Japanese GP Friday Williams notes

BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher were 5th and 12th quickest respectively in the first free practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Jenson Button:
"The most difficult thing for me was learning the circuit. I think it's going to take me another day. I think I am still quite a bit off where I should be really. The track is good, it's just very difficult to get the "S" sorted out, the long, sweeping curves. It's very, very difficult to know which way to take them. I know that some drivers push very hard in the first bit and then lose on the second bit or whatever, and I think I am losing on both! Anyway, we'll see tomorrow. "

Ralf Schumacher:
"We didn't experience any major problems, apart from a damper which caused me some troubles. We just did some race work and everything went as it should. I've always liked this circuit and it's nice to come back to the Japanese crowd, which still remembers me from four years ago. I think we should be in good shape for tomorrow's qualifying."

Patrick Head:
"We had a very normal Friday, just doing our homework for race day. Ralf had what appeared to be a problem with a damper on his car, which confused us a little on set-up. Anyway we collected a lot of data, which we are going to look at now and sort ourselves out for qualifying tomorrow."

Dr Mario Theissen:
"After the off-switch activated itself on Jenson's car in Indianapolis, just as he was overtaking on the famous bricks, we sorted out this problem with a new software solution. By the way, it seemed to work during the light earthquake! Apart from that, nothing unusual happened regarding the engine."