Japanese GP - Second row
Fuji, 29th September 2007
An all-red second row for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro behind an all-silver front row for McLaren-Mercedes on a day badly affected by the temperamental weather here in the shadow of Mount Fuji. The past few days here near Japan's highest and most famous mountain have been spent in warm and dry conditions, but rain began to fall during the night and by this morning, Mount Fuji and indeed much of the circuit was shrouded in mist and light drizzle. The morning free practice session was abandoned because of the poor conditions after just three drivers - Wurz, Rosberg and Trulli - had set a lap time. Others did just a single installation lap, while Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen chose to stay in the warmth of his garage. Therefore the first ever qualifying session at the new Mount Fuji layout was a real step into the unknown, as it was run in permanent, if slightly improving, wet conditions, everyone running on both types of rain tyre, "extreme" in the early stages and "wet" towards the end.
Some traffic and gearbox electrics causing a few headaches for Kimi Raikkonen and a handling imbalance for Felipe Massa on new tyres in the crucial final stages is all it took in this closely fought session, for the Finn to take third and the Brazilian to take fourth place, behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton on pole and his team-mate Fernando Alonso in second spot. Fifth place went to the ever consistent Nick Heidfeld in the Sauber-BMW ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Williams-Toyota. However, the Finn will drop ten places on tomorrow's grid, his car having required an engine change. This promotes the Honda of Jenson Button to the outside of the third row.
Weather conditions are expected to be changeable again tomorrow, although not quite so bad as today's with the possibility of a drier track than we saw this afternoon. This could make for some interesting scenarios, as today, some drivers have chosen to sacrifice qualifying pace, in order to run with a car set-up that might better suit a dry track. In order to fit in better with European TV viewing habits, the 67 lap race will start at 13h30 local time.
An all-red second row for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro behind an all-silver front row for McLaren-Mercedes on a day badly affected by the temperamental weather here in the shadow of Mount Fuji. The past few days here near Japan's highest and most famous mountain have been spent in warm and dry conditions, but rain began to fall during the night and by this morning, Mount Fuji and indeed much of the circuit was shrouded in mist and light drizzle. The morning free practice session was abandoned because of the poor conditions after just three drivers - Wurz, Rosberg and Trulli - had set a lap time. Others did just a single installation lap, while Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen chose to stay in the warmth of his garage. Therefore the first ever qualifying session at the new Mount Fuji layout was a real step into the unknown, as it was run in permanent, if slightly improving, wet conditions, everyone running on both types of rain tyre, "extreme" in the early stages and "wet" towards the end.
Some traffic and gearbox electrics causing a few headaches for Kimi Raikkonen and a handling imbalance for Felipe Massa on new tyres in the crucial final stages is all it took in this closely fought session, for the Finn to take third and the Brazilian to take fourth place, behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton on pole and his team-mate Fernando Alonso in second spot. Fifth place went to the ever consistent Nick Heidfeld in the Sauber-BMW ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Williams-Toyota. However, the Finn will drop ten places on tomorrow's grid, his car having required an engine change. This promotes the Honda of Jenson Button to the outside of the third row.
Weather conditions are expected to be changeable again tomorrow, although not quite so bad as today's with the possibility of a drier track than we saw this afternoon. This could make for some interesting scenarios, as today, some drivers have chosen to sacrifice qualifying pace, in order to run with a car set-up that might better suit a dry track. In order to fit in better with European TV viewing habits, the 67 lap race will start at 13h30 local time.
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