F1: Sainz, Kvyat, Take Wet Friday Practice in Japan

Sebastian Vettel (1) drives an Adrian Newey RB8. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Many people thought that Mercedes, after such a dominant couple of F1 seasons, would just think that the last round at Singapore was just a fluke. They are not so sure this time.

With a little help from Mother Nature, as well as a continuous problems that the Silver Arrows cannot figure out currently, the F1 Renault powered cars of Carlos Sainz Jr. of Toro Rosso and Dani Kvyat of Red Bull led the fastest times in Friday practice of sessions one and two respectively, in preparation for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

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Because this is the only day with a storm in the region, the entire weekend might be ideal for better grip later this weekend as it expects to be good weather for the rest of the week. Kvyat took advantage in the second session with a drying track that lasted very shortly, but managed to just edge Nico Rosberg by 0.023 seconds, giving the Russian the best time of the day. Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo took the session in fourth, which sandwiched the two Mercedes of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton between them. The Brackley cars still are unaware what is happening with their cars and cannot achieve any changes due to the continuing rainy conditions and the wet track.

Many drivers in the afternoon ran wide and slightly damaged their cars. But the worse of all of them was Lotus Pastor Maldonado, fresh from his contract renewal with the team, drove clean off the track as he apparently took his eyes off the circuit at the exit of turn two. The rain increased even more with 30 minutes left in the session, which made some drivers like Williams Valterri Bottas remained in the garage, as well as Fernando Alonso, who had his mechanics work on his McLaren, changing parts after it ran in the first session.

As for the first session, the rain was not any different as it fell just as much, causing many cars to go off the track but not strike the barriers. Bottas went off at 130R, while both Saubers of Markus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr ran wide at Spoon. In addition, Felipe Massa rolled through the gravel at the second Degner. Both Bottas and Massa were working on their wet weather set ups and received a lot more than they have tried to accomplish with this all season.

But with the weather in the mid part of the session tapering off, Sainz found a way to put intermediate tires on and set the fastest time of the session. The Spaniard went five tenths of a second quicker than second place Kvyat. The move for Sainz was a good one, as rain intensified with 15 minutes to go, with no chance for the other drivers to catch him.

With this the only day of rain, the qualifying and the race on Sunday should prove how Mercedes will approach this weekend to see if their problems were only in the last race and not this circuit. For Red Bull, it will give a good indication that maybe something is improving with their cars and that they finally can get some good results overall.

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