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2000 Japanese GP News
6 - 8 October  2000  

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Japanese GP Practice timed results
Japanese GP Qualifying and Race timed results

Japanese Grand Prix Saturday Practice and Qualifying

First Practice Session:

Michael Schumacher sets the fastest time on the first practice session for Saturday 0.317 seconds ahead of his brother Ralf Schumacher. David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jacques Villeneuve make the top 6.

Michael's pace was not as far ahead of the rest as yesterday as it seems that some teams are finding better setups for their cars. Williams appear to have made the most progress with both their drivers in the top 5. Benetton also appear to be doing well with Fisichella in 5th and Wurz in 11th.

Mika Hakkinen is struggling in 13th place and Frentzen as well back in 18th.

There were several spins during the session with Trulli off before setting a timed lap as a result of Diniz blowing an engine and spilling oil on the track. Coulthard went off but managed to recover while Barrichello and Villeneuve both spun out and into the gravel ending their sessions.

Michael Schumacher, Johnny Herbert and Gaston Mazzacane did the most number of laps with 15 while Frentzen did the least with 9. Diniz and Trulli didn't do any timed laps. Most other drivers covered between 10 and 14 laps.

Michael Schumacher has already gone faster than the pole time last year. Let's see if the times will drop under the 1:37 mark in the second practice session today.

Click here for the history of the session
Click here for the timed results

Second Practice Session:

Mika Hakkinen bounces back and sets the fastest time of the session. He is 0.139 seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher while Jenson Button is a surprise 3rd. Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard make the top 6.

The Williams continued to show strong performance mixing it with the top 2 teams while Benetton are also looking strong with Fisichella and Wurz in 7th and 9th. Irvine is also looking strong in 8th.

Several drivers spun during this session with Irvine and Villeneuve managing to recover while Zonta ended in the gravel.

Mika Salo completed the most laps this session with 18 while Pedro Diniz just managed 6 laps, Villeneuve only did 7 laps and Zonta 9. Most other drivers covered between 10 and 15 laps. Mika Salo also did the most laps in both session with 31 laps.

The field is certainly closer than what is was yesterday. 1 second separates the top 8 and 2 seconds separate the top 18.

Michael Schumacher appears to have some in reserve as he was the only driver not to improve on his time set during the first session. Qualifying will be interesting.

Click here for the history of the session
Click here for the timed results

Qualifying Session:

Michael Schumacher grabs his 8th pole position of the season and his 3rd in a row here at Suzuka. Mika Hakkinen is second only 0.009 seconds behind. Those two are in a league of their own as neither David Coulthard nor Rubens Barrichello were able to come close. Coulthard is 3rd and 0.411 seconds behind while Barrichello is 4th and 0.505 seconds behind. The Williams pair of Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher are 5th and 6th respectively with Button out-qualifying his team-mate yet again on a track that he has not driven a Formula 1 car on before this weekend.

Irvine in the Jaguar is certainly a surprise here in 7th ahead of Frentzen and Villeneuve. Herbert in the second Jaguar makes the top 10.

Williams and Jaguar appear to be suited to this track while the high expectations from the Honda powered teams of BAR and Jordan didn't seem to materialise.

The duel for pole was very exciting with Hakkinen and Schumacher taking pole from each other for the duration of the session. It was Schumacher kept it in the end despite having an extra run as he only did 9 laps while Mika did 12.

The biggest gap between team-mates is that of Villeneuve (9th) and Zonta (18th) with Villeneuve over a second faster than Zonta. Next is Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello with 0.505 seconds between them. The closest team-mates are Pedro de la Rosa and Jos Verstappen with just 0.022 seconds between the two.

Expect an exciting race tomorrow with tyres wear expected to play a major role here!

Click here for the history of the session
Click here for the timed results
Race Report
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