02/10/2009
NEWS STORY
The first of the practice sessions for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix got underway today with rain showers impacting on the amount of track time for all of the teams around the 5.897km Suzuka circuit.
The morning practice session started on a wet track which began to dry out as the session progressed to allow Jenson and Rubens to run on both the Bridgestone wet and intermediate tyres. Whilst limiting their laps, both drivers concentrated on finding a balance in the wet conditions with Rubens completing 19 laps and Jenson totaling 17 laps.
The afternoon practice session proved to be largely a washout with heavy showers leading to a saturated track and keeping the two Brawn-Mercedes cars in the garage for the duration of the ninety-minutes.
Rubens Barrichello: "As we expected, the rain came to Suzuka today and it led to an unusually quiet opening day of practice. The morning session wasn't too bad but the rain this afternoon was heavy enough to create small rivers on parts of the track and there was nothing to be gained by going out. The limited running makes for a much more interesting and challenging day tomorrow however as getting the right set-up quickly will be very important. Whether it proves to be dry or wet tomorrow, we will need to study the data from today and be focused tomorrow morning to ensure we are well prepared for qualifying."
Jenson Button: "I feel sorry for the fans at Suzuka today but unfortunately we can't get any useful information in these conditions with so much water on the track. We spent the morning session working on the balance of the car with the wet and intermediate tyres to ensure that we are prepared if the same wet weather does continue over the weekend. It was important to achieve some running and it feels good to be back at Suzuka. This is a great drivers' track so hopefully we'll get some dry running tomorrow."
Ross Brawn: "The weather conditions impacted on our practice plans today as the wet track meant that we opted for a reduced programme. We completed an installation run on the wet weather tyres this morning before Jenson and Rubens switched to intermediates as the track started to dry out over the course of the session. With a heavy downpour between the two sessions, the condition of the track deteriorated further. As the weather forecast shows a dry qualifying and race and with limited wet weather tyres, we felt that there was nothing further to be learnt from running again this afternoon."