By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
October 6 2006

In changable conditions, Toyota drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher both had a reasonable day of practice in preperation for Sunday's Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit in Japan. Neither did any running in the first session, but finished 9th and 11th respectively in the second session.

Session 1:

Honda 3rd driver Anthony Davidson came out on top in Honda's home race. The British driver beat the suprsie of the session, Swiss Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Neel Jani into second place and BMW-Sauber third man Sebastian Vettel onto third. Davidsons best time a 1.45.349 compared to Jani's 1.46.138 and Vettel's 1.46.585. Red Bull Racing's third man Michael Ammermuller and Sypker-MF1's Adrian Sutil made it a third driver 1-2-3-4-5.

Toro Rosso race driver Scott Speed was the fastest of the racers in 6th ahead of Sypker-MF1 race driver Christijan Albers in 7th. Albers recently made the announcement that he would stay on with Sypker for 2007 in the 'new' teams first season of team ownership. French Super Aguri Honda driver Franck Montagny gave the local Aguri faithful something to cheer about when he put un a very good 8th place with a time of 147.918. He beat Williams third driver and 2007 race driver Alez Wurz. Super Aguri race drivers Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto finished 10th and 11th respictivley in their and the teams home race. Yamamoto was 11th and also last.

Jarno and Ralf did instilation laps but no timed laps in this session.

Japanese free practice session 1 times:
1.  A.DAVIDSON (GBR)     Honda    
2.  N.JANI  (SWI)       Toro Rosso   1m46.138s
3.  S.VETTEL (D)       BMW-Sauber   1m46.585s
4.  M.AMMERMULLER (D)  Red Bull Ferrari   1m47.162s
5.  A.SUTIL (D)     Spyker-MF1    1m47.773s
6.  S.SPEED (USA)   Scuderia Toro Rosso   1m47.814s
7.  ALBERS (NED)       Spyker-MF1     1m47.838s
8.  F.MONTAGNY (F) Super Aguri Honda 1m47.918s
9.  A.WURZ  (AUT)        Williams Cosworth 1m47.919s
10. T.SATO   (JPN)       Super Aguri Honda  1m48.042s
11. S.YAMAMOTO (JPN)     Super Aguri  1m50.479s
12. M.WEBBER  (AUS)      Williams Cosworth no time
13. N.ROSBERG  (D)     Williams Cosworth  no time
14. K.RAIKKONEN  (FIN)   McLaren-Mercedes  no time
15. V.LIUZZI  (ITA)      Scuderia Toro Rosso  no time
16. R.DOORNBOS (NED)     Red Bull Ferrari no time
17. R.KUBICA (POL)       BMW-Sauber  no time
18. D.COULTHARD (GBR)    Red Bull Ferrari no time
19. F.ALONSO (ESP)       Renault F1  no time
20. N.HEIDFELD (D)     BMW-Sauber          no time
21. FISICHELLA (ITA)   Renault F1 no time
22. T.MONTEIRO (POR)     Spyker-MF1 no time
23. DE LA ROSA (ESP)   Mclaren-Mercedes  no time
24. BARRICHELLO (BRA)  Honda   no time
25. TRULLI  (ITA)      Toyota   no time
26. R SCHUMACHER (D)  Toyota       no time
27. BUTTON  (GBR)      Honda        no time
28. M SCHUMACHER (D)  Ferrari      no time
29. MASSA (BRA)        Ferrari      no time

Session 2:

Both Jarno and Ralf did run in this session, with Jarno 9th and Ralf 11th. Jarno's best time a 1.35.375, classifing himself as the 7th fastest race driver in the session. Ralf was 9th fastest racer in the session with a best time of 135.375. After what happened in China the results of today can be seen as quite encouraging after last weekends dissapointing weekend. As this is Toyotas home race they will be hoping for a good qualifying tommorow and a god race on Sunday. Fingers crossed or a double points finish!

Renault second driver Giancarlo Fisichella was fastest in the session with a time of 1m34.337. He was ahead of Ferrari second man Felipe Massa, but all eyes was on the Championship batle between reigning Champion Fernando Alonso and 7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher. Coming into this race both Alonso and Schumacher are classified top of the points table with 116 points each with Schumacher classified ahead of Alonso due to the fact that Schumacherhas won 7 races to Alonso's 6. They are level pegging in the table and level pegging on the track as Schumacher finished the session 3rd and Alonso 4th. Schumachers time a 1.34.565 and Alonso's best a 1.34.863. It promises to be a great weekend for the title chase!

Honda third man Anthony Davidson was fastest in te first session but could only manage 5th in this session ahead of BMW-Sauber's Vettel. Button was the 5th fastest of the racers in 7th ahead of Mclaren's Pedro De La Rosa, Jarno and De La Rosa's team amte Kimi Raikkone wh rounded out the top 10. Sypker-MF1 thrid driver Adrian Sutil had an engine failure and brought up the rear fo the field in 29th spot.                  

 

Japanese GP free practice session 2 times:
1.  FISICHELLA (ITA) Renault F1 1m34.337s
2.  MASSA  (BRA)  Ferrari      1m34.408s
3.  M SCHUMACHER (D)  Ferrari      1m34.565s
4.  ALONSO (ESP)      Renault  F1    1m34.863s
5.  DAVIDSON (GBR)     Honda  1m34.906s
6.  VETTEL (D)       BMW-Sauber 1m34.912s
7.  BUTTON (GBR)    Honda        1m35.002s
8.  DE LA ROSA (ESP)    Mclaren-Mercedes 1m35.064s
9.  TRULLI (ITA)       Toyota    1m35.343s
10. RAIKKONEN (FIN)     McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.367s
11. R SCHUMACHER (D) Toyota    1m35.375s
12. AMMERMULLER (D)   Red Bull  Ferrari 1m35.433s
13. BARRICHELLO (BRA)   Honda   1m35.528s
14. WEBBER  (AUS)  Williams Cosworth 1m35.866s
15. ROSBERG  (D)  Williams Cosworth 1m36.176s
16. ALBERS  (NED)  Spyker-MF1 1m36.180s
17. WURZ (AUT)   Williams Cosworth  1m36.234s
18. KUBICA  (POL)   BMW-Sauber  1m36.299s
19. MONTAGNY (FRA)  Super Aguri  1m37.354s
20. LIUZZI (ITA)  Scuderia Toro Rosso   1m37.441s
21. SPEED (USA)  Scuderia Toro Rosso   1m37.501s
22. COULTHARD (GBR) Red Bull Ferrari 1m37.596s
23. MONTEIRO (POR) Spyker-MF1 1m37.702s
24. JANI  (SWI) Scuderia Toro Rosso   1m37.741s
25. DOORNBOS (NED) Red Bull Ferrari  1m37.788s
26. SATO (JPN)  Super Aguri  1m38.533s
27. HEIDFELD  (D) BMW-Sauber  1m38.779s
28. YAMAMOTO (JPN) Super Aguri  1m38.955s
29. SUTIL (D) Spyker  1m43.914s