Japanese Grand Prix thread

Well, because another one hasn't been made yet :) Here we are, feel free to edit this post. If not fire away below.

Ferrari come here tainted constructer champions, McLaren are going hard for the drivers championship.

But Fuji, which from a set up POV is very much like Indianapolis, is not working for McLaren as we mau have first thought from free practice as Kimi tops 1st practise.

Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari-dominated first practice session at the new Fuji circuit in Japan. The Finn was 0.379s quicker than team mate Felipe Massa and 0.5s ahead of Fernando Alonso.The Spaniard had the early edge over championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 0.14s.

Trulli, Sutil and Davidson rounded off the top ten. Local hero Sato ended the session seventeenth after spending the first hour of practice stranded in the pits with mechanics working on his car.

Courtesy of GP.Update.net

So guys, whos gonna get it this weekend?

PRACTICE 1

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:19.119           26
 2.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:19.498 + 0.379   27
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:19.667 + 0.548   27
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:19.807 + 0.688   24
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.058 + 0.939   26
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.297 + 1.178   26
 7.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.411 + 1.292   24
 8.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:20.483 + 1.364   32
 9.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:20.516 + 1.397   29
10.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:20.601 + 1.482   22

PRACTICE 2

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:18.734            38
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:18.948  + 0.214   34
 3.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:19.483  + 0.749   36
 4.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:19.711  + 0.977   35
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:19.714  + 0.980   29
 6.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:19.789  + 1.055   40
 7.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:19.926  + 1.192   39
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:19.949  + 1.215   33
 9.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:19.969  + 1.235   40
10.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.069  + 1.335   45

no problems, have a good time.

Final practice abandoned due to fog

Final practice for the Japanese Grand Prix had to be abandoned due to poor weather conditions at Fuji.

The session was initially delayed by 15 minutes due to low cloud that would have prevented the medical helicopter from flying in the event of an accident.

The start was then postponed by a further quarter of an hour as the cloud failed to lift.

The field was finally allowed out onto the wet track with 30 minutes remaining, but the rain worsened immediately and with visibility declining again, the red flag was shown after just four minutes.

After announcing a further series of five minute delays, race control eventually bowed to the inevitable at 11:53 local time and decided not to attempt to restart the session.

Only three drivers managed flying laps in the few minutes of running that took place. Williams' Alex Wurz was fastest on a 1:32.746, two seconds clear of teammate Nico Rosberg. Toyota's Jarno Trulli was third, 3.4 seconds behind Wurz.

All the other drivers bar Kimi Raikkonen managed at least an installation or out-lap before practice was finally called off.

SOURCE: AUTOSPORT

Sounds fun... Nurburgring Part Deux. Hopefully Hammie's daddy won't show up to drive the crane this time though...

But really, this should be interesting, limited practice on a brand new track in the wet! Maybe Sutil can be the fastest? The crappier the car, the less it should be affected by the rain.

Qualifying results from the Japanese Grand Prix, Saturday.

Wow.. Vettel and Button were right up there. They also now benefit from Rosberg's engine penalty. Here are the full results:

You'll notice that Alonso was faster than Hamilton for all his best sector times. It seems he just couldn't string together a perfect lap on his final run.

And an amusing photo to remind us all why Ralf didn't set a time in Q2:

The joys of waking up at 6AM to watch a TV on mute... :lol:

Good ol' Ralf eh, deciding to crash the Toyota at it's home track...

And I get to watch it on RTL (German Channel which USES A MINI-SCREEN DURING THE ADVERTS, HINT HINT ITV!!)

Come On Alonso! Pass Hamilton at the start!

Come On Alonso! Pass Hamilton at the start!

VexxatuVexx

Uhm... The question now is.... will there be a start? Man.... The race started on safety car, the two ferraris had to pit cuz they werent on extreme wets.... If it continues like this... The race won't start....That would mean... That counting that Ferrari put enough fuel to last them till the end of the race.... Ouch.... So, it's either Ferrari or Mclaren that will win big.... The other will lose big.... After 30 minutes of racing, still, nothing hapenned!

Finally! We have a race! A bit of first lap carnage but... Nothging much... And massa's race is pretty much finished.... So we have 3 players now! Wuth 45 minutes done, this is... Well... A funny race :P

Well.... Now we have reached just a bit after half the limited time. And... Hamilton is in great position.... But Alonso is in traffic and Raikonnen is coming bach at a very good pace! Not too much carnage but many drivers are having trouble holding on to their cars.

As we were getting closer and closer to the 75% mark, the safety car comes back on the track, but his time, because of Fernando Alonso's accident. If this race continues like this, Hamilton could get major option on the world championship because all the main runners arent doing much. But then again, he had an accident with Kubica, so, at the point were we stand right now, this race is gonna be a shocker.... Hey, Webber and Vettel could win with a mistake by Hamilton....

Ok! So another update.... Vettel took out Webber.... Massa is back in the race and Raikonnen might not have said his last words.... If it countinues like that, we should be able to complete the full race but, this could be jeopardized by another yellow flag. The points will count for 100% of their worth, now that we have gone 75% in the race.

And we went full distance to see Hamilton win! Wow, this was certainly worth staying up in the middle of the night to watch! And, with this win, Hamilton takes away almost all the chances for Kimi Raikonnen to get the Driver's championship... And what can we say about Kovalainen.... 2nd place..... And Raikonnen 3rd!

Oooh... Hammie won. What I don't get is that the guys on SPEED were saying how totally great Hammy's drive was when he was out front all day. He rarely had to drive through the water trails. Yes, it does take skill to drive in the wet, but he had it easiest. And Hammo's basically wrapped up the WDC.

Go Sutil! What a great run. Silly Vettel and Webber.

Crazy.

Ah, bloody Vettel! How do you crash into the back of someone under safety car conditions? No wonder Webber was furious. Also, what was with some of Ferrari's "strategic" moves regarding Massa? Totally wrecked his race.

Anyway, good win by Hamilton, and a great result for Kovalainen,but a real pity Alonso crashed out. 12 points is practically insurmountable unless Hamilton suffers a DNF.

Race result:

Wow.. what a race. I believe the Vettel incident was to do with the common practice that the race leader slows the field down before the green flag. I'm not blaming Hamilton specifically, I'm blaming the dangerous practice that all race leaders under a safety car have done in the past. Hamilton slowed, Webber slowed, and Vettel didn't respond in time. A total accident on Vettel's part. A rule change in this area seems likely at some point.

Alonso's accident was understandable given the pressure he is under right now. On a normal weekend he'd probably be able to deal with aquaplaning fairly well. Raikkonen and Kovalainen deserved to be on the podium alongside Hamilton, all three of whom drove pretty much perfect races (I'll put Raikkonen's off track adventures down to the tyre choice).

"It's kids isn't it. They have not got enough experience - they do a good job and then they f*** it all up" - Mark Webber

His reaction'sa bit OTT if you ask me. And quite a nasty thing to say. Mark needs to keep a lid on his foul language.

Can anyone quote me James Allen's response to Alonso's retirement please? I wanna know if it was sommut like:

"ZOMG! ALONSO'S OUT! LEWIS IS GONNA WIN THE WORLD TITLE!" *Dances for 24 hours consistently*

Anywhoos, can someone incorporate this into the first post of the Chinese GP thread when it's created? I know it's obvious stuff, but it will make for more reading:

THE MATHS (Chinese GP):

Lewis Hamilton: Beat Fernando Alonso, or finish in a position behind him where 1 point is the difference.

Fernando Alonso: Beat Lewis Hamilton by minimum 2 points. If he does get 2 more points, he can win World Title by virtue of more race wins than Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen: Beat Lewis Hamilton by minimum 7 points. This means he MUST finish either 1st or 2nd or is out of contention.

Can anyone quote me James Allen's response to Alonso's retirement please? I wanna know if it was sommut like:

"ZOMG! ALONSO'S OUT! LEWIS IS GONNA WIN THE WORLD TITLE!" *Dances for 24 hours consistently*

Redders1989

He screamed "OH! A MCLAREN! We've just saw a shot of Hamilton, I believe this is Alonso!.. It is! One of the two main Championship contenders, Fernando Alonso, has hit the wall." Notice the poor grammar underlined.

Also some random facts:

- Visibility was so poor at times for the drivers that they couldn't see further than six inches ahead of them (thus meaning they couldn't even see their own hands, as to how that's even possible for them to drive in then god knows)

- Hamilton's helmet fogged up on the INSIDE, making his win even more amazing,

- but poor old Mark Webber. If being shunted in the back wasn't bad enough for the Aussie, he had food poisoning so bad he was actually throwing up during the race :(

Oooh... Hammie won. What I don't get is that the guys on SPEED were saying how totally great Hammy's drive was when he was out front all day. He rarely had to drive through the water trails. Yes, it does take skill to drive in the wet, but he had it easiest. And Hammo's basically wrapped up the WDC.

XSamFisherX

well put

it was good, but not amazing....there were more gutsy drives lower down the pack, ie; KIMI and kovi...not very often we get to see some1 go flat out around the outside of a redbull in the wet and make it stick!

8)

Poor Vettel...:(

Lewis is gonna win this year :(