PRACTICE

The first practice sessions for the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix got underwaytoday at the Suzuka circuit in dry and warm conditions ahead of the heavyrain showers forecast for qualifying tomorrow.

MERCEDES GP PETRONAS pair Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg completed 47laps and 35 laps of the 5.807km circuit respectively, loved by drivers forits challenging layout, as they worked on the set-up of their MGP W01 cars.

Drivers          Car No. Chassis No.      Practice 1Practice 2 Michael Schumacher   3       MGP W01 / 05     20 laps  1:33.739  P827 laps  1:32.831   P8 Nico Rosberg    4       MGP W01 / 04     9 laps   1:33.831  P1026 laps  1:32.880   P11 

Weather           Warm & sunny Temperatures    Air: 23-25°C  Track: 29-38°C  

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER"It's a great feeling to be driving this track again. It's really fun and agreat challenge. I have always loved Suzuka and particularly the firstsector which is cool and demanding at the same time. If you get it right,you enjoy it big time. I'm pleased with our practice today as the car looksbetter than I had expected here and I didn't face any real issues. So now wehope for a clean qualifying tomorrow where we will try to achieve as much aswe can."

NICO ROSBERG "It's been quite a challenging Friday for me. Unfortunately my morning washampered by a gearbox issue which cost me some running time at the end ofthe session which wasn't ideal. From then on, I just haven't been as happywith the car here. I had a lot of understeer which we haven't establishedthe reason for, so we need to look into that overnight. Things started tocome together more on the option tyre which gives me hope that we can buildon that progress tomorrow. It should be an interesting weekend with the rainso we will try to make the best of that."

ROSS BRAWN"It's been an interesting Friday as we have worked to learn as much aspossible from the dry track before the expected rain arrives this evening.Michael had a positive day with the car running well to allow him to getused to the track again and develop his set-up. Nico had a few challengeswith a gearbox issue interrupting his programme this morning and a fewconcerns with the balance this afternoon. We have a lot of information towork with so we expect to make progress overnight. It could be aninteresting qualifying if the rain comes so we'll need to be on our toes."

NORBERT HAUG"There is certainly room for further improvements after today's practicesessions but we have definitely experienced more challenging Fridays thisyear. Our race pace today looked quite reasonable but of course we are stillnot good enough to fight at the front of the field. The forecast fortomorrow is predicting rain so the order we saw today may change indifferent conditions. Michael and Nico did a good job today taking intoaccount the current capabilities of our car and our target is to repeat thislevel of performance tomorrow and on Sunday."