If Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix is anything to go by the Red Bull Racing cars of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will be the ones to beat if you want to end up on Pole Position.
Both Red Bulls ended up over half a second clear of the rest of the field ahead of Robert Kubica in the Renault F1 and the Ferrari’s of Alonso and Massa.
Japanese GP Second Practice Session Times
| Position | Team | Driver | Best Lap | Time Difference | # of Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Bull Racing | Sebastian Vettel | 1:31.465 | - | 32 |
| 2 | Red Bull Racing | Mark Webber | 1:31.860 | +0.395 | 29 |
| 3 | Renault F1 | Robert Kubica | 1:32.200 | +0.735 | 32 |
| 4 | Ferrari | Fernando Alonso | 1:32.362 | +0.897 | 34 |
| 5 | Ferrari | Felipe Massa | 1:32.519 | +1.054 | 35 |
| 6 | McLaren | Jenson Button | 1:32.533 | +1.068 | 28 |
| 7 | Renault F1 | Vitaly Petrov | 1:32.703 | +1.238 | 32 |
| 8 | Mercedes GP | Michael Schumacher | 1:32.831 | +1.366 | 27 |
| 9 | Force India | Adrian Sutil | 1:32.842 | +1.377 | 26 |
| 10 | Williams F1 | Nico Hulkenberg | 1.32.851 | +1.386 | 26 |
| 11 | Mercedes GP | Nico Rosberg | 1:32.880 | +1.425 | 26 |
| 12 | BMW Sauber F1 | Kamui Kobayashi | 1:33.471 | +2.006 | 31 |
| 13 | McLaren | Lewis Hamilton | 1:33.481 | +2.016 | 8 |
| 14 | Williams F1 | Rubens Barrichello | 1:33.564 | +2.099 | 16 |
| 15 | BMW Sauber F1 | Nick Heidfeld | 1:33.697 | +2.232 | 33 |
| 16 | Toro Rosso | Sebastien Buemi | 1:34.005 | +2.540 | 32 |
| 17 | Toro Rosso | Jamie Alguersuari | 1:34.055 | +2.590 | 37 |
| 18 | Force India | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 1:34.310 | +2.845 | 33 |
| 19 | Lotus Racing | Heikki Kovalainen | 1:36.095 | +4.630 | 37 |
| 20 | Lotus Racing | Jarno Trulli | 1:36.333 | +4.868 | 33 |
| 21 | Virgin Racing | Lucas Di Grassi | 1:36.630 | +5.165 | 28 |
| 22 | Virgin Racing | Timo Glock | 1:36.834 | +5.369 | 28 |
| 23 | HRT F1 Team | Bruno Senna | 1:37.352 | +5.887 | 33 |
| 24 | HRT F1 Team | Sakon Yamamoto | 1:37.831 | +6.366 | 34 |
McLaren have a major upgrade on their cars for the Japanese Grand Prix, but still seem to be off the pace with Jenson Button finishing best of the McLaren drivers 6th fastest and teamate Lewis Hamilton languishing down in 13th managing to complete on 8 laps after crashing heavily in the morning Practice session.
Could this be another Singapore where during Sebastian Vettel was clearly the fastest car on track only to be beaten in Qualifying by the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Tomorrow will tell.
