Japanese GP: Williams Friday practice notes

It was an unusually crowded first Free Practice session today, with all cars running in order to get their homework done, as the weather forecasters were predicting rain for the afternoon session. Both the BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers, Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia had a positive day.

Mark Webber:

"We had a good day. I think everyone was expecting the rain to come so did all our homework for Michelin before it started to rain. This was very important in preparation for the race, which we are expecting to be dry, since we don't know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. All in all we managed to find a pretty good balance."

"Towards the end of the first session I had a gearbox problem, but our mechanics did a good job fixing it in between the sessions, so that I lost only a little track time."

Antonio Pizzonia:

"This was a new track for me and the first impression is pretty good. I like this track, as it is quite challenging and quite difficult too. I have heard from some drivers that they only felt they knew this track perfectly after three years, so I have plenty to learn."

"Anyway, today we went through the programme that we had planned and there's a lot more to come from me and a little bit from the car, so we are looking forward to the rest of the weekend."

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):

"We went through our programme of tyre evaluation this morning and did the normal checks for the brakes and cooling. It looked like everybody had similar weather prediction today, as most teams did a lot more running than usual in the first session."

"The rain came late in the second session as expected, but we have enough data to do the race set-up now. On Mark's car we had a gearbox problem this morning, which the mecanichs quickly fixed in time for the second session."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"Antonio is driving here for the very first time and completed a huge programme of 36 laps in order to get familiar with this challenging circuit. Mark also completed his set-up programme."

"Close to the end of the second session we had a taste of Suzuka's typical changing weather conditions and so we can assume that race strategy will be crucial come Sunday."

Mark Webber
Chassis: FW27 04
(T-Car FW27 06)
BMW P84/5 Engine: 2nd GP
1st Practice: 9th, 1:33.098
2nd Practice: 10th, 1:33.520

Antonio Pizzonia
Chassis: FW27 03
BMW P84/5 Engine: 2nd GP
1st Practice: 14th, 1:33.528
2nd Practice: 12th, 1:33.679

-williams-