Ferrari on Friday practice for the Japanese GP: A wet start

Suzuka  – The light rain which fell overnight influenced the job list in first free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth in 1.50.519 behind a trio made up of Carlos Sainz Jr (1.49.434) in the Toro Rosso, the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat (1.49.938) and Nico Rosberg (1.50.077) in the Mercedes. On his way to seventh fastest in 1.51.212, Raikkonen did 15 laps on the Wet tyres, while Sebastian did his run on Intermediates.

Both men did some practice starts and gathered what data they could in their short time on track. Conditions are set to improve for the coming sessions.

Vettel and Raikkonen fifth and sixth in P2

The second free practice session for the thirteenth round of the World Championship here in Japan, was also rain affected.

Conditions improved briefly but then the rain unexpectedly returned, limiting track time, so that less work could be done. The Ferrari men spent a long time in the garage, before alternating two runs on Intermediates with a final run on Wets. Sebastian Vettel was fifth in 1.50.268 and Kimi Raikkonen was sixth with a 1.50.319. Fastest was Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull (1.48.277,) ahead of the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg (1.48.300) and Lewis Hamilton (1.48.853).

Quotes

Kimi Raikkonen: “Today the weather was not very good and the track conditions were a bit tricky. It’s a shame for everybody but it was a day like any other for us: we did some running and tried to learn something. We have to wait until tomorrow and see how the weather comes out to be, it could be anything. We’ll try to do a good job and make the best out of it.”

Sebastian Vettel: “We tried to do some laps but it was not so easy, because sometimes there was quite a lot of water on the track. In these conditions it’s a lot up to the driver if he wants to continue or not, feeling the tyres and feeling the conditions. Also, the conditions not being consistent, it’s not so easy to compare your car to other people’s car. In general at the beginning I think we were not where we wanted to be, but maybe in the end we learned some lessons. Now let’s see how the weather will be in the next couple of days.”

Scuderia Ferrari