The final race of the championship in Japan set to decide both championships, with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher needing just one point to clinch the drivers’ title and the WilliamsF1 team having to come away with four points more than Ferrari to win the constructors title.

As the teams prepared fro the opening practice session a few clouds covered the circuit with no rain forecast for today. Michael Schumacher would lead the cars onto the circuit, with only six cars left in the pit lane. Takuma Sato had replaced Jacques Villeneuve at BAR for this weekend's race.

Montoya would be the first man onto a flying lap. He would be fastest from his team-mate Ralf, followed by David Coulthard in third. McLaren team-mate Kimi would move into second. Raikkonen would claim the fastest time but just as quickly Jaguar's Mark Webber would cross the line with the fastest time.

Like all practice session the sessions times for drivers would change rapidly. Coulthard would take-over Webbers position at the top as Button and Sato were seventh and eighth. With about ten minutes of the session run Ralph Firman would move into second for Jordan. Justin Wilson was now sixth in his Jaguar.

Michael Schumacher would go out on his first flying lap. He would be half a second quicker after the first sector, but the following two sectors would see him be somewhat careful and he would set only the tenth fastest time. Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella was now in eighth. Fernando Alonso would be on a time for the fastest lap after the first two sectors, and he would cross the finish line with the fastest time to date.

Michael would continue and would move into second, with a lap time of 1m:32.833. Sato would improve to now be in eleventh, while Jos Verstappen was twelfth. As the drivers continued practice Button, like Sato, would improve his time to be ninth. Toyota's Cristiano Da Matta, at their home Grand Prix, was now in thirteenth.

Rubens Barrichello would be fastest of all after the first sector, continuing that after sector two, but would finish in second just behind Alonso. Panis would make a mistake at the chicane, flying across it. Panis was not the only one to have done this, even Michael Schumacher had cut across the chicane.

Renault's Jarno Trulli would take to the track for the first time, and on his first flying lap would go fastest with a time of 1m:31:981. David Coulthard would move up to now be second, with a time of 1m:32:469. Jenson Button would suffer a blown engine, ending his practice. Ralf Schumacher would set his fastest lap of the session, moving into seventh. Montoya was down in tenth with a time of 1m:34:153.

Cristiano Da Matta was having problems with his car, with his mechanics are swarming around the number 21 Toyota. Michael Schumacher would improve to now be in third, but his time was over half a second off the pace of Trulli. Barrichello would start a flying lap which would see him set the fastest first sector of the session, 31.6sec, continuing this after sector two but a mistake through the final chicane would see Rubens only in fifth. He would start another flying lap but would abort it and return to the pits. A small improvement for Heidfeld would see him move from nineteenth to fifteenth.

Toyota's Da Matta was now back on the circuit after his earlier problems. Kimi Raikkonen would set the quickest time with a lap of 1m:31:588, to be 0.4sec ahead of Trulli. Ralf Schumacher would move up to be third, with a time of 1m:32:354. This was 0.766sec behind the lead McLaren. Olivier Panis would move closer to the leaders, with the Toyota driver now in fifth, ahead of Alonso.

With fifteen minutes left to the session there was a lull in proceedings. Da Matta would improve to now be ninth. Fisichella would fly across a gravel trap, seeing him returns to his garage. With Ten minutes left to run Panis would go fastest after sector one, with a 31.5sec time. Olivier would be joined by Jarno Trulli who was a full four tenths quicker with a 31.1. Panis would lose over half a second to Raikkonen at the second sector finishing in third. Trulli would continue his quick lap snatching pole with a time of 1m:31:046.

Barrichello would move into second while Ralf would improve his time to be fifth. Montoya has only completed five laps this morning. He must have had problems with his FW25. With under three minutes left to run, da Matta would move into seventh, while Jaguar's Mark Webber would be sixth. Raikkonen could only manage fourth with championship rival Montoya back in action and up to fifth position.

Heidfeld, in his last Grand Prix for Sauber, was thirteenth. Coulthard would go fastest in sector one, while Trulli would improve his time by three tenths. Coulthard would finish his lap in second. His time was quickly passed by Michael Schumacher. Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello would be fourth.

With the chequered flag waved Alonso would set a new fastest first sector time of 30.9, but the Spaniard would run off the circuit in the second sector and stop his Renault.