Ahead of this morning's sole free practice session, the air temperature is 25 degrees C, while the track temperature is 32 degrees. It's dry and bright, but very windy, there's even a typhoon in the vicinity.

With Suzuka about to host its final Grand Prix for the foreseeable future, it's good to see that there's a huge crowd here today.

First out is locals hero Takuma Sato, followed by Albers and Monteiro.

While the Spyker drivers return to the pits, having completed their installation laps, Sato goes on to post the first time of the day. Within a couple of laps he is down to 1:37.413.

Eight minutes into the session, Speed, Liuzzi, Trulli and Coulthard leave the pits.

As Doornbos and Yamamoto head down the pitlane, Trulli goes quickest in the first sector. Liuzzi goes second, behind Sato, but ahead of Speed, until Trulli crosses the line at 1:35.800, the first 'serious' time of the day.

That said, Albers posts a 35.717, as the WilliamsF1 duo and Ralf Schumacher come out to play.

Ralf goes third (35.777), ahead of Rosberg, Doornbos and Liuzzi, then improves with a 35.251 to take the top spot from Albers.

One by one, de la Rosa, Raikkonen, Massa, Michael, Barrichello and Button take to the track, just eighteen minutes into the session.

For a brief moment, Rosberg goes quickest, but the top spot is soon snatched away from him by Massa, who posts 1:34.552. Raikkonen goes third with a 1:35.061.

The Brazilian improves again (33.837), as Michael goes second with a 34.632, the German immediately going quickest in the first sector of his next lap.

Sure enough, the former World Champion posts 33.268 to go quickest, as Fisichella goes twelfth with a 36.242. Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso leaves the pits and heads down the pitlane.

The Spaniard posts 34.984 to go fifth, albeit 1.71s down on his championship rival. However, its early days.

Schumacher goes quickest in all three sectors, crossing the line at 1:32.716, extending his 'lead' over his Ferrari teammate to 1.121s. Raikkonen is third, ahead of Alonso, Rosberg, Trulli, Ralf, Heidfeld, Button and Albers.

It's said that there's "slight drizzle" in some sections of the track, though we cannot see it. Indeed, Alonso improves to third (33.964), so it cannot be having an effect… yet.

With twenty-seven minutes remaining, there are only seven cars on track, including the two WilliamsF1 drivers.

Sato improves to fourth! The Japanese driver crosses the line at 1:34.727, much to the delight of the partisan crowd. However, Albers goes one better, the Spyker driver, like Sato on Bridgestones, goes third (33.953).

Massa goes quickest in the first sector, as Trulli and Ralf leave the pits. The Brazilian improves (33.023), but remains 0.307s off his teammate's pace.

From out of nowhere, at least that's how it seems, Ralf produces a 1:31.863, having gone quickest in all three sectors. However, his brother is back on track, as is Alonso.

No sign of that bloody drizzle, but it remains very, very windy, and seems to be affecting some drivers/cars more than others.

Less the ten minutes remaining, and Barrichello goes fourth with a 33.748, which puts him ahead of Albers and Alonso. Teammate Button however, still languishes in eighteenth.

A 32.730 sees Rosberg go third, as teammate Webber goes fifth (33.339), only to be demoted by Liuzzi, who crosses the line at 32.977, to go fourth.

Several drivers are making minor improvements in various sectors, but nobody looks about to make a significant improvement, in what has been an odd session.

That said, Nick Heidfeld goes quickest of all in the first sector, as Button, from out of nowhere, produces a 32.310 to go second.