[Newshound]

Local heroes Kamui Kobayashi and Sakon Yamamoto are just two of the drivers facing the media on Thursday, while Toro Rosso's Franz Tost and Bridgestone's Hiroshi Yasukawa will answer questions on Friday. The line-up in full?

Thursday, October 7, 1500 hours local time (0600 GMT):
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kamui Kobayashi (BMW Sauber), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Sakon Yamamoto (HRT).



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[Newshound]

FIA Thursday press conference - Japan

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Sakon Yamamoto (HRT)

Q: Kamui, your home race but I don't think you have raced here for a long, long time. Since you were 17, I think?
Kamui Kobayashi: Yes, I think the last race at Suzuka was seven years ago. Quite a long time. I am very excited to drive at Suzuka again.

Q: Last year you did the Friday practice.
KK: It was only testing in wet conditions. This time I think I have more opportunity to know the car and track, so I think I have more opportunity to have a good result here. I think my experience in Suzuka is too poor. I only have experience with Formula One in the wet, but this

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[Newshound]

Practice One - Red Bull out front as Hamilton crashes

Red Bull began their weekend at Suzuka the way they hope to end it, with both cars up front in Friday morning's opening practice courtesy of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The two title contenders were separated by just 0.048s.

Robert Kubica was in terrific form for Renault in third, while Adrian Sutil staked a claim for Force India with fourth. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton crashed out en route to fifth...

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[Newshound]

Practice Two - Red Bull retain their grip in Japan

Red Bull continued to dominate practice at Suzuka on Friday, in a second session that started out warm but cooled quite considerably as the track temperature dropped five degrees by the end of its 90 minutes.

Sebastian Vettel again set the pace after a tussle with team mate Mark Webber, and this time the margin between them was 0.395s. Renault's Robert Kubica was their nearest challenger...

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[Newshound]

Friday practice - selected team and driver quotes

Red Bull ruled the roost in Japan, with team mates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber dominating the timesheets, although Renault's Robert Kubica did his best to keep the duo honest. There was drama too for McLaren's Lewis Hamilton who crashed during the morning session and only completed 17 laps over the course of the day. All the drivers, and senior team personnel, reflect on their early progress at Suzuka?

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[Newshound]

FIA Friday press conference - Japan

Team representatives: Norbert Haug (Mercedes), Robert Fernley (Force India), Adam Parr (Williams), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso) and Hiroshi Yasukawa (Bridgestone).

Q: First of all a question to all the Team Principals about your engine deals for next year and also your engine usage this year. Are there any concerns about the eight engines coming up as we are near the end of the season. Franz?
Franz Tost: Toro Rosso will continue the co-operation with Ferrari. We will run next year the engine as well as the KERS system from Ferrari. Regarding the usage of

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[Newshound]

Final practice - a washout at Suzuka

Jaime Alguersuari dominated the final practice session here in Suzuka this morning for Toro Rosso. The only problem was that the weather conditions were so bad that only the Spaniard and Virgin's Timo Glock actually recorded timed laps.

The rest of the field confined themselves to a couple of out laps, apart from Alguersuari's team mate Sebastien Buemi, who did four, and the McLaren drivers who did three apiece...

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[Newshound]

Qualifying delayed by rain at Suzuka

Final practice in Japan was a near washout this morning, with only two drivers recording times, and with heavy rain still falling at Suzuka the start of qualifying has been delayed until at least 15.30 local time, 06.30 GMT.

With the conditions showing little sign of improving, there is speculation that the session will have to be postponed until Sunday morning, though everything possible will be done to complete it today...

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[Newshound]

Saturday at Suzuka - selected team and driver quotes

Suzuka's layout is challenging enough, but when heavy rain arrived on Saturday, the Japanese circuit threw down another test to teams and race organisers. Despite the FIA's best efforts to check whether the circuit was ready for a pack of 24 drivers keen to qualify, and the sterling staying power of the Japanese fans, the downpours continued. In the end the decision was taken to postpone the session until Sunday morning, which is forecast to be dry. Members of the paddock discuss Saturday's waiting game and look ahead to a busy race day?

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[Newshound]

Hamilton to drop five places on Suzuka grid

Lewis Hamilton will drop five places on the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix after McLaren decided they needed to replace his car's gearbox. Qualifying for the Suzuka race will take place on Sunday morning, after heavy rain on Saturday forced the FIA stewards to postpone it.

McLaren noticed abnormal oil pressure in Hamilton's gearbox ahead of Saturday's rain-hit Practice Three. The British team believed they had solved the issue, but when they fired up the car in the afternoon, the problem had worsened and they opted to change the box.

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[Pat.w]

Re: Hamilton to drop five places on Suzuka grid

Oh dear...now he'll be even more determined to make up some places in the opening laps....should help to make for an interesting race

 

[Lagdti]

Re: Hamilton to drop five places on Suzuka grid

Look out,crazyman coming through.:d

Are we going to take bets on which corner the front wing gets knocked off?.


Turn 1 for me.:rofl:

 

[Pat.w]

Re: Hamilton to drop five places on Suzuka grid

:rofl: no point in the rest of us betting then

 

[Newshound]

Qualifying - Vettel on pole at sunny Suzuka

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber annihilated their opposition in Sunday morning's delayed qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, their stunning pace through the Esses in the first sector giving them a conclusive advantage over opposition that proved very closely matched.

Vettel lapped in 1m 30.785s to set himself up for a repeat of his success here last year, but Webber got very close on his final run with 1m 30.853s.

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[Newshound]

Paddock Postcard from Suzuka

Though Saturday's rain did its best to dampen the Suzuka paddock, there were several familiar faces in evidence.

Takuma Sato and his manager Matthew Winter made an appearance from IndyCars, and the former Super Aguri star remains hugely popular with the Japanese race goers. So does Giancarlo Fisichella, who was on Ferrari duty and doubtless appreciated signs opposite the pits telling him how much his fans want him to return to Formula One racing.

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[Newshound]

Qualifying - selected team and driver quotes

After Saturday's qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix was postponed thanks to heavy rain at Suzuka, the drivers finally had a chance to stake their claim on the grid on Sunday morning, ahead of the afternoon race. With Ferrari's Felipe Massa failing to make it through to Q3 and the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber looking ominously dominant, there was plenty to talk about. The drivers, and senior team personnel, review Sunday's qualifying action?

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[Newshound]

Japanese Grand Prix - selected team & driver quotes

Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Williams' Nico Rosberg - and Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi - on their first-lap collisions; McLaren's Lewis Hamilton on his gearbox strife; BMW Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi on making his way through the field; and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on taking his second successive win at Suzuka. All 24 drivers, and senior team personnel, report back on Sunday's race?

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[Newshound]

Race - Vettel cruises to victory in Japan

As expected, nobody could hold a candle to the Red Bulls in Suzuka on Sunday afternoon as Sebastian Vettel led home team mate Mark Webber by nine-tenths of a second in a gripping race in which the five title contenders finished in the top five places.

Vettel's third triumph of the season, and Fernando Alonso's third place for Ferrari, 1.8s behind Webber, moves the German into joint second place with the Spaniard, each on 206 points, as Webber moved out to 220 to extend his lead to 14.

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[Newshound]

FIA post-qualifying press conference - Japan

Drivers: 1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1m 30.785s; 2. Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1m 30.853s; 3. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1m 31.169s.

Q: Sebastian, a great lap and after seeing a Ferrari on pole for the last two races I guess this must feel pretty good.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it is good to change the colours again. The last two races were a little bit difficult for us but all in all I think we could improve the performance of the car. We came here with quite some confidence. Obviously this track is kind of made for us, especially the first sector. Not too many straights which we do like, so all in all after the confusion yesterday with the weather and the horrible conditions it is good that the sun came out and obviously a great start to the day but the most important bit is yet to come.

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