For the Williams F1 team the opening Friday practice for the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix would see Valtteri Bottas in for Bruno Senna with Bruno sitting out this session. As for tyres Pirelli had brought their hard and soft tyres for this event. The session would get underway with Vergne out first. For Valtteri it would be his first run at the Suzuka circuit as more drivers took to the track. Valtteri would be first out for Williams and would pit after a single installation lap. Pastor Maldonado would be the last driver to leave the pit lane. Valtteri would report that all was OK with his car. Schumacher was the only driver still out on the track while Pastor still had yet to come out. With just under ten minutes completed Pastor would finally come out and pit after one lap.

The first drivers to return to the track were Vergne and Rosberg but Rosberg would pit after one lap. Kobayashi was next out while Vergne pitted. Kobayashi would also pit with Hamilton next out with an hour ten minutes remaining. Several drivers including Alonso and Vettel were not in a hurry to get back out as Karthikeyan left the pits. Hamilton would set the first time with a 1m:37.435. Next to come out was De la Rosa as Hamilton improved with a 1m:37.008. Karthikeyan would set a slow 1m:43.757 to be 6.7 seconds slower than Hamilton. He would improve with a 1m:40.729 while Hamilton would improve with a 1m:34.910. A 1m:41.293 from De la Rosa to be third. More drivers would start to come out including Pic, Raikkonen, and Button. Hamilton would pit as Perez came out. Karthikeyan had improved with a 1m:39.453 while Raikkonen had pitted. He would be followed by Button with neither driver setting a time.

A 1m:44.500 from Pic as Perez set a 1m:38.996 to be second. We now had both Ferrari's, Grosjean, Webber, Glock, and Kobayashi out on the track. Both HRT cars had pitted as Van der Gar, running at Caterham, and Schumacher took to the track. Grosjean was now third with a time of 1m:37.507 while Perez had improved with a 1m:36.393. We now had both Williams drivers out on the track and Ricciardo. Massa would move into second with a 1m:35.915. Vettel was also out on the track as Webber went sixth with a 1m:39.268. Perez had pitted as Schumacher went fourth, 1m:36.399. Alonso was up to fifth as Kobayashi improving to be second with a 1m:35.876. Massa was now third followed by Perez, Schumacher, Alonso, and Pastor. Pastor's time was a 1m:36.540. But the times continued to fall with Grosjean moving into second only to be passed by Webber with a 1m:35.289. Hamilton was still in his pit after his early run.

Pastor was now down in eleventh, 1m:37.209, while Alonso moved up to third with a time of 1m:35.697. Massa would also improve to take third with a 1m:35.338 while for Williams Valtteri would be down in fifteenth, 1m:37.942. Pastor would improve with a 1m:35.478 to be fifth as Kobayashi moved up to second, 1m:35.199. But this would become third as Webber went fastest with a 1m:34.856. Webber and Kobayashi would pit. With the Williams team is was reported that they were trialling a new exhaust. As the times continued to improve we would see Rosberg move up to third , 1m:35.059, while Pastor was now seventh while Valtteri was fifteenth. More drivers would start to return to their pits. On the tyre front only the hard tyre had been used so far. Both Pastor and Valtteri had pitted with forty minutes remaining in the session.

While everyone were returning to the pits Hamilton would come back out. The top ten was Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg, Kobayashi, Massa, Hulkenberg, Pastor, Alonso, Perez, and Grosjean tenth. Di Resta and Button had yet to set a time as Alonso pitted. Button's first timed lap would see him set a 1m:35.249 to move up to fifth. Both Hulkenberg and Alonso were back out on the track as Button continued setting a 1m:34.507 to go fastest. Di Resta was back out and would set a 1m:35.951 to be twelfth. He would set a 1m:35.714 to now be eleventh. Pastor would be the first back out for Williams as more drivers returned to the track. Hamilton would also improve with a time of 1m:34.740 to again be second. The track was again busy as more drivers came back including Valtteri. With under thirty minutes remaining Di Resta had moved up to seventh, 1m:35.374. Pastor was now ninth and Valtteri eighteenth as Button and Hamilton pitted. The Lotus pair of Raikkonen and Grosjean were twelfth and thirteenth. Vettel and Schumacher were down in sixteenth and seventeenth.

With eighteen minutes remaining both Pastor and Valtteri continued out on the track with both driver having completed sixteen laps. Pastor would be the first to come in after his second run as Valtteri set a personal best in sector one. Schumacher was now up to fifth with a 1m:35.122 followed by Kobayashi and Massa. With fifteen minutes remaining there were only a handful of cars out on the track. Valtteri would pit while Pastor would return shortly after. The track was again becoming busier as drivers came out for their final runs. Valtteri was also back out with seven minutes remaining. Not a lot was happening in regard to times with Button still fastest from Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Massa, Di Resta, Hulkenberg, and Pastor in tenth. Valtteri was down in eighteenth as the session drew to a close. There were now only three drivers in the pits, Massa, Ricciardo, and Glock.

As the session drew to a lose only Glock remained in his pit while out on the track Rosberg pulled off the track at the S curves at the back of the pits seeing him get out of his car. His car was craned away as the session came to an end. Pastor would finish the session still tenth and Valtteri in eighteenth. The drivers would complete practice starts on the grid prior to pitting. For the Williams team it was a positive start to the weekend with Pastor tenth and Valtteri on his first run on the Suzuka track eighteenth. Both drivers would complete twenty four trouble free laps. Only the hard Pirelli tyre had been used in the session with the soft tyre expected to be seen later in the second Friday practice.

Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
1.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m34.507s 20
 2.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m34.740s 26
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m34.856s 24
 4.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m35.059s 18
 5.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m35.112s 20
 6.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.199s 27
 7.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m35.283s 24
 8.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m35.299s 18
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m35.474s 22
10.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m35.478s 24
11.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m35.484s 26
12.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.584s 24
13.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m35.691s 22
14.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m35.724s 21
15.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m36.123s 19
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m36.222s 25
17.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m36.366s 23
18.  Valtteri Bottas     Williams-Renault      1m36.389s 24
19.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.716s 17
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m38.295s 23
21.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m38.616s 25
22.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m39.043s 25
23.  Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault      1m39.374s 22
24.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m39.688s 19