The pointless Saturday morning practice session at Suzuka (Part 2)
The teams seemed reluctant to go out on the track due to the conditions and hardly any of the 24 drivers scored a timed lap. However, Hamilton finally got to hit the track as his new parts arrived to the McLaren pit garage.
Lewis took a fairly gentle first lap and it was quite clear that he was being careful this time.
Reports came in that Suzuka qualifying sessions will be affected by heavy rain before. The Japanese grand prix has been affected before in a similar way in the Saturday afternoon at both the 1992 and 1994 events, the rain was at least as
heavy as it is now and the sessions did run to a conclusion.
Following his teammate Jenson Button, Hamilton continued into a second tour around the sodden circuit and was followed by Jaime Alguersuari as he came back out again for a third look at the circuit.
The silence was finally broken as Jaime Alguersuari lost control of the Toro Rosso before his exit on the final chicane andkept going again as he began a timed lap. Lewis Hamilton decided to pit after a second tour as his teammate decided
to look at the conditions once again.
Glock also came out on the circuit for an exploration in his Virgin machine right before the half an hour mark.
Alguersuari's car was visibly about to aquaplane on the start-finish straight, as he crossed the start finish line to post a 1m58.016s followed by Glock to complete his lap almost 10 seconds short of Alguersuari’s time.
There were only two times on the board half way through the session and it seemed that the teams were rather worried than relaxing in the pit lane.
Button returned to the McLaren garage after a single lap while Alguersuari bravely continued another round to complete a second timed lap. He posted a 1m55.902s proving that he can keep it on the island.
Rain continued to fall heavily, clearing that the conditions were not improving at all. Alguersuari ran almost off the road at the Dunlop Curve proving that the conditions were getting even worse. However, the Spaniard did a good job to keep his car on the
road. He elected to pit by the end of that lap, and was able to give a good feedback to his team on exactly what the track conditions are like.
The radars showed that the teams were about to enter a lengthy period of heavier rain. It continued to fall even harder and harder with just 24 minutes to go.
Hamilton took off his helmet and told his team that there is “no point to be on the track at the moment”. There were no cars on the circuit by the 36-minute marker, and with the rain intensifying; it became even more difficult to say that teams will come
out see in the final 22 minutes.
Ironically, Alguersuari reported that he was happy with the balance of his car on his run through the standing water. Alguersuari stated that the balance was fine, but he was having some “big problem” with the aquaplaning at many points on the circuit. Toro
Rosso’s technical director Giorgio Ascanelli told Sebastian Buemi on the team radio that under those conditions, they could not expect the qualifying session to take place.
Ascanelli also told Buemi that if he wants to go out and check the track conditions he could do so. The Swiss responds and is now on the circuit. Sebastian Buemi was also trying to control his STR 5 as he dived down the hill towards Spoon Curve.
He powered down before his exit on the final chicane before losing control of his car followed by a spinning Toro Rosso moments later but the Swiss driver was able to keep the Toro Rosso engine firing. Robert Kubica headed to the track with just 15 minutes
remaining in the session as the rain continued to flood the track.
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