Japanese Grand Prix Practice Sessions
October 2, 2009 by Warren Hayashi
Filed under Racing
The first practice for the 2009 Japanese Formula One Grand Prix being held at Suzuka on Friday was a up and down affair for the Japanese fans who came out to see their hero Kazuki Nakajima. Nakajima had the best time on a wet track in the first practice, until first Heikki Kovalainen went around Suzuka faster in one of the last runs of the day. Certainly Nakajima’s his fans thought he had it wrapped up with a time of 1m 40.648s, until they looked up at the clock at Kovalainen’s 1m 40.356s.
The Japanese Grand Prix is this weekend
Kovalainen actually had the best time before his McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton supplanted him when the rain was at its worst. Eventually Nakajima would take over for Williams before eventually being passed by Kovalainen later in the practice session. Force India’s Adrian Sutil had the third best time of the practice session, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the first Ferrari and Buemi for Toro Rosso.
The second session of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix in the afternoon took awhile to get going because of the rain that just didn’t want to go away. Eventually, they did get the second session started after a delay of over an hour, and once again the faster times occurred later in the round, after the track had dried a little. All of the drivers accept for Brawns cars and Kovalainen recorded a time in the second session.
Adrian Sutil recorded the fastest time of the second session for Force India in 1m 47.261s. Just behind him was Sebastian Vettel with a time of 1m 47.923s, his team mate Tonio Liuzzi in a time of 1m 47.931s and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in 1m 47.983s. Nakajima had another good practice session for Williams and certainly pleased his Japanese fans with a time of 1m 48.058s in his FW31. Behind him was Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi in 1m 48.691s, Renault’s Fernando Alonso in 1m 48.693s and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli with a time of 1m 48.737s. Alguersuari was next with a 1m 48.802s, just ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and his 1m 48.861s and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in 1m 48.886s.
“Image: Zuma Press”
