08/10/2004

Grand Prix of Japan - Free Practice Report

The opening day of free practice at Suzuka was almost a total washout with only Jarno Trulli doing any meaningful running for Panasonic Toyota Racing. That was because as the team's new signing replacing Ricardo Zonta in the race team here in Japan the Italian was keen to gain some experience of the TF104B in the wet.

Olivier Panis meanwhile completed just a single installation lap in each of the day's one-hour sessions while third driver Ryan Briscoe remained in the garage throughout the day

Technical Director Mike Gascoyne explained: "Ryan didn't go out because we have a limitation on the number of wet weather Michelin tyres we can use so our priority is to conserve the wet tyres and ensure we have enough for the race cars."

Ryan said: "Due to the restriction of extreme wet weather tyres I was unable to do any running today. The conditions were simply too bad to even consider going out on intermediate tyres. I am disappointed that I couldn't have the chance to drive at the Suzuka circuit and not to participate in Toyota's home grand prix weekend."

Trulli completed 17 laps in total and finished up 14th fastest with a lap in 1m50.386s. "I have obviously tested the car in the dry but not in the wet so it was a good opportunity to just learn about the way the car responds in such conditions he said. It was pretty tricky out there"

Panasonic Toyota Racing team manager Richard Cregan said: "Basically there was no point in running either Olivier or Ryan today. Olivier has experience of the car in the rain and basically went out just to check the clutch and launch settings. There were also safety concerns and we decided that it would not have been fair on Ryan to send him out in those conditions considering that we would derive no benefit from it."

For the record Michael Schumacher set the quickest time for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro (1m45.388s) ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber Petronas (1m46.102s) Kimi Raikkonen's West McLaren Mercedes (1m46.749s) Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari (1m46.874s) David Coulthard's McLaren (1m48.033s) and Timo Glock's Jordan Ford (1m49.277s).

Late on Friday afternoon it was announced that there will be no running at all at Suzuka on Saturday due to severe weather. The Suzuka circuit has already experienced 21 typhoon warnings already this season and another serious typhoon is expected to hit the area on Saturday. Spectators have been told not to come and qualifying has been rescheduled for Sunday morning.

The revised schedule for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix is as follows:

09:00 (local time): Pre-qualifying
10:00: Qualifying Session
14:30: Race