The Japanese Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Hello and welcome back to the stunning circuit of Suzuka in Japan.

One of the oldest and most loved circuits on the calendar and one

which has been the decider of many a Formula One World Championship.

Welcome to Japan and welcome back and welcome if you missed the free

practise one. You missed a lot of drama, Gary. There was all sorts

going on. There was a gap between Mercedes and Red Bull. Should we

read anything into that? Well, we know at the beginning of the season

Mercedes were very quick. That does say that the car performance stands

out in this circuit and we know Lewis and Nico Rosberg are close

drivers and Mercedes maybe strong here and it may give Red Bull a hard

time. There was a few problems for the

younger drivers. Jules Bianchi has oversteer. He had an impact with the

barrier. For Pastor Maldonado this is his third time lap and the left

wheel comes off in the middle of the spin curves. They are not sure why

that happened. It was his third lap. It was tightened in the pits, but

they will have to look at that wheel nut to see if it was split or

something. We saw another accident with van der Garde. He locks the

front up and he is going too quickly and careers off into the gravel

trap. That wasn't a big impact. Not too much trouble for the

Caterham. Let's go to the pit lane now where Jenny can give us the

latest. How is the Caterham looking, Jenny? It is looking bare. Behind me

and in Jules Bianchi's garage, he is pottering around in his jeans this

is a car that took a big shunt in Korea when the reserve driver was in

it. He won't take any part of in this session. Caterham, van der

Garde's car looking OK. Williams this session. Caterham, van der

will be investigated by the FIA for the bouncing wheel we saw in the

first session here at Suzuka. We don't know what the penalty is, but

they only have one point at the moment.

An extraordinary incident that. I presume we won't know more until the

investigation. But that kind of thing was supposed to have been

stopped? For Singapore the teams had to do something to stop the wheel

nut coming off. We saw Mark Webber's wheel come off in the pit lane and

it hit a cameraman. The FIA put in the regulation, if the wheel nut

doesn't go on properly, it can't fall off, but it was on there for

three laps so something broke or something didn't do the job

properly. It needs an investigation because you don't want those things

happening. What do you expect in this session?

This is when they put on the medium tyre, the softer tyre. The times

were quicker in the first session than they were last year in the

first session. The lap times are going to be good this afternoon, but

we won't know until at the end of the session who has got the fastest

car, but I think the Mercedes will be strong.

Tony and Ben your commentary team. The second practise session of the

weekend gets underway at Suzuka as the green light comes on at the end

of the pit lane and we have got gorgeous weather conditions. The

track temperature 41 Celsius and the air temperature 29 Celsius. In order

to get the cars tuned for qualifying and race day. A lot of changes can

take place on the cars overnight. They will be looking at gear ratios

today as well as basic set-up, aerodynamic set-ups on the cars,

lots of stuff they will pour through on the data to work out the best

solution for what is going to be happening in both qualifying and the

race. A big turn out of fans as we have seen today. The blue skies are

encouraging the supporters. There is a banner for Trulli. A lot of fond

memories for him here. It is interesting to see a Nico

Hulkenberg. There is one for Felipe Massa imploring him to stay in

Formula One. I am sure he will stay his best to stay in Formula One, but

it may not be up to him, it maybe up to the others up and down the pit

lane as to whether he gets to compete in 2014 and a lot of the

support for the different drivers. A few Kimi Raikkonen banners I noticed

as well. The Finnish flag is flying proudly and we have got our first

car heading down the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado had a little bit of

an incident this morning when the wheel detached itself from his

Williams. He had been out there for a couple of laps it turns out. So

clearly, there was some failure that led to the wheel falling off the car

and ultimately he had to abandon it. And that was the end of his running

for the session. So Pastor Maldonado now making up for a little bit of

lost time as he gets out on circuit. He was 15th fastest this morning.

Just looking at the Nico Hulkenberg Sauber going out. He was 12th

fastest. They are loving over to the left-hand side because that's the

practise start area at Suzuka. They will be on their way. Tyres wise we

practise start area at Suzuka. They have the medium and the hard

compound slick tyre here this weekend. The int ter meadate and

wets, hopefully we won't need to use them if the weather remains

consistent. There will be rain around, but whether we will be hit

by it or not is a moot point. We are not sure what will happen. I have

been joined by Tony Dodjins. Suzuka is a favourite of the drivers and

for mans? It is a fabulous place. You have got to look at it with the

sweepers behind the pits and the drivers love it. It is a challenge.

The fans, they are unique. The first time I came here, it was teaming

down with rain and they were sleeping on tables with no umbrellas

in the rain to be guaranteed a place! They used to have a lottry

for tickets here. It is that find of place.

It is lovely to see so many people getting together and yeah, there is

fun stories about drivers being asked to autograph in strange

places. I gather Bottas was asked for an autograph in a strange place?

He was naked in the sauna and he didn't have anything to sign with!

I am sure he didn't, poor chap. We have no Japanese driver this year.

It is the first time in 12 years, no Japanese driver in the Japanese

Grand Prix, I'm seeing Pastor Maldonado going on to a flying lap.

Kobayashi is here, but he is here in a support role with Ferrari. It is

sad. There used to be huge, huge interest when we were coming here in

the 90s and the Senna days, there was enormous days and the Honda were

in and you would have seven motor racing magazines and it died away

and I think people are hoping with Honda coming back for 2015, you

know, the interest is on the up again in Japan and whether it will

return to those days, I ha my doubts because it was phenomenal, but there

will be a peak in the interest when Honda arrives back in 2015.

Right, we had a story this morning about Jules Bianchi. He will the be

playing any further part in this session. He is with Jenny. We look

behind you and see your car, explain what the guys are working on right

now? Well, my chassis is damaged and it is a shame and that happened. And

the incident was peculiar because your elbow got trapped? Basically my

elbow got stuck between the chassis and the seat. When I had the

oversteer moment, I could not turn right anymore. I went straight in

the wall. You managed to remove your hands in time because if you had

gone into the side of the wall, you would have done a lot of damage. You

gone into the side of the wall, you have an ice pack on your elbow, but

are you OK? Yes, I am OK now. I had pain in the elbow, but now it is

fine. This circuit is hard to learn at the best of times. It is a

technical circuit. You go into tomorrow and qualifying without much

time spent on the circuit, what can you do? I will do my best, you know.

It will difficult, but I will do my best. Thank you.

So Jules Bianchi showing he is not out and I a love Sutil fan there.

His girlfriend in the garage! It is a shame we don't have Jules Bianchi.

Gary, you found out more about that. Tell us the latest? Yes, the chassis

damage on Jules Bianchi's is on the left-hand side of the car. If a

driver goes into the barrier side ways, it absorbs the impact and a

part broke off. The forward one on the left-hand side and the lower one

broke off. So it would take them too long to fix that because they have

to blew it -- -- glue it back together. The chassis had a bit of

damage in Korea, so they will give him a fresh chassis and see what

happens. That's good they will be able to get that sorted for tomorrow

morning. Daniel Ricciardo just set the initial pace here in the Torro

Rosso and his team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne has gone second fastest. They

are a fraction fastest. They are putting in quick laps and they are

going out on the hard compound tyre, but they will be running the medium

compound tyre and later on in this session so we will get an idea of

the difference in lap time between the two tyres. We think they will

hold up pretty well, but until the teams get to run them in anger.

Gary, we saw Sam Michael at lunch time gives us a technical briefing

and he pointed out that it is a lot warmer here at Suzuka than it has

been many times in the past? We will catch up with Gary in a second. We

just saw Sutil going off there. I can't hear a word Ben says. We have

got you back. We were talking about temperatures being higher than we

would expect. The temperatures are higher. In Korea we saw front tyres

graining and this circuit does seem to be different. It seems that the

rear tyres will be limited and the car in the morning session, the cars

were tending to oversteer as the laps went past. I don't think

anybody will know where the critical tyre is until there are a few more

laps. Why the rear tyre? They are not sure

it will be the rear tyre yet. Why might it be the rear tyre that takes

the pounding here? Well, the difference really with this circuit

and Korea, this circuit has fast corners. But the majority of them

are 90 degrees so you put more work into the rear tyre because the car

rotates. You try to make the car gain speed. When you have got a

corner where you are slowing down like turn 11 in Korea, you are

coming through the corner and you are scrubbing speed through it. You

are scrubbing speed on to the front tyre and that's why the wear was

high in Korea. Here, it will be probably not really a wear-type

track, but more of a degradation-type track.

Well, we will get an idea on that later. At the moment, they will be

doing short runs and that was well timed because Kimi Raikkonen was

having a slide through the corner. We are watching Rosberg. He drops

down on the exit of the corner as well and it is very, very

challenging left-hander. Sebastian Vettel has gone fastest. We have got

Rosberg as you can see up on the time so his second split showing

that he is likely to beat Sebastian Vettel's lap. He bangs it over the

kerb hard. The car bounces a bit, but seems to take the pounding and

down to cross the line. Does he go quickest? Yes, he does. As we saw

this morning, Mercedes seem to have every bit of pace that Red Bull do

and that's encouraging, Tony as we start this weekend? Yes, a couple of

races ago in Singapore there was doom and gloom when Sebastian Vettel

managed to open up the pit stop finish and everybody said that's the

real pace, we might as well go home. That was all about rubber build-up

in his front wings spoiling the performance there and the

aerodynamics and he was hopeful that they can take the fight to them.

aerodynamics and he was hopeful that That's good to see. And also part of

that advantage that Sebastian Vettel had in spinning pore in -- Singapore

is about their slow peed performance. Red Bull is fantastic

in the slow corners where they seem to generate downforce where others

struggle in the medium and high-speed circuits like Suzuka they

won't have the same advantage? Sebastian in particular. It is good

to see Nico Rosberg doing those times.

There is a car off. It is Maldonado. Let's just check. And it is Pastor

Maldonado. Yes, he is having a very action packed day. He lost a wheel

in the first session. Now that looks like, it is the third car we have

seen off this weekend. We saw Giedo van der Garde go off in the same

place. Jules Bianchi went off further around. It is a classic

place to make a mistake and that's what he has done. There is banking

there to help the car, but it is very easy to over step the mark and

over the years we have seen a lot of crashes at this part of the track?

Yeah, we have. We have seen many cars off and importantly Nigel

Mansell among them for his championship challenge.

Bottas is off. He is all right. This is Grosjean going side ways on that

corner when Maldonado went off. There have been lots of incidents.

When you go off, you go off hard? You only have to look at Jules

Bianchi. Where we saw the cars going straight on at Spoon, they tend to

do that and use the run off, but there is no room at all.

This will really hurt Williams. He has only done a couple of laps. He

has, well six laps, OK, but he won't get the challenge to do the long

run. He won't get the chance to see what the medium tyre will do and

this will hurt them in terms of their preparation? They want to hang

on to the tenth place in the constructors' championship with

Caterham and anything like that is bad news. If you get a race where it

teams with rain and half the people crash, you have to be there and the

preparation to get yourself into that position is important.

Well, left front corner is badly damaged. It is similar to Jules

Bianchi's shupt. Well, it is just -- shunt. Well, it is just bad for

them. They may have to readjust their programmes to make sure they

get the work done that needs to be done for the weekend. But Sebastian

Vettel has gone faster again now by the way. So from Rosberg going

quicker than Sebastian Vettel, now it is the other way around. A gap of

just two tenths of a second. Hamiliton has gone third fastest.

And then we have got Ricciardo and Felipe Massa behind that. We can see

the damage to the left front. It has broken the front wing. Ez bent -- he

bent the front suspension back. We are on board here with Jenson Button

as he makes his way down to the left-hander at 130. Yeah, Jenson

Button on a fairly steady out-lap, but maybe looking for a bit of space

to start a quick lap here. Yes, let's just see whether he is going

to come in or start a lap. I think you will see him start a lap. Sure

enough. Back up to maximum revs. Let's watch him down the hill here

and into turns one and two. A fast entry here. Seventh gear. Just watch

this. That's a fabulous action. And now

approaching the hairpin. There is a little bit of traffic

ahead. Shopefully he can deal with that.

-- hopefully he can deal with that. Nice behaviour there. Top speed

here. Changing into seventh. Let's just see. A few kilometres an hour

and it picks back up again. A very neat and tidy lap this from Jenson

Button. Now, where will this put him in the grand scheme of things?

Across the line he goes, 11th. Well, that's where we saw him in the top

ten or just outside of it. That's slower than Grosjean has done.

Gutierrez has done well straightaway. He has a fresh set of

tyres and that's found him a little bit of performance. Mark Webber

moved up into third place. Similar times, isn't it, between Red Bull

and Mercedes and Hamiliton has done a 134.7. And then Webber right there

with Rosberg and Hamiliton the same. Let's see what Massa is doing? He is

a little bit off. It looks like the Ferraris are about three or four

tents of a second off -- tenths of a second off. Oh, what a spin for

Perez. He goes off. Oh, he hit the wall hard as well. My goodness, we

picked that up just as it happened. He damaged front and rear of the

McLaren. I think that was going into Spoon Corner. Yes, it was the entry

to Spoon. We will take a look on the replay, but Sergio Perez not the

start for the weekend he wanted either, is it? No, that's a dreadful

start for him. TEAM RADIO: Are you OK? Are you OK?

Yes. I am OK. The back end twitched out and around

she went. We saw that a lot this morning, people losing the rear of

the car. I don't know whether it has taken the track longer to rubber in.

It is unusual to see that many problems like that here.

Is he a driver under pressure, Tony? I think he is, obviously. You know,

a few races ago, nobody was really talking about a replacement driver

there. They assumed it would stay the same, but the Alonso story is

coming up and it becoming vious he hadn't signed the contract again. He

coming up and it becoming vious he has been questioned all the time and

there is pressure. There are a lot of good drivers out there looking

for seats and you listen to what Martin Whitmarsh said, I am not

looking to change my line-up. He says it again and again, but the

contract is not signed and until it is, there is pressure.

And Jonathan Neil made the point that Jenson Button is signed and the

other side isn't sorted yet, so there must be reasons. So Perez is

OK. That's the main thing as he clambers out of the car. Well,

again, a lot of work to be done by McLaren because they lose all this

again, a lot of work to be done by valuable running. Let's see what

happened. He is through the long right-hand sweep here. Watch him as

he gets on brakes. My goodness, that was a big hit. I wonder if the rear

might not have been on the grass. This will be interesting. He was on

the artificial grass and he hit side-ways. There will be damage to

both ends of the car. Take another look at this. You can't maybe see

his line of approach on this shot, but we have seen it before. I have

seen that several times where people put a wheel on the grass and that's

what he did, don't you? Yes. Yes. That looks what he did. Yes. You

what he did, don't you? Yes. Yes. could see it there on that shot.

Gary, it is not a crash we haven't seen before. It is a key place up

there, isn't it? But McLaren won't be happy to have seen those

pictures? No, looking at it from a distance, we does get the right

wheel off the kerb. It is a big, flat, it is an opening corner. You

want to go in as wide as possible, but he probably found out it was a

little bit too wide. We talk about drivers complaining, not

complaining, but saying the car was oversteering, the circuit because of

the Ss, you have to really stay on the Caroline-up through the Ss and

if you don't, you get under steer the Caroline-up through the Ss and

and you run wide. There is five corners in a row. You have to really

keep the front of the car tracking to get up through the Ss and that

means in some of the other corners, the car has too much front grip. So

it is about the cars that can handle the compromise best.

Well, whichever way it has gone, Perez is marching back slowly around

the outside of Spoon Corner and it is a long way to get back to the

the outside of Spoon Corner and it pits. It is pretty as much as far as

he can be. So he has a long march back.

Thank you for your comments on Twitter. For those of you in the UK,

it is early in the morning, it is great to have your company. Let's

have a few more comments. You are being quiet at the moment! Let's see

some of the comments we have got. Zac saying come on other teams,

let's show Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull that you can do your job and

win a race! Well, they are trying, I am sure. Ross Roberts says "How does

Pirelli decide what tyres they take to the Grand Prix?" Gary, how do

Pirelli decide which tyres to bring? They will look at past information

for a start and they will look at the aggressiveness of the surface of

the track. You can get this kit that measures a certain area of the

track. So they will come six months ago, nine months ago, they will go

around the track and take photographs of the different areas

and look at the aggressiveness of the track and they will take into

and look at the aggressiveness of account the high-speed corners, the

corners where you are turning in and from that they will weigh up what's

important for the track. Like Monaco, they go with the soft tyre

because Monaco is all the chemical grip and traction of the slow

corners. When you come to a circuit like this, it is the fast corners

and they come with a harder tyre. Somewhere between the two is the

combination of different tracks. If you look at Korea which we saw a lot

of problems with the tyres graining, that was, you know, the soft tyre

and a super soft tyre and the medium tyre and we saw both the tyres

grain. It is not just about the compound, it is about how the track,

the temperature of the track and how it responds on a given day. As far

as Pirelli were concerned, going to Korea, they had a reasonably good

package of tyres, but the temperature went down on race day.

You put homework into it, but you have to be lucky on the weekend that

that homework is related to the tyre you brought. Yes, tonnes of work

doing into -- going into it all the time. Jenson Button on the track at

the moment. He is wearing this different crash helmet design for

this weekend. He is in 12th position. Let's see if that is any

improvement. Yes, he moves up to fifth now. Jenson Button up to fifth

place. He slots in behind Lewis Hamilton. Just before the session

began, Jenny went to find out more about the crash helmet design. We

will hear more from Jenny later. Let's see what she discovered before

the session began about Jenson Button's crash helmet.

This is Jenson Button's special helmet for this weekend. He only

changes his helmet dedesign. No longer is if it the red, white and

changes his helmet dedesign. No blue of the UK. You can see the two

wrestlers and around this side and blue of the UK. You can see the two

in Japanese writing it says JB and around the back, you have got the

two dragons and the flag of Japan. This came about because before

Korea, Jenson Button was in Tokyo. He went to a wrestling match and was

inspired by the dedication and regime that these guys show. So he

wanted to put that on his helmet to show his dedication. He said they

live together. They eat together. Everything is dictated for them and

he wanted to show that sort of discipline in Formula One. So this

is the special helmet for the whole weekend.

We are just seeing a replay of Nico Hulkenberg who has run wide at

speed. This is not anything too majorly dramatic. He went in quick

and ran wide. A few years ago, Jenson Button went to a training

session and was inspired by triathletes and came back looking

like one! Let's hope he does not do the same particularly with the

weight concerns they have got for next year.

Yes, it could be a challenge of getting him in the car! Let's ride

with Kimi Raikkonen here. Up through the Ss. He gets a big oversteer

here. TEAM RADIO: It goes very floa xwriy,

very light. That's unusual feedback. Gary, what

does the driver mean when he says it is floaty, they light? The downforce

of the car makes the car grip the ground. At the moment, it is more

down to getting the grip out of the tyres. The downforce level you can

change is quite small percentages, but it means the car is moving. The

balance is reasonable, but it hasn't got the bite, that grip.

Well, are we have seen Raikkonen struggling for grip. He had a

lock-up on a front tyre as well. Maybe the grip level of the track is

down just a little bit. Interestingly, we are just beginning

to see one or two drivers likely to switch on to the medium compound

tyre. Bottas maybe the first. I think he is out on track now. And

tyre. Bottas maybe the first. I let's just see what the end of this

lap is for Kimi. I don't think it will be a quick lap. Kimi stays

tenth with that and that's slower than his previous best. Now, out in

the Caterham this morning, Heikki Kovalainen was driving in place of

Charles Pic and he is talking to Jenny. We have seen a lot of people

spinning already today. A lot of Jenny. We have seen a lot of people

incidents out on track. Did you notice anything different about the

track? This is a circuit you know notice anything different about the

well? There is nothing wrong with the circuit. The high-speed circuit

and the nature of the circuit. The walls are close here and there are a

couple of tricky places. The usual places we have seen accidents

before. Nothing unusual. Last year when we were here, it was cold. This

weekend, it is the opposite. It is incredibly hot here. How do you

think it will relate to the cars? I think not so much difference to the

cars. In the hot conditions you have less downforce, but for the Fire

Service, you are starting -- for the Fire Service, you are starting to

get them hot. The heat will be higher. This is the main issue. You

need to look after the tyres. Once they get too hot you lose grip and

you loose confidence. This is another of those circuits that could

be useful for Caterham. You never know what will happen here. We have

seen so many incidents on track. Are you hopeful that Caterham can maybe

find a point somewhere this weekend? I mean that's what we have as a

target. Whether we can score a point or not, that's difficult. We have

got to make sure we are in the position ahead of the others and as

close to the cars in front of us if something funny happens we are

there. That's what we have got to do and keep grinding. Do you feel as if

you are managing to keep the gap between you and Marussi? Yes, I

think so far, yes. It is really making sure we don't do any silly

mistakes ourselves in the races. Into We have got to focus on the

situation as much as we can and make sure we are there if anything

happens. This could be one of those places. It is a tricky circuit.

Anything can happen. One final question. I spoke to your big boss

Tony fer nan December and he said we will consider Heikki Kovalainen for

a seat. How are negotiations going? Are you any closer to get back into

Formula One? Negotiations are going well. Caterham knows what they get

with me and what they don't. In the end, they need to design what --

decide what they need to do. I feel I'm up for it. I am ready to go for

next year certainly. That's how it is at the moment. It is difficult to

speculate whether or not I have a chance. Before we go, thank you very

much for joining us. Heikki Kovalainen. It is good to

hear from him. He got a 12th place here with Caterham which was his

best ever result with the team and that was at Suzuka in 2010. So they

were only a little bit out of top ten on that occasion. Whether that

is a prospect this weekend, it depends on problems for others.

Giedo van der Garde has gone out. We saw Bottas on the medium compound

tyre. His first flying lap, not that much quicker. We have Grosjean on

track at the moment. He will be one to. Wa in terms of the improvement

Dunkirk he will be one to watch in terms of the improvement. Bottas

might go quicker on this next lap. We are riding on board with him now.

He improved in his first sector. He uses plenty of road on the exit. Now

the driver sits and waits really for the next more difficult bit which is

the 130 R. The left-hander coming up. No problems. Flat out on the

accelerator. Now the chicane. This is going to be a better lap than he

did just now. Let's see how much he irm improves his lap time. In

overall terms between the hard and the medium, he is going about six

tenths of a second. We will get an idea on the other rapid runners.

Webber is out on track. So we will see what he can do. Clearly, the

tyres are holding up for more than just one lap. Runs the car out to

the ragged edge. This is what a fast lap at Suzuka is about. He has been

looking forward to this event all year. Seeing it as one, well his

last chance to driver a Formula One car at Suzuka. He said this was a

track he would be looking forward to in the last part of the season as

his career winds down because driver a Formula One car at speed is

something special here. He is quick. He is good in the quick stuff and if

you are doing a comparison with Sebastian, he tends to lose out in

the technical stuff, the slow turns. He loves this place. Last year, of

course, he was thumped at the first corner by Grosjean.

He had a few by then, Romain Grosjean. We will talk about him

because things have been on the up for him. Let's watch this lap from

Mark Webber. It will be a good one. He is faster than anybody in the

first sector. No, Rosberg has gone quicker. Oh, a spin for Alonso.

That's unusual. Fernando Alonso has lost it. Now he manages to do it

without hitting anything. Fernando Alonso facing the wrong way and

that's not what he was expecting at all. So we have got a yellow flag at

that section of the circuit now and that affects anybody there. 34.0 for

Mark Webber and he has gained nearly seven tenths of the let's see what

Rosberg gains. 34.1. It looks as though the gain on the medium

compound tyre is about six tenths of a second. Gary, are you surprised?

Did you expect to see more of a gain than that? No, not really. I don't

think you are going to expect too much from the hard tyre to the

medium. Alonso, let's see how he got away without hitting the barrier. He

caught the kerb on the inside and spat the back out. He didn't hit

anything. He lost it on the first one, didn't he? Yes. He caught it

and around it went. He didn't hit anything so that's not so bad and he

can get going again hopefully. That's about the right step. When we

were in Korea, we had the super softs to medium. We had two sets of

tyre and that's why we had a big step there and a big time

difference. This will be interesting because it does make strategy less

black and white. The tyres are close to each other, but it is about the

durability and that's why you are seeing these guys going out and

putting on the medium tyre early. They have to put homework into this

circuit as far as which strategies are concerned and this afternoon is

the only time you can do that because tomorrow morning's practise

session is too early. Right now the track conditions are similar to what

it will be on Sunday. So just making sure they are doing their homework

and that's why they are going out early on the medium tyres.

Vettel had to back off a bit on the last lap because he didn't really

gain anything. He is trying to do another lap on this set of tyres.

The orange indicates the higher temperatures, of course, as it goes

to purple cooling off and the black with the lower temperatures. Coming

up towards Spoon Corner. Watch the right front load up with the bright

orange colour. Through the second apex it really glows and comes off

and he is on to the straight if you are getting that inner band heating

up. That shows the negative on the tyres. That's interesting. It was

the inside tyre that was running hotter as he went through 130 R and

dragging rather than the outside tyre. The funny thing about these

cars when the cars loads up on a corner like that, you know, the car

rolls and it drags that inside wheel on to the small compact shoulder.

130 R is not such a demanding corner. You are not loading up the

front tyre too much, but you are dragging the inside front wheel.

That's when we get wear on the tyre, it is the inside shoulder that works

a lot and it is that inside shoulder on a high-speed track that that, it

is that inside track that dictates and the loaded tyre is not so far in

Korea, it was the opposite because that's a corner that you are slowing

down going through it, you are letting the car lean on the front

tyre. Hamiliton had a moment there at the

second exit. It cost him time. He has gone fourth fastest, but may

having done their quick run, it is Sebastian Vettel quickest and Mark

Webber. Hamiliton has done a 34.4.

The speeds are down on what we saw this morning. Whether that's a

change in wind direction, I am not 100% sure. But Sebastian Vettel

quickest from Webber in this section of the practise and we have got a

few other cars to put on the softer tyre including Jenson Button, the

only McLaren that's running in this session, of course. We have lost

Sergio Perez. Now, let's look at this a moment ago. Giedo van der

Garde, yes, he just went a bit side ways going into Spoon Corner. He was

on his medium tyres there. The only Marussi that's out there is Max

Chilton. We know Jules Bianchi is Marussi that's out there is Max

not doing any running this afternoon. Gary, what are you

seeing? I am looking at Nico Rosberg's car. They are preparing it

for a long race run. They have got the fuel connected up. They are

pumping a lot of fuel into the car. They will be starting this race with

140 kilograms of fuel. Underneath the car, you will see the guys

working there. They are going to take off the carbon-fibre panel and

inside there is some different balance levels. Some different

metals that you can put there to move the weight distribution a

little bit. You are allowed to move it by 1%. They are not happy with

what they had for the longer run and they are changing the weight

distribution to see if it makes the rear tyres preserve more.

Well, we are riding with Max Chilton as he changes up into seventh gear

and approaches 130 R. The Cosworth engine of course, in

the back of the Marussi at the moment. It is souping good --

sounding good at speed. It has been a tidy lap. We have been watching

his, we have been chatting away and it looked a clean lap. Let's see

what it is. Again, he gains about seven tenths. It seems to be the

order of the day. On the medium comed pound -- compound tyre, about

three-quarters of a second. Van der Garde has run the medium tyres.

That's a descent time. It does look as if Marussi could be

on terms in qualifying pace with Caterham here. We will have to see.

Daniel Ricciardo going on to a lap. We have got more comments coming in.

We will just run through. Nick saying, " Did Mark Webber get a new

car for this weekend after his firing in Korea?" The oil cooler

when it got smashed did too much damage for him to run the

carbon-fibre top. Alex says, " With Massa not having a drive for next

year, do you think he will be finishing races or pushing harder to

get a drive?" He will be pushing flat out.

I think I will be going for it. We have a question from John who says,

" Could you explain why there are concerns about Nico Hulkenberg's

size and weight?" Tony outline it for us and we will go to Gary. Next

year with the new power trains, the cars will become heavier and there

has been additional weight to take that into consideration and some are

saying there is not enough. There is concern about whether you will get

down to the weight limit and if you don't, anything above the weight

limit is weight that you have to carry over above the limit. If you

have got a light driver, you are not that much lighter because everybody

gets down to the weight limit, but what you can do is play with

balance. You can put the weight low down, you can play around with the

set-up and it is an advantage, but it is nothing like the same

advantage of having to carry the weight. Talking to Ross Brawn

yesterday... Raikkonen moved up to fourth there. That was a good lap

from Kimi Raikkonen and Ricciardo moved up to sixth. Let's just see

Jenson Button. He has gone up to eighth. He stays eighth. Still no

one managing to match Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, but that was

a better lap from Raikkonen. Grosjean made a mistake and that has

a better lap from Raikkonen. blown what would have been his quick

lap. You can see the frustrations, he took his hand off the wheel. That

was a littler o are and it will have cost him the chance to see what he

could have got out of the car. Kimi made a lock-up, but I don't think he

lost too much time. Yes, the weight limit, the thing is will the teams

meet the weight limit or not? Well, this is the thing. It is political.

The talking to Ross Brawn yesterday he said he couldn't understand what

the fuss was about now because he said their expectations are it will

be a challenge, but they will actually get down to the weight

limit. He doesn't see why it is too much of an issue, but I mean there

are fears and some of them who can't make the weight and probably some of

the lesser well funded teams will not want a heavy driver. Nico

Hulkenberg was saying I am not going to lose any sleep. There is not much

I can do. Gary, you have been thinking about

this whole problem of heavy drivers or not. Give us your thoughts? Yes.

It is a problem because when a driver comes through the carting or

formula Ford or Formula Three, all those formulas are more critical to

weight than Formula One and you lose more because you have got less power

and if a driver gets through that, for sure he is a good guy. I think

Nico Hulkenberg is a good driver. Now, the weight limit for this

year's car including driver dry of fuel is 642 kilogrammes. The weight

limit for next year's car including driver and empty of fuel is 690 and

that's because the hybrid system, the battery packs are so heavy, but

every team wants to build a car with a driver at 660 and put 30

kilogrammes of balance into the car, that's better than if you build the

car at 690. I think you can build a car to be on the weight limit, but

you will have a better and faster car if you can put the balance

underneath it. Some teams push for that. Some teams don't. I believe it

should -- there should be something that brings the driver weight

together. If you have a light driver, there is an area of driver

balaste. Everybody has got their vested interests. You can see see a

driver like Nico Hulkenberg suffering because he is a bill

taller and heavier than some teams would like him to be.

Tony, the issue of driver weights is not a new one. They have been

weighed differently over the years, but it led to interesting

situations? There has been a weight limit for safety reasons. It used to

be they weighed the drivers twice a year. At the start of the season and

in the middle and the FIA would publish the driver weights and I

remember going to Brazil and the drivers would go down to be weighed

with their kit and what have you and it was a case of Drick a couple of

litres of water before you go. I was sat in a back room and there was

this crash helmet on the table, Michael Schumacher's helmet and it

had a post it note, and it said this must go to Brazil. I tried to pick

it up. I needed two hands! They had hammered a load of carting led and

it put it around the helmet and off went Michael to be weighed carrying

this thing having drunk gallons of water and he weighed in seven or

eight kilos than he finished the season. Patrick Head was furious.

Back in those days, they subtracted the driver's weight from the car so

you could run a lighter car. The FIA started bringing the scales to every

race and the guys had to get weighed.

So they were rumbled? Yes, they were rumbled. If there is an opportunity

there will be somebody who will see the loophole. They were saying he

should be locked in a room after he had been weighed and not allowed to

go to the loo! That's why we see the drivers step out of the car and go

straight to the scales. And why nobody can go to parc ferme so

nobody can give them a couple of bits of lead.

We are getting into the part of the session where they have gun filled

up with fuel. As we heard from Gary, they were pumping fuel on board the

Mercedes and we will see longer sperksz. They won't -- sessions.

They won't go around for one or two laps at a time, they will string a

sequence of laps together which will give them an idea of how the tyre

performance varies. That's the phase that we are beginning to get into. A

couple more of your comments that have come in. Thank you very much

for those. It is great to have your company as we go through the second

practise session. Nigel says, " Will Button stay beyond next season or

will he retire?" What do you think, Tony? It is hard to see with Jenson.

You get the impression he would like to go and do proper competitive

triathlons. He has had a good relationship with Honda in the past

and if he could stay with that set-up, that would be interesting

and I can see him want to get involved in that.

Yes, he will want to have a bit of that. Mark Webber is on track at the

moment. He is on to his first lap base clay. He is on the medium

compound tyre with the white writing on the side wall. This maybe a

higher level of fuel that's in the car right now. A couple more of your

questions and comments. Matt saying, " With the driver changes taking a

place, how much would it cost for a driver to secure a he seat with a

team?" Well, that's a good question. It depends on the level of

experience and ability, I suppose, that you are bringing with you.

Absolutely. With a lot these drivers, it is interesting, you get

somebody who signs up to do six Friday mornings in a young driver

test and he brings 2.5 million euros with him and that's because

companies want to be involved in Formula One. The choice between

going and doing a series that receives no publicity, they would go

and be involved in Formula One in a small way. That's how drivers have

this kind of money. That's right. Gary, drivers bringing

sponsorship to teams is nothing new, but the levels, the amounts that are

being brought are really eye watering sometimes, aren't they?

Well, they are eye watering, yeah. watering sometimes, aren't they?

When you consider some of the big businesses, we have what is called a

paddock club, it is above the pit garages and there is a lot of

business done up there. There is a lot of people coming that will

invite guests from different companies or they make products for

and whatever, we are talking multi-million pound companies. They

will be entertaining people up there. If you are going to entertain

someone, join that level of association with what you are trying

to use for entertainment. It is greater than taking a them for a

great day out at the seaside. If you get a Friday driver, there will be a

sticker on the car thab -- that will be X company and you get the driver

who is wanting to, who comes to do a full season and wants to drive and

has got the talent and I think they need to arrive with probably in

excess of £10 million to buy a drive in a Formula One car will cost you

more than £10 million and you are talking a substantial amount more.

If you arrive with £10 million, you could get into the office and get a

seat and you would probably get a cup of coffee! To have seen less

than £10 million, it is a waste of time coming to try and do anything.

There is your answer. Less than £10 million don't bother. And you have

to have your super licence. My goodness, how much would you have

spent through the junior ranks? It is a lot of money. It is a tough

call and some manage to achieve it. If you look at Sebastian Vettel.

What some people, I think, sometimes forget, like Lewis Hamilton he comes

from a humble background. He doesn't come from a wealthy background. If

you are megatalented, you can still do it. You have got Red Bull junior

programmes and that kind of things. If you are megatea lented, you can

do it. I was talking to Terry Fullerton and he says there is kids

spending £500,000 on carting. It is almost a GP 3 budget because carting

is a World Series. Where do you get £500,000 from as a child? Gary, when

you have been technical director and when you are looking for new

drivers, talent is what counts, isn't it? Talent is what counts and

if you have got a good marketing structure then that talent and those

results allows them to go out and entertain sponsors and force

sponsors into the company otherwise the driver needs to come with

sponsorship. We were talking about Lewis Hamilton. Someone did a look

at how much it cost Lewis Hamilton before he sat on the grid of his

first Formula One race and they reckon it was 13 million euros

getting from carting to his first Formula One grid. In reality, that

had to come from somewhere. It was through sponsorship and McLaren

invested in him for quite a few years. There is many different ways

in which this money can come. You cannot do this career, it is not

like doing football and you get a T-shirt and it costs money to go

motor racing and that's what makes it so difficult for so many talented

drivers who don't have that money to get their foot in the door.

Yes, that's true. Lewis Hamilton had that support from McLaren or Vettel

who picked up Red Bull support when he was carting. He was only 10 or 11

when he got picked up by Red Bull, but the money has been there, but

they had to keep delivering. If ham hal or Sebastian Vettel -- Hamiliton

or Sebastian Vettel didn't keep delivering, that support would have

gone? You see that with the Red Bull junior team, they can't afford a bad

year. That's right. We are watching

Rosberg. We are into the time of doing the longer runs. So far, it is

consistent. He is on the hard compound tyre. It has the ange

consistent. He is on the hard writing on the side walls. Mark

Webber is doing a run on the medium compound tyre. We are not seeing any

degradation yet from him. We will see how we go as we continue. Jenny

degradation yet from him. We will has been down to the McLaren pit.

What have you learned, Jenny? Yes, I was catching up with Sergio Perez.

The team is frying to find out -- trying to find out he is. He had

that crash. His team say he is fine. The physio checked him out and he is

walking around in the garage and he is OK.

Oh, I think, Kimi Raikkonen is off. He kept it running, no, he is in the

gravel pit. What happened here? Right now, he is on the radio to the

team telling them what happened and now he has got to get out? Good

morning, everyone. It was a shame? Yes, it was a mistake from

Raikkonen. Not so often he does it. And usually on the race he is one of

the best every time. Let's see what happened. Let's look

the best every time. at that. He is through the Ss. He is

in the early part of the Ss. He gets an oversteer in mid-corner and

through the gravel. Thankfully, he doesn't hit anything. That's

unusual. So for the second Grand Prix in succession he has gone off

on a Friday. He crashed, didn't he, in Korea? Yes. And he hit the wall.

Here, it is less heavy for the car to be honest. But it is a shame for

us because after a great qualifying, we can see his engineer, Mark Slade.

He is not happy. I wouldn't think your boss is happy

either. We were competitive in the simulation and Raikkonen was one of

the best Fridays for him of the season and we were looking forward

to have a race simulation and it is a shame we can't check out the pace

with him, but I am sure with Grosjean we can see what we can

expect for Sunday. For Kimi the weakness has been

qualifying. That's going to be very, very good news. It is really

positive for us. It is the first time that Raikkonen is close to the

top drivers. To be honest, we have to consider that Sebastian Vettel

gets a yellow flag and he has to push again. It does seem as though

the tyre is lasting for two laps. The tyre seems to be holding up

well? You are right, but the cars we saw doing the race simulation in the

first free practise, they were struggling a bit to maintain the

pace. It is something that we have to discover now. Romain Grosjean, we

didn't get a clear picture for him. He made a mistake. He must have lost

two #2e7b9s of a second -- two tenths of a second? You are right.

It was faster than Raikkonen. He had to stop this lap and recover and

push again in the lap after. Considering we are not Red Bull, but

we are Lotus. I think it cost him two or three tenths. I think

Grosjean can have a good qualifying. He is on a good roll at the moment,

isn't he, Romain Grosjean? We are riding with Sebastian Vettel. He is

on a longer run. We have got over half an hour to go in second

practise here in Japan. There is still high temperatures. The track

temperature at 39 Celsius and air temperature 29 Celsius. There is a

tail wind through the Ss. I wonder if that might have had an effect? I

think, yes. We saw so many drivers make small mistakes. We saw in the

free practise Jules Bianchi and van der Garde hit the wall. We saw here

a big crash from Perez. So something der Garde hit the wall. We saw here

difficult there. It is not easy for the driver at the moment.

Le, the fans are out in Force. The Japanese fans are amazing. What kind

of contact have you had with the fans? We have got a replay. I don't

of contact have you had with the know what this is off. Let's see if

it is significant. Pic had to take avoiding action. Nico Hulkenberg was

trying to stay off line, but... He got scared a bit. What a race! A

wonderful weekend. The track is one of the best in the world. A real

track. If you make a small mistake, you pay. A champion like Raikkonen

paid a bit today. We will have a great race and with the atmosphere.

The people around. There is a great passion. I really love to race one

day. It is lovely to hear an Italian

accent. In Formula One, there is no Italian drivers. Formula One is not

right if you haven't got an Italian driver out there. Are you going to

get any chances? We will check it out. Our team is a top team, Lotus.

It has just lost Raikkonen and for us, it is a big loss because he is a

champion, an ex-world champion. For us, it is a big loss. I have some

chance, but the team thinks that it is looking for someone with a bigger

name than my one. But if there is a minimum chance to be there, I am

sure I will be a maybe and I will do my maximum to make them happy.

Kimi Raikkonen had his back problem and we wondered if you might get a

chance to drive. How close do you think you were to driving in

Singapore? I don't know. I was ready. But for our luck Raikkonen

could come back and he finished third and it was a great result for

us. We were really happy to have him.

You did the young driver test at Silverstone this year. You were

fourth fastest on the day you ran, I think, 90 laps. That must have been

a good experience for you. Tell us about how it was. Yes, it was good.

We spent all day to do race simulations. I was a bit dead at the

end of the day. How was the neck? The neck was fine. I'm waiting for a

chance. It was interesting to check it out with the race pace. It was

the first test with the new tyres. It was important we understand our

pace with t tyres could be really positive. We went to the podium.

That was really good. The atmosphere was really good. The feeling coming

That was really good. The atmosphere back to Formula One was a good

emotion. What he is it like working with the

two drivers in your team? Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean? They

seem different characters? Really different. Grosjean is a normal one.

A normal boy. He is a good guy. He is doing a really big effort to try

to match the performance of Raikkonen, but you know, this man is

super. He is a real champion. He does not speak with no one. He

speaks only with the engineers. He is rude in the way to aetch pro the

race, but -- way to approach the race. But at the end, he is always

on the podium. So we have to say that's a real champion. We were glad

to have him with us. He is still competing for something important,

maybe the second and the third place competing for something important,

in the championship. We will try to do the maximum. I am sure we can

have a good race with him. I am sure. We are riding with Felipe

Massa there. He is eighth fastest as we are on to the section of this

practise where they are competing more laps with more fuel on board.

We are not looking for fast laps. We know Sebastian Vettel and Mark

Webber will end the session where they are.

Perez is is back at the McLaren pit. We saw him crash out of the session.

He looked like he almost got a wheel on the astro-turf? You are right.

That was my idea. When he was shifting down, I think, he touched

with the right back wheel the astro-turf, the green one and he

lost control and he had the big oversteer and he just finished in

the wall. We are on board with Romain

Grosjean. You know this car well. You have driven it at Silverstone.

Tell me what are the buttons on the right-hand side? They are not so

important. They are important for the team because one is the radio.

The second one is to reply OK, without speaking and there is the

drinking system on the left-hand side. We have the KERS and the

Button for the DRS. And to be honest, something quite important

for the driver at the moment is the KERS system. That changes your

driving style and it is something your engineers asks you to use

during the race when the KERS is working less properly. You just save

a bit of power and to adjust the set-up and the balance of the car.

It is interesting to hear that. Let's get down to the pits. I

believe Jenny has caught up with Clare Williams. I know you have just

flown in. So we are catching you just off the plane. How are things

going for Williams? We have seen a lot of changes. Pat Symonds has come

in. How are things feeling within lot of changes. Pat Symonds has come

Williams? There is change happening which is great, but that was needed.

We couldn't stay where we were. There is a lot of work going on

behind the scenes. Pat is having impact. A lot of the stuff he is

doing is amaze. Ng. He is not here this weekend and is really focussing

on 2014. 2014 is in everybody's minds. But you have to try and turn

things around as Williams. Only one point this season. I think everybody

can say, it is not where you wanted to be. How confident are you that

you can turn things around? We are doing a lot of work to make sure

that we do change next year. We can't have another year like this

year. It is not where we want to be. We are here to fight and we are here

because we want to win Grand Prix. And that's being done in a number of

ways. There are so many changes happening across the regulations and

they are particular and that can throw up a whole new ball game next

year and we are hoping we can take advantage of that.

Pastor Maldonado had two incidents today. He spun off in this session.

The car won't be back, but he had an incident with his wheel old coming

off in the earlier session, do you know what happened? No, we are

investigating that, but Pastor Maldonado had a difficult session.

We will just have to see what he can do tomorrow.

The FIA are going to investigate the incidents after the session. Are you

worried about any problems that might come back as a result? They

might reprimand or points might come back as a result? They

deductions? We have to wait and see. We have got to do our investigations

and we will find out what they say at the end of the session.

Good luck for the weekend. Mark Webber is on track. We saw

images of Sergio Perez with an ice pack on his arm. Obviously a bit of

soreness for Sergio Perez after the accident he suffered up at Spoon

Corner. Hopefully he will be fit and raring to go for tomorrow. McLaren

have got their reserve driver raring to go for tomorrow. McLaren

whether he will have a go or not, I raring to go for tomorrow. McLaren

don't know. Joining us on the pit wall once again is team principal of

Mercedes, Ross Brawn. He is listening to some radio.

That was one of your rival teams talking to Jenson Button. We are

into the racing runs. How are things going so far? Messy. We have had

both cars swap tyres. We recovering at the moment.

You are not the only ones having trouble today. Kimi Raikkonen has

gone off and Lotus lost valuable knowledge from him doing long runs.

How did you feel the earlier run went on the medium tyre went? You

seemed to be close to the Red Bull pace with Rosberg? Yeah, I am not

sure we were that close. No one knows what fuel weights people are

running. I think it is going to require the evening to go through

all the da TA a talk -- data and talk to the drivers and analyse

everything. We are just trying to pool all the information together

out on the track and work out what the tyres are doing, what their

degradation is and then put that together tonight to work out what we

are going to do. It seems as though the difference

between the two tyres is not that huge. About six tenths of a second.

between the two tyres is not that Is that what we would be looking for

in the race as well? It is small. About half a second in terms of one

lap. It is not clear yet to me what the long run difference is. But

again, it is information we have to establish tonight to understand how

we are going to run the race on Sunday. We have got our two drivers

doing alternates. It is Gary Anderson here. Sergio

Perez flat spotted a tyre in Korea and he had a tyre failure

afterwards. Is that a worry for you? It is something we were aware of.

When Nico spotted his tyre, we did come into the pits and make sure it

didn't come through and it looked OK. He he -- as he ran, the

vibration changed. You have got better as we have gone

through this year and you have been looking at tyre temperatures and we

have got this thermal camera that looking at tyre temperatures and we

FOM put up for us and shows us how the temperatures work across the

tyre. Is that the kind of information that you have been

working on as well to improve things? Yes. Most teams have

infrared cameras on their cars to look at the tyres and work out where

the tyres are suffering and how you can profile the lap to get the most

out of tyre. It is a big part of Formula One at the moment and I

think we need to think about it in the future because it is a major

part of racing and we need to redress the balance a little bit.

Great, well thank you for joining us once again and good luck with the

rest of the race simulation this afternoon. Thanks.

So Ross Brawn on the pit wall for Mercedes. A lock-up. I have the

development driver with Lotus with me. He beat several of the drivers

that are racing out here in Formula One and that's Paul di Resta who

pulled off to the side of the track, but gets it going. He must have had

a spin to get into that session. With locking up, we heard Ross Brawn

saying both his guys had a little bit of a lock up on their race

simulations. It seems amazing that one little lock-up can cause a

problem in Formula One now? It the old days they used to be able to

lock up and get away with it and now it makes a difference? After the

lock-up, there is a lot of vibration and every time you approach another

brake, you start to lock-up every time the same part of the front

tyre. Really quickly you have to stop. Anyway, Rosberg is not bad. So

maybe we can have a really open race here. Vettel looks special, but

maybe in the race simulation it was not out of the world like normal.

So you have been looking at the lap times and keeping an eye on them. So

that's good. Maybe we won't see Red Bull running away with it. They have

a remarkable record around the Suzuka circuit. It seems to have

suited their Carswell in the past. Coming back to Lotus, I know you

would love to be driving, but as you said earlier, they are looking for a

big name in some ways. What else are they looking for? What kind of, do

they want lots of experience? Do, what kind, are what is going to be,

what are they looking for in a driver? I don't know to be honest.

To be honest I think for us it was better to have Kimi for the next

season. Raikkonen was perfect for us in the last two seasons and really

try to make the effort to convince him to stay, but we have got

Grosjean and he is matching the performance in the last few races so

we hope to push with him and make him fast like Raikkonen. It seems he

has the speed of him, but not the result and capacity just at the end

when it counts a lot. But he is getting there. He is getting there.

About the other driver, I don't know. I'm working for them. I am not

in the head of the bosses and they are looking for someone like

Raikkonen. From my personal point of view, Nico Hulkenberg has shown that

that he is one of the best and he is always consistent. From my point of

view, are this one... That was Webber getting angry. I didn't see

which of the Force Indias it was. Was it Paul di Resta? Yes, Paul di

Resta. He was really unlucky in the last few races. Webber is trews

frustrated. You think it is building up on him.

Retiring from Singapore and retiring from Korea and now anything that

goes wrong, he is getting super angry. He wants to finish his season

in style. Had it is his last season in Formula One.

Gary? Jenson Button is changing tyres. Again, it is about the cross

over times. You look at the lap times to get on the medium tyre and

see what his first lap times are on the hard. That gives you a good

indication as to where the cross over point is. The tyres are losing

performance, but you have to make sure you get in at the right lap so

you don't lose too much performance by running one tyre too far.

Yes, a consistent run from Alonso here. The front is holding up pretty

well. This is what we have seen in more recent Grand Prix. Not too much

degradation. The pace is hard to measure. At the moment, are Mark

Webber and Vettel is doing 1.38. As a team, does the team try and work

out how much fuel is in the opposition's car? How can they work

that out? Yeah, to be honest, you know, in fact, there is a big

meeting where they can study the pace of all the drivers and all the

other teams. They used to say that on Saturday morning for the

qualifying configuration some of the teams like Mercedes and Red Bull

qualifying configuration some of the they keep some fuel in every time

and sometimes it is not a real situation after the free practise,

but they are convinced that everyone on Friday afternoon, they are using

the same amount of fuel to check it out at the race pace. So in the last

the same amount of fuel to check it few Fridays, we saw that Sebastian

Vettel was always the best in the race pace. And then we saw in the

last few races that Mercedes was competitive, but wab maybe -- was

maybe dropping a bit. Today, it seems that the Mercedes can maintain

a good level of performance. So Grosjean is not far from there and

he is closer to Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber,

they look better than the other, but not so much faster. Maybe we can

have an open race. I am hoping to have someone in front of Sebastian

Vettel at beginning of the race and let us explore our speed at the end

of the race when we are one of the fastest.

Indeed. Gary, what do you reckon? Do fastest.

you reckon they are running similar fuel loads? Well, one of the things

you would do. You will look at the races and you will see what the

trend is for the driver, when it comes to qualifying, that's the car

on low fuel and as a team, if you look at Sebastian Vettel and you

will say this is his progression and you know your progressions and you

will get an indication of how much fuel he is running every session.

Normally when you have a procedure set out as a team, you stick with

it. After you do four or five races of the season, you will get a trend

and you will get a rough flul load that people are -- full load that

people are carrying. Red Bull carry more fuel going into Q 1 than other

people to make sure they have that little bit extra when it comes to

request. 3. You don't want to show your dirty washing all the time. You

want to make sure you have got a little bit in hand.

Let's look at Gutierrez. That's a 12 lap stint. So the fuel is burning.

That should make the car go quicker, but the loss of lap time is caused

by the tyres going off a bit. It stayed consistent to lap ten. Just

the last two laps it has gone away for him? He is consistent, but maybe

something like eight tenths, one second out of the pace of Mark

Webber and the leaders. I think he is consistent, but not a fight for

the top five. Last season a bunch of you were

racing together. Just now, he seems to be getting on terms with

qualifying in particular. It took him a while to get his head around

qualifying. How do you rate Gutierrez? He is in Formula One and

I am out of Formula One. We cannot say, I think, that this man is a

good quality speed and last year he was really competitive in

qualifying. Maybe he was not a great was really competitive in

racer and his team-mate last year looks ready and prepared. It seems

like he struggled a little bit to have the speed at the beginning of

the season, but he is coming back quicker and quicker and closer to

Nico Hulkenberg. In the last few races he can have some good results.

He is coming better. Sometimes we can see him just in front of Nico

Hulkenberg. So I think he is getting better. He was not 100% ready to

make the jump. Here in Formula One, he is struggling a bit, but he can

have a good future. He is still young. He has time to get better and

better if he can save the place. You can say the same for Sebastian

Vettel. He is still young and getting better and better as he

heads for his fourth World Championship at the age of 26. You

are looking at the tyres and how they build up the heat through the

Ss. He is coming through the two right-handers where we have seen

problems and the left front really heats up a bit through these front

two. What do you think of this camera? Do you find it useful? Yes,

there is something really positive and really great. Sometimes it will

be interesting to have a check at this in the race. I think that the

quality of Sebastian Vettel is incredible. He starts really well.

He is always in the first or second row and then he can jump everybody

and stay in front of everybody with no traffic. We can see when you have

traffic in front, you destroy, you are warming up too much the front

tyres and you cannot recover and it is not easy.

The exhaust heat from the car in front. We have not seen that one

when you are following another car. That's great.

He is following the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso while his main

championship rival was the one he was following and you can see the

exhaust glow on the Ferrari. The race simulations, it is not

something the driver likes. Alonso's last lap was 1.42 whereas

Sebastian Vettel is doing 1.39. Let's see what Mark Webber did here.

A replay. He is running the harder compound tyre. He ran it a little

bit too wide. He is cutting the grass! Trying to

get the good run out of the corner, but you get one bit wrong and the

whole lot goes wrong, doesn't it? Yes, for two or three corners, you

are going to suffer there. You lose the perfect line. You are going to

suffer a bit for sure. Presumably, are you doing part of

the simulator work at the moment for the team, for Lotus? I am doing

everything they need. We are doing a lot of simulating trying to make it

as real as possible and it seems that is working well. We have

roughly a bit and it seems it is useful for some drivers to be

prepared to approach the race. Some drivers like Grosjean like it and

Raikkonen doesn't like it. Kimi doesn't do the simulator? No.

He doesn't know it. He doesn't want to use it. We respect his choice.

That's his choice. Michael Schumacher found himself, he got a

bit of travel sickness on the simulator. So it is perhaps

something a new breed of drivers get used to more quickly than the

drivers who grew up without these things. Maybe, it is something they

don't want to get engaged with. We are inside the final five-and-a-half

minutes. Max Chilton locked up there and once you have locked up once, it

is easier to do it again. The last lap for Sebastian Vettel and Webber.

Rosberg's last lap was a 1.38.5. Rosberg continues on his race

simulation run. Kimi Raikkonen spun off in this session. He ended up

beached in the gravel. He is not playing any further part. Romain

Grosjean lapping at about 1.39.0. Not far off the frUning pace. --

front running pace. I remember seeing your reaction in

the Lotus garage when Raikkonen went past Grosjean and we were all going

oh my goodness, because there was nearly contact? He did a good move.

It was unbelievable. We were not expecting him to jump Grosjean. He

had more used tyres. Grosjean was in the situation to try to attack back.

It was the last thing we were thinking about. So... That Grosjean

made a little mistake? A mistake and thinking about. So... That Grosjean

Raikkonen, he is a great champion, he cannot have a mistake with him

behind. He got the chance and he maintained it and Grosjean had no

chance to get him back. Second and third, what a great

result it was for the team. Still break points in the con onstructors

championship. Ferriy are -- Ferrari and Mercedes are running third. Is

there a belief you can challenge those two? We have the feeling that

we are faster in the race. If the conditions keeps going like this,

hot and sunshine, I think we can fight with everyone. The story is in

the last few races we were always really competitive. More sometimes

than Mercedes and Ferrari. If we can really competitive. More sometimes

maintain the situation for longer I think we can come back. We are not

far from the points and there is a lot of race remaining so we are in a

good situation at the moment and we try to keep going.

Good stuff. It sounts a lot in terms of -- it counts a lot in terms of

money so we have to believe in it for sure.

Yes, it is worth a lot of money. Looking at the long run times here.

Alonso on the hard tyre. Consistent, but going away at the end of his

run. Quick laps from Rosberg. Good lap times. We are riding on board,

Rosberg. This is towards the end of his run on the mediums. He locked up

the right front. On his last lap, he did a 1.38.4. He started the

questionquence on a -- sequence on a 1.39.3. Good pace from Rosberg? If

he can he can maintain the levels, 1.39.3. Good pace from Rosberg? If

they can fight with everyone. Usually we saw in Korea that the

Mercedes after a few laps on Friday, he was getting lower and lower and

here, it seems they are come pet tifz until the end -- competitive

until the end. I think they can fight. Usually in the last few races

the idea we have after Friday, they were through also. I think they can

be there. It looks promising that Mercedes

could have descent race pace. TEAM RADIO: That was very patient,

well done. That was very patient. I think he

was dealing with traffic there. A slower lap on the last lap there.

They are the team to beat. He is the guy to match because as we have seen

from recent years he has this incredible record of this circuit.

Four pole positions in a row. One more to match Michael Schumacher. He

had five pole positions in a row did Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari

days. That's another record that ebb seb is going to be able -- Sebastian

Vettel is going to be able to match. He seems to be at the top of the

tree in so many of the records. Another quick lap. 1.38.1. That's

another quick lap indeed and the chequered flag has come out.

Rosberg's last lap 1.36.6. A good run. We are with Nico Rosberg and we

did see the lock-up and it is not all ideal.

TEAM RADIO: Stay in gear. They are asking him not to short shift. The

team deciding on the data that it is quicker not to do that. Yes.

Sometimes, you know, in the race, you try to short shift. Just to save

a bit of the car and try to make it last longer, but it seems that

doesn't need it. We have got the current stint on the medium there.

His first time lap of 40.2. 39s he went down to. This is an imwere he

issive race run -- impressive race run. It looks as if Mercedes are

looking after their tyres well. Let's see what the lap is. The film

lap. -- final lap. Is it in the 38s again? Yes, 38.7. That, I think,

Mercedes will be happy bearing in mind Ross Brawn told us his drivers

locked up early in their race runs. They were able to do consistent lap

times. They could give Red Bull a run. You are fairly confident that

Lotus are going to be strong in race conditions as well? We could have a

three -- we could have three teams fighting. Try to start #23 the --

three -- we could have three teams start in the first. No one has

beaten him to pole position in four years. A good practise session for

Red Bull. They have ended up with first and second fastest times.

Grosjean in fifth and Hamiliton sixth and Ricciardo seventh.

Sutil was hyped his Force India team-mate.

Bottas was 17th. Pic was the fastest of the young teams and Max Chilton

completed the group. We saw Sergio Perez injury himself slightly. He

had an ice pack after going off in the McLaren. As ever, the Suzuka

will bite if you get it wrong! We have seen evidence of that in

practise today. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? We will bring

practise and qualifying and we are looking forward to it. A big

punishment for small errors and Ben is right. What a session. If only

all races were that exciting. It was all going on and not just for the

younger drivers. Grosjean managed to save something, but Maldonado

couldn't save this one? No, Maldonado couldn't save it. This ran

wide and ran out of road. Once you have gone in there too quickly, you

can't get the car to turn so into the tyre barrier. A lot of damage.

Sergio Perez got the right side of the car on to the artificial grass

and there is no grip out there and he is a passenger. A lot of damage.

Grosjean, and this was the tail wind. The win was gusting a lot up

the back of the car and you lose downforce and once you get off line,

again, it is so difficult because the track is dirty. One bit of

oversteer can really send you off. It must be difficult for the

engineers to set the cars up, because it is a massive compromise

here, isn't it p? Yeah, the car is really on the limit. It is rear

limited. You need the front downforce to make sure the car turns

because it is one corner after another and the car is always, a

little bit of oversteer and that's how you get a good balance and good

lap time. Do you reckon they have got that out of way, or do you think

we will see more of the same tomorrow? I doubt it. It is the best

Friday practise that I have seen for a long time. It could be a good one.

The action for you tomorrow on BBC Two at 2. Am and then we will have

qualifying for you at 5am in the morning on BBC One. The Japanese

Grand Prix, the first two prepractise sessions have started

off with a bang with everybody having an excursion or an issue. Oh,

this is going to be an exciting one. See you tomorrow!