F1: Rain ruins practice

Oct 8 2005 icWales

Heavy rain ruined practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka this morning as Michael Schumacher became the most high-profile victim of a slippery track.

Persistent rain all morning left rivers of water flowing across the circuit, posing a danger to drivers who stayed in the safety of their garages for most of the two sessions.

Schumacher, who was fastest in first practice before Giancarlo Fisichella took the honour in the final session, was one of the first drivers to test the water in the opening session and he was soon left to regret that decision.

The outgoing world champion bravely ventured out to set the fastest time only to have his session end in a wall one lap later.

He lost control of his Ferrari at turn four and spun into a tyre wall, knocking off the front wing and his left front wheel.

His only timed lap, of one minute 46.542seconds, remained the one to beat though and with only 12 others setting times, he was fastest by over two seconds.

The McLaren duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya put in cautious laps with the constructors’ championship battle in mind and finished second and third respectively, while neither Renault driver even left the pits.

Robert Doornbos wasted no time in heading out of the pits at the start of the second session.

Unfortunately for the Minardi driver, he quickly scampered back there having spun exiting the chicane before he even completed a lap, caught out by rivers of water cascading across the circuit.

That discouraged the rest of the field from going out for almost 20 minutes before world champion Fernando Alonso tip-toed around to set the first timed lap of the session.

A handful of other drivers joined the fray and Alonso slipped down the order.

Renault driver Fisichella snatched top spot from Jordan’s Narain Karthikeyan in the final seconds, setting a best lap of 1min 50.136secs.

Indian rookie Karthikeyan was just 0.014secs behind while Ralf Schumacher earnt third for Toyota.

Jenson Button, chasing a ninth consecutive points finish, was fourth in his BAR-Honda while Christijan Albers gave Minardi a rare top-six spot with fifth, one clear of Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro.

Neither McLaren driver set a lap, preferring to save their engines and avoid unnecessary risk.