Practice 2 Report - The dance of the second drivers

The second practice session for the Japanese GP took place with a drying track and the hope that the rains that have blighted the Suzuka region thus far have finally cleared and the rest of the weekend will be dry and perhaps even sunny.

The session saw Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella setting a time that was 0.07s faster than Ferrari's number two Felipe Massa while behind the pair big guns Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso were fourth and fifth, a clear indication that this is going to be a close race although, naturally, much will depend on the performance of the tyres.

Honda F1 test driver Anthony Davidson was fifth fastest with BMW Sauber's Sebastian Vettel next up followed by Jenson Button (Honda), Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren), Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren).

The only major incident of the session was engine problem for Spyker test driver Adrian Sutil.