Friday’s washout made it difficult to derive any meaningful pointers for the weekend’s form, but James Allen brings you the lowdown from the circuit and sets the scene for what will be a more than usually testing qualifying session.
Today was a bit of a washout, frankly. It was wet at the start of the first session but by the end a drying line had appeared.
In the afternoon it bucketed down the whole way through and the track was like a lake.
Several drivers didn’t bother going out, including the Brawn pair.
Sebastian Vettel also took the opportunity to save his practice engines, which may mean that he can make it through to the end of the season without taking an extra engine and the penalty that comes with it.
There are seven drivers in the field who have never driven here before and they will have very limited time to get their cars set up and balanced for the dry conditions we expect in qualifying and the race.
One of them is Lewis Hamilton, who this afternoon said that Suzuka is the best circuit he has ever driven on, even though he has yet to appreciate the full majesty of the place in the dry.
He admitted that he was not able to take the legendary 130R corner flat in the wet.
Rubens Barrichello said this afternoon that this situation is a real advantage for him and the other experienced drivers.
He loves the challenge of dialling a car in quickly and Jenson Button sees it as a good thing for him too.
Both men look very relaxed this weekend; the thing is pretty devoid of tension.
That may also be a function of the fact that Button has a 15-point lead over his team-mate and only an epic collapse by him would hand Barrichello the title.
I sense that Button wants to win this in style, however.
When it dries out I think the Red Bull should be the fastest car with the Brawn on its tail and maybe the Force India closer to the front again.
McLaren will not be too far behind, while Ferrari accept that the other cars have moved ahead of them now and they may struggle to get out of Q2.