly but we would see the track with no cars on it. Both Sauber drivers would come out with intermediate tyres fitted, but they would quickly return to their garages. Button would come out with full wet weather tyres fitted. Both the Sauber's would come back out after quick stops. Raikkonen and Fisichella would come out, running with dry tyres, while Sato was out using intermediate tyres. Both Mark and Antonio would return to the track to gain data on running with wet weather tyres, given the possibility of further rain over the weekend.

As the final five minutes counted down the rain would fall even heavier making it impossible to set a time any where near that set earlier in the session. So with the chequered flag coming out the top ten was Zonta, Michael Schumacher, de la Rosa, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Trulli, Alonso, Button and Webber. Antonio was in twelfth.