By Ian Lockwood
October 7 2011

After the first day running DRS and Pirelli tyres at Suzuka, it was a successful day's testing in Japan; bar a minor meeting of Seb's RB7 with the barrier this morning. Here's what the drivers thought...

Sebastian Vettel, Car 1: "It wasn’t a big mistake this morning, but in that moment I wasn’t 100% awake and mistakes around here can be quite costly. I went off and tried to slow the car down, but I hit the wall slightly. It wasn’t a big impact, but it did some damage to the car, so it wasn’t perfect. It did affect our run plan a little, but we had a solid afternoon. The circuit seems pretty tricky this year on these tyres – they make the cars seem more alive, so Sunday will be an interesting race. Taking130R with the DRS open isn’t as easy as it used to be!” 

First Practice Session
Position: 3, Best Time: 1:34.090, Laps: 22, Chassis No. 5
Second Practice Session    
Position: 3, Best Time: 1:32.095, Laps: 34, Chassis No. 5

Mark Webber, Car 2: “It’s good fun, it’s a great track and you can really let the car go around here, so all of us enjoyed it. It’s a challenging circuit; we know there are a couple of tricky corners that can catch us out and we’re all pushing to the limit obviously. We got some good information today; we ran both tyre compounds and completed some long runs, so not a bad day. I don’t think KERS will be a problem here, but it’s possible that the DRS might catch a few people out.” 

First Practice Session
Position: 5, Best Time: 1:34.426, Laps: 25, Chassis No. 4
Second Practice Session    
Position: 4, Best Time 1:32.147, Laps: 27, Chassis No. 4