Japanese GP 2008

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Practice 1 Report - Hamilton on top at Fuji

Lewis Hamilton, Japanese GP 2008
© The Cahier Archive

Lewis Hamilton led the way in the first practice session in Japan beating World Championship rival Felipe Massa by a tenth of a second. With Heikki Kovalainen third two tenths behind Massa and Kimi raikkonen fourth, the race looks like being a straight fight between the two leading teams, although Renault confirmed its upswing of fortune in Singapore with fifth place for Fernando Alonso and sixth for Nelson Piquet Jr.

Sebastian Vettel was seventh ahead of the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica and Sebastien Bourdais's Toro Rosso.

The top 10 was completed by Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams-Toyota.

The times in the midfield were not to be taken too seriously with Adrian Sutil 11th in his Force India, ahead of Nico Rosberg's Williams, Mark Webber's Red Bull, Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber, the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, the Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button and the Toyota of Timo Glock.

At the back were veterans David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella.

There were a number of spins and off-track moments but no major incidents.