Free Practice 1: Rain allows Kovalainen to lead, ahead of Nakajima!

It was at the end of a first practice session described as wet that Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren driver, secured the best time to finish as the leader of this first round of tests for the Japanese Grand Prix. On the Suzuka circuit, the Finn is followed by the native of the country, Kazuki Nakajima driving for Williams, and Force India driver, Adrian Sutil.

Kovalainen waited until the last moment of this first free practice session to be the fastest on this wet track described as drying by the end of the hour and a half. Until the Finn crossed the checkered flag in the lead position, Nakajima seemed to be experiencing a moment of glory at his home Grand Prix, as the Williams driver was firmly in first place just a few minutes before the session ended.

The 24-year-old Japanese driver completed a perfect final lap on intermediate tires in 1:40.648. But everyone’s times were improving as the drivers found more and more grip on this ‘drying’ track. Kovalainen was one of them and completed a lap in 1:40.356.

The maestro of these weather conditions, Adrian Sutil was also in a very good position until the Finn supplanted him. The Force India driver finishes third while he was the fastest earlier in the session. Even though the session began with a lot of standing water on the track, it quickly dispersed, as several drivers who were unfamiliar with the Suzuka circuit in F1 took to the track. Lewis Hamilton and Kovalainen were two of them. The goal being a quick learning of this very unique track.

In fact, the McLaren drivers were in the rhythm, closely attached to the top of the leaderboard until Sebastian Vettel and then Fernando Alonso took control. Hamilton responded in the middle of the session only to be overtaken again by Nakajima. With 20 minutes to go, Kovalainen takes the lead, and even though Sutil gives him a bit of a hard time, he manages to keep this first test session under control.

Behind the top three is Giancarlo Fisichella, who seems to have gained some confidence in the Ferrari F60 to achieve the fourth fastest time ahead of a quick Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), while Hamilton ultimately ranks sixth. Alonso is seventh, despite a small off-track excursion into the gravel at the hairpin early in the session. The man he will replace at Ferrari in 2010, Kimi Räikkönen, is just behind him in eighth position.

Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP driver, and Nico Rosberg in the second Williams complete the top ten. Mark Webber positions himself in 11th place ahead of the second Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi, the first Toyota of Jarno Trulli, and the second Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari. The BMW drivers are only 15th and 16th with Robert Kubica ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Sebastian Vettel is ultimately only 17th ahead of the championship leader Jenson Button.

Despite conditions conducive to incidents, there were surprisingly few problems. Fisichella performs the same maneuver as Alonso at the hairpin, and Liuzzi goes wide near Spoon corner.

Kamui Kobayashi, who replaced Timo Glock, too unwell to drive an F1 car especially in this weather, is only 19th but impressed during this session. He was beaten by his teammate, Jarno Trulli, only in the last five minutes. The Japanese driver is still ahead of Romain Grosjean (Renault), who has had a poor start to this weekend…

Free Practice 1 Results – Japanese GP – Friday, October 2, 2009: