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The 2nd Friday Practice Session for Round 17 of the 2004 F1 season at Suzuka.
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00:21sadly there is no sun to be found in the land of the rising sun as we welcome you
00:26to the suzuka international circuit where in fact the track lights have been turned on
00:30for friday's second practice in preparation for round 17 of the 2004 formula one season
00:36the japanese grand prix hello everyone i'm bob varsia along with steve matchett and david hobbs
00:42cars now taking to the track for the second 60-minute session on an absolutely sopping wet
00:48day what a weekend thus far it has been in japan a typhoon called ma on is supposedly
00:55headed right for the racetrack it should be wet all weekend and on wednesday night in fact the
01:01main island of japan was rocked by a 5.8 earthquake that rattled the china closets so to speak up
01:10and
01:11down the island chain or even the japanese closets
01:16this morning of course we had our opening 60 minutes of practice such as they were let's take
01:21a look at the highlights of course the star of the weekend is native japanese takuma sato and the
01:28rain was falling heavily as the teams looked out the garage doors sato went out did not turn a hot
01:34laugh but he gave the crowd what they came for with perhaps the odd embellishment such as this wicked
01:41moment approaching the chicane as for the rest of the drivers such as juan pablo montoya and kimi
01:46raikkonen there was a whole lot of standing around going on there you see jano truly driving for the
01:52first time for the toyota team and he did go out and set a time which at the time looked
01:57pretty good
01:57uh considering the conditions across the stripe there at uh 2 11 but then michael schumacher went
02:04out so it doesn't it did indeed michael schumacher seven time world champion with two races to go
02:10before it gets that second seventh crown 7.2 seconds faster than the previous fastest time in
02:16the session and to prove it still went out there look at this felipe master in the c23 sauber
02:22bam right front suspension destroyed on the car that was the end of his session say you want to be
02:28a
02:28formula one driver when the days are bright and clean well that's what it looks like when you're
02:32following another car here at suzuka and in all seriousness this race may be in some jeopardy
02:40due to the weather but that is a story that will unfold as the weekend goes on as you see
02:46the session
02:46one times at the upper left and as you see just 17 drivers of the 25 eligible actually posted a
02:54complete lap time yeah it's it's very well as you can see it's not abating at all just as well
03:01as it
03:01was in that first session today you can see a lot of standing water michael schumacher who was
03:06very quick this morning at 147.9 fisher killer and the sauber was a was a very close second at
03:13a 148.3
03:14and there you see jensen button of course the man of the moment or the man of every moment for
03:18since about the last six weeks ago when he said he was walking to williams team and uh david richard
03:23said
03:24no you're not there's the hairpin the tightest corner on this track left hander as you can see first
03:29gear very tricky today the road undulates through here right right and then coming through this long
03:36long right hand sweeper road undulating up and down comes down to the spoon corner long long left
03:41hander which is a pretty important corner you want to make a good exit out of there there's
03:46jack villeneuve in the renault he returned to formula one two weeks ago for the inaugural grand prix of china
03:53as he runs the final three races of the year for the renault team
03:58i thought earlier on the renault debated and we were starting to see i wouldn't say a dry line but
04:02certainly the wind started to blow across the track but it is obviously raining now again
04:10the circuit this morning in the first practice session absolutely sopping as you were saying
04:15earlier on chaps and just as you came out of the chicane just at the start to the pit in
04:22very bad there's a lot of standing water we saw about two or three cars really get quite a lurid
04:26slide well mark webber went in there i don't know whether he decided to go in late but he went
04:31right
04:31across that grass he missed taking the left side suspension off the car by about four inches
04:37you see that all the cars running maximum downforce they can now this is usually about a mid downforce
04:43track in dry weather conditions so you have a lot of wing to play around with on the car but
04:48in these
04:48conditions of course you just crank as much aerodynamic assistance on the car as you can
04:53and full wets on the car as well now anything to try and get grip but and you can see
04:57how much the
04:58ride heights lifted up as well raised in these wet conditions to try and keep the car away from that
05:03standing water on the track there's anthony davidson and the bar honda with additional sponsorship this
05:12weekend from the epson company
05:17actually davidson who's done such a good job this year on these fridays as a test driver for
05:22bar honda uh and with all the talk of different drivers next year his name seems to kind of slipped
05:28off the radar somewhat which is a bit of a surprise because he has done a good job
05:32mark weber has just gone quickest in the session one minute fifty one point seven seconds that would
05:39have been eighth quickest make that seventh quickest in the morning session one of the jordans gone
05:47around that's timo glock timo glock in the jordan who went very quick this morning actually
05:53coming up to the deg and the curtain cut that out coming up this right hander and we another little
06:01right hand sweep in and it's a long downhill run to the hairpin listen to the engine note
06:13honda of course have come here with a super special engine which if it stays like this all weekend
06:18won't mean zippo notice not not even a whisper of wheel spin thanks to traction control
06:34there's also not much trouble being applied
06:41and on the left and the right you see the reason this race might be in jeopardy due to weather
06:45that barrier is right at track side
06:53little bit of a line forming here you can see the wheel tracks of the last two or three cars
06:57to go
06:57through so maybe not raining quite as heavy there's that stunning water right there
07:04it flows straight across the track doesn't it from the end of the chicane
07:08to the pit in oh look at these conditions
07:15well davidson sets fast time of the session we'll take a quick break and return with more stand by
07:21we'll be right back
07:26speed channel's coverage of the fia formula one world championship is brought to you by
07:30the japanese grand prix track map is brought to you by porsche porsche there is no substitute
07:39welcome back live to the second friday practice at the suzuka circuit in preparation for the japanese
07:44grand prix you're on board with 97 world champion jack villeneuve who finished 11th
07:51and panting heavily at china two weeks ago
07:55panting heavily i like that
07:59villeneuve just moved to third quickest in the session behind anthony davidson and mark weber as
08:04takuma sato sits in the bar honda garage at flashing at the back is the car's rain light
08:12now checking the order it's glock second to davidson and one ahead of villeneuve
08:21interesting to note we have every past pole sitter since 1993 in the race this weekend michael schumacher
08:29has seven poles here rubens botakilla one and jack villeneuve the other two
08:37taku rolls out while we have a moment let's take a look at the porsche track map with david hobbs
08:43well this is certainly one of the tracks that everybody loves it's michael schumacher's favorite
08:47track it's long 3.6 miles and as you can see it's got an awful lot of turns and a
08:51tremendously
08:51interesting topographical layout a lot of climbing hills here a lot of elevation change downhill to
08:56turn one those esters two three four five six and seven just really got to get those all right
09:02that dunlop curve steeply rising start to go downhill through the degner curve then really drops over as
09:07you go under the track at the crossover there down to the hairpin the road undulates in the hairpin back
09:12to the spoon curve and that's a very important curve to get right because it leads you onto that
09:16that straight which of course is very steeply uphill to the 130r that left hand sweep very fast then
09:23into the very tight chicane and then it's pretty steeply downhill as you go back across the start finish
09:27line of course those hills lead to a lot of rain running across the track when it's raining heavily
09:32like this you get a lot of standing water and running water and no doubt will be one of the
09:37first people to find any landing slightly you know standing water down to the hairpin by looking at
09:42a moment ago timo glock came through to finish another hot lap and he took over fast time of the
09:48session well eddie jordan must be happy about that eddie jordan now praying to rain for the whole weekend
09:55149.277 currently the fast time as you look at michael schumacher one more note on honda thank you
10:01very much mr director from our japanese host broadcasters oops david mentioned honda has its
10:12traditional suzuka super special engine here this weekend honda's formula one project leader takeo
10:18kiyuchi this weekend said he thinks all things being equal next year honda could achieve an engine output
10:26of more than one thousand brake horsepower from its three liter engine next year in other words the
10:31horsepower numbers we used to see back in the 80s when these cars were turbocharged it is quite
10:37an astounding feat of engineering by honda i understand the situation with the honda special
10:42that they've got here there's a little replay of glock spin honda said actually we can produce more
10:50horsepower out of this suzuka special engine it's quite feasible for us to do that and bar said no
10:56no we need to finish this race boys we've got second place in the constructors championship on the line
11:04and i understand that it was quite a heated debate going on between honda and bar whether or not they
11:09should hair on this air on this side of reliability or get that extra horsepower really pushed to get
11:15sato the race win you gotta love that about the japanese approach though let's see if we can do it
11:20that it that's what formula one is to me push the thing to the limit and see what happens
11:26let's listen to our jacuma start to go down to the headpin
11:49he's picking up quite a bit of spray from that car in front which is uh not helping him
12:05it gives you an idea how steep that hill is
12:25whoo standing water on the exit of the chicane very dodgy
12:40we've got all kinds of confusion among our tv crew as we pick up michael schumacher now
12:45don't think for a moment that takuma sato has some kind of home field advantage he has actually raced
12:49very little here at suzuka circuit over his career he began at a relatively late age about 20 years old
12:57and immediately went to europe we apologize for the breakup
13:02rain on the wiring there that's right
13:14way ahead just a smidgen quicker than the others
13:20comes a chicane he did a one minute 47.906 in this morning's first session
13:26he has boss leaners the belgian ahead of him shouldn't hold him up too much on second thought yes he
13:33is
13:38about 3.8 seconds 3.9 seconds quicker
13:44this is the really sketchy part of the racetrack when it rains heavily down this is right this is
13:49where schumacher will lose a lot of time being behind leaners but
14:01that water splash michael is on a mission this weekend two weeks ago in china he suffered his
14:08worst race in six years finishing 12th first time out of the point since australia back in 1999
14:20oh gosh i guess you can't win them all well and he was actually quite
14:25straightforward about it when he was asked what the problem was he said we're not sure maybe it was me
14:31well i uh was talking to ross braun a couple of hours before we came into the studio to get
14:37into
14:38this session and i asked him about that and he said no we double checked we could find nothing wrong
14:43with the car this is on saturday in qualifying where he had that spin in qualifying and qualifying
14:48two and he said after the race when michael schumacher debriefed and he'd done more laps and
14:53had chance to understand what was happening with the car he said you know during the race i became aware
14:57of a bump an undulation down in turn one during the race that i didn't even know was there in
15:01the
15:01practice sessions that's what called us out is that a bump it's not a good weekend for michael
15:12collision with christian clean a flat tire and a completely unassisted spin in the bank's corner
15:20take a break schumacher overall right now
15:26welcome back to live friday practice here on speed channel from the grand prix of japan i'm bob
15:32varsha with david hobs and steve matchett there is david coulthard who just went to p2 in the session
15:38but a full three and a half seconds behind the fast lap turned in by michael schumacher
15:43timo glock and nick heidfeld and the two jordan cosworths currently stand third and fourth
15:52david coulthard his last podium was here in 2003 this is uh coming up uh this is the end of
16:01his
16:01worst season ever in formula one and perhaps his last season ever in formula one steve i'm wondering
16:06how much the presence of the jordans way up there on the timing sheet reflects what bridgestone has
16:12brought to bear here yeah it well i'm saying that there's michael schumacher on those bridgestone
16:18tires i just got the answer to my question thank you very much no i think i think you're absolutely
16:22right bridgestone has said that they have produced some very special tires for this grand prix and of
16:29course they would have built the wet tires as well as the dry tires anticipating this wet weather
16:33condition but certainly the performance of the jordan we've seen it all year the jordan has just been a
16:38tugging coming around that uh last little right hand sweep before the left hand hairpin doesn't
16:47collect the guard rail but does collect quite a bit of gravel which i assume is why he's going back
16:50slowly just a touch of understeer yeah just a touch of understeer i'll tell you what these wet conditions
16:56really highlight is how much on a knife sedge of adhesion the cars are you tend to one tends to
17:02forget in dry weather conditions when you see the car working so well
17:06how finely balanced these things are between having grip and not having grip but in the weather
17:10course it highlights so much you think the car's looking good and bam it's just gone straight away
17:15from you exactly what happened to ferrari then and of course there he was trying to check his braking
17:20point going into the hairpin around that little right hand suite that approaches the hairpin uh obviously
17:26they're doing a lot more practice than you you would expect them to do in conditions like this because as
17:30bob's already said the weather forecast for the weekend is not good no it's not so we have to do
17:37a real wet setup which of course will no doubt all go to naught on sunday when the sun suddenly
17:42comes
17:43down but earlier on we're talking about the problems michael schumacher's having in china and
17:48what sort of approach he and ferrari have made to get back on form for the japanese grand prix it's
17:55interesting to note that in the heref test in spain immediately after the chinese grand prix all the
18:01teams were were there running their third drivers and test drivers but along with them was michael schumacher
18:07himself came back from the far east from china back specifically to run at that test and he banged
18:13a huge amount of laps out to get back into form back into condition and build his confidence back up
18:19flown now back out to japan of course to take part in this grand prix so despite the fact that
18:24the
18:24championship is locked up for ferrari the championship is locked up for michael schumacher
18:28he's still desperate to produce the best result he can in the final two races absolutely the uh uh yeah
18:35the
18:36ferrari form is obviously pretty good i mean rumors barichello had an immaculate weekend in china
18:40on the pole and winning easily or as of easily um and that was the first race that michael schumacher
18:46has not led this year the only race he has not led
18:59there's kimmy raikkonen who has just gone to p3 officer that's david coulthard
19:06while stately speaking ribbons barichello went to second behind michael schumacher 1.4 seconds behind
19:12his ferrari teammate raikkonen to third 1.6 seconds behind the session leader there is kimmy raikkonen
19:19came into this race last year looking for a shot at a world championship
19:24with us all this year you know just how difficult it has been for the fan in the mclaren well
19:31yeah we're
19:32just seeing the back of the mclaren twitch though has made a sort of gasp for breath but in terms
19:37of
19:38working with the drivers and getting the car to work around the circuit in these weather conditions
19:42really it's 99 down to the drivers the engineers and the mechanics to merely set the car up as
19:49soft as possible this is the key section of the track getting the car to work around these s's bob
19:53as you were saying earlier on the left right left right the lead down to the change over the track
19:59of
19:59the figure eight you've got to get the balance of the car to work well right around here but in
20:04these
20:04wet conditions all you can do put as much downforce on as the regulations will allow
20:08put the wet weather tires on and soften the suspension to allow the chassis to roll so
20:13you're not forcing it to really load up those side tires if you get the chassis to break grip with
20:18the
20:18tarmac here comes one pablo montoya his final races for bmw williams the new bmw engine a three liter v10
20:30has breathed its first on the dynamometers be ready for testing soon as technical questions remain
20:37hanging over formula one it's ralph schumacher what a fuss he calls two weeks ago in china
20:47run into by david coolthard thought he had a tire going down went to the pits he was told to
20:52go on
20:52around because the tires in the pit lane were there in anticipation of his teammate montoya pitting
20:58instead he just pulled it into the garage and climbed out saying afterwards well by the time
21:03i limped around and came back in i'd be two laps down what was the point of continuing the team
21:07was
21:08not impressed well because he didn't have a flat tire well but on the other hand it could have bent
21:13something when he clipped uh when david coolthard clipped him i think the rough position there bearing
21:19in mind what happened to him at indianapolis is a direct result of a cut tire and having that enormous
21:24shunt indianapolis and fractured his spine the idea that the team would say stay out do another lap
21:30while the tires aren't ready how is that going to affect the confidence of the driver he's just missed
21:34about six races as a result of that accident it was up to the team in my opinion it was
21:40up to the team
21:41to keep montoya out to do another lap in a car that was working well or to stack the pit
21:46stops but in my
21:47opinion ralph should have been serviced he should have had the tires changed even if they had to delay
21:52montoya's good point schumacher misses the chicane continues on his way nonetheless
22:00this is a track he knows well from his years driving in japanese formula 3000
22:06his brother michael tops the timesheets we'll be right back
22:20welcome back to an absolutely sodden day at the suzuka circuit the island of honshu in japan i'm bob
22:28varsha with steve matchett and david hobbs this is john carlo fisichella two in the session behind michael
22:35schumacher and the ferrari again showing the uh the useless whoa of these bridgestone tires and
22:44these conditions but uh went just a little bit wide there
22:51japanese grand prix has not been a completely wet flag to flag affair since 1994. saw that race in this
23:01season of formula one decade here on speed channel and it was pretty dramatic stuff
23:09this one pablo montoya the order right now is michael schumacher kimmy raikkonen rubens
23:14baticello david coolthard timo glock nick heidfeld takuma sato anthony davidson jack villeneuve and
23:21fernando alonso the top ten then yarno truly mark weber robert doernbosch the third driver for the jordan team
23:30christian clean of the jaguar
23:37and then my timing and scoring page went south
23:59wow eight seconds off the pace trying to decipher whether conditions are getting worse or better
24:05it's very difficult because television cameras especially with long lenses on them tend to
24:10distort things make it look a lot well that low camera there as they come over that chicane i think
24:15it's getting worse on pablo montoya dirt tracks his way to the pit lane as he heads for service
24:23we'll take a break and return in a moment there's your top eight stay with us
24:29so it must be very slick coming into that which is the last of the s's that's just before that
24:34dunlop
24:35terms that long left-hander climbing left-hander so i think the rain's heavy and i think it might be
24:40running across the track just before that last right-hand sweep here's an update that top 12 i
24:47gave you just a moment ago can be completely canned because it is apparently wrong timing and scoring has
24:54frozen up
24:57look at masa's pirouette wow they really are whoops
25:02that's the marshall strike all in a day's work well it just shows how there's no grip doesn't it yeah
25:09it does indeed david i think you're right bob what you're saying they they're getting caught
25:16out on this track because it's not so much a dry line is forming but the wet weather tires are
25:22removing the water around what would be the racing line on the track and then when you hit that parts
25:27of the track where it's got standing water effectively just a river of water flowing across
25:31the track instantly the grip is gone we're going to see it right there back end snaps straight around
25:37and once once it goes there's no possibility of bringing it back in these conditions and there's
25:43timo glock going off in exactly the same spot glock doing pretty well all the bridgestone runners
25:48doing pretty well at the moment really those three particular ones we were this is one of the
25:52bernardes this is baumgarten who of course got well and truly buried unfortunately for him
25:58all in exactly the same spot almost to within the inch well i guess that goes to highlight
26:05david how similar these cars are in construction and engineering that you can have 10 different
26:11teams 10 different constructors all the cars built to the same formula one regulations of course but
26:16nevertheless they're all very very similar to each other there's a look at your top eight we believe
26:23that to be correct there's another eight no extra charge we have a yellow flag we'll be back in just
26:30a moment
26:38pretty compelling pictures all in all from the suzuka circuit in japan
26:42jolt baumgarteners minardi cosworth slowly being wrenched away accent on the slowly
26:51there's felipe masa who had a dandy pirouette before we went away to break
26:56exactly the same spot and of course did not get stuck luckily for him
27:02but there the old mech having a good look at it michael schumacher who currently is fastest
27:07in this very very wet session pole last year for this race was set in the dry at a one
27:13minute
27:1331 and change
27:18and really a 145 in 3.6 miles you know for the conditions it's horrifyingly quick when you
27:24you just look at the amount of water that's on the track i mean there's no way even the very
27:29deepest treaded wet weather tires are going to get rid of that in a hurry
27:32no that's the reason why the teams are not running any longer it just becomes pointless once you get
27:37to the point where there is no grip and you start to pirouette so easily and go off into the
27:41gravel
27:41you're learning nothing the only thing you're likely to learn is that you can put the chassis
27:45straight into the arm car and write the car off which really at this stage of the season the
27:49mechanics are really not keen on building a new car on a friday night there's a look at the suzuka
27:54land
27:54circuit a theme park which is part of the complex here another look at masa's go around
28:02had an interesting announcement on friday at suzuka circuit the entry of a new team planned for the
28:092006 season called midland f1 to be based in britain organized by an enterprising 36 year old by
28:17the name of alex schneider whose funding apparently comes from central europe and russia he says don't
28:23be surprised to find a russian rookie on the formula one grid within a few years having read through
28:29his comments pretty carefully i can say he sounds just a little bit starry-eyed he says he's prepared
28:35to spend as much as a hundred million dollars in budget on formula one and he intends to win and
28:42that is fairly oxymoronic in itself i would pay michael schumacher's salary so what's he gonna do with
28:48the rest of the money yeah while there's no action on the track we're going for a spin here is
28:55poor old
28:56jolt it was also well and truly buried mr schneider was going to use cosworth engines so that's a
29:03portion of the plan that'll have to be rewritten it would appear unless someone buys cosworth and
29:08continues the program well there is a rumor circulating rambo that um bernie and maybe max will get
29:15together or salvage cosworth and i think that would be a fine idea especially if they want to go to
29:21a
29:21customer engine for to entice these junior teams into the sport wherever these mysterious junior
29:26teams are that apparently want to take part in formula one they're going to need customer engines
29:31you're going to need a customer engine builder and cosworth of course have got such a history in
29:36the sport and have got all the personnel the engineers the mechanics the equipment and the capability
29:40to do exactly that to produce customer engines for these teams to let that go to waste would be
29:46nigh on criminal the newly engaged jean todd you knew exactly where i was going that jean
29:53taught at the lower right of your screen who announced to uh journalists in china that he had become
29:59engaged to the former miss malaysia and movie actress michelle yo you may remember her from the
30:06james bond film tomorrow never dies she said i don't know what you're talking about
30:15five laps
30:17come on son the last few corners there he goes now let's have a seat
30:25crowd will go absolutely wide and so does sato as he crosses the line his first points paying finish of
30:33his career in front of his home crowd at the japanese grand prix
30:39what a moment two years ago with the jordan team for takuma sato taking points in front of his home
30:45crowd and it was an important day for jordan because that finish of his uh really pulled the team up
30:52in
30:52the championship they they leapt over they leapfrogged past a couple of other teams which of course as we
30:56know as we've been saying all year makes a lot of difference in the old spondulics for the next
31:01year's travel money another technical term from our colleague david hobbs
31:13well you and i were together back in 1990 when another
31:18native son of the land of the rising sun by the name of aguri suzuki made the podium
31:23in this very same suzuka japanese grand prix and that was about as emotional a moment i have seen
31:33in all of my years in motorsports that was amazing stuff
31:40the suzuka funland not looking much fun today is it although the ferris wheel is that still going it
31:45looks like it is got to get on for free on a day like this yeah that thing in the
31:50dryer
31:50that was such a shame the the the seats the ticket sales for this event were up around 160 000.
31:57they
31:57were expecting about a sellout no doubt in large part because of takuma sato's success this year
32:04and bar i mean bar came here last year with 18 points on the year this year they came they're
32:09coming here with 105 points and their third in the construct the second in the constructors behind
32:15uh ferrari so a tremendous turnaround for the bar honda team well i'll tell you looking back over
32:21the season what bar have done is quite spectacular how they have pushed the rule book to the nth degree
32:28to try and maximize optimize the car as much as possible remember right back at the start of the season
32:33when we had the new rear wings introduced for 2004 they did away with a third element on the
32:38wing so they were down to two immediately bar and at the same time jaguar in testing started to
32:44try and weasel the way around the rules to be able to come up with a third element on the
32:48rear
32:48wings there by putting different fences across the top of it another technical term weasel weasel
32:52you like that yeah yeah well charlie whiten turned around and said guys i'm afraid you're
32:57not going to get away with weaseling that way so they have to take that third element off they
33:01didn't stop at that then you remember bar started to produce the flexible rear wing to try and destroy
33:06the downforce going along the the track charlie whiting turned around and said guys it's another
33:10great idea but we're not going to lie to run it then they come out with a tft the front
33:14torque transfer
33:15system that was copied from benetton back in 99 so all year long bar have not just been sitting back
33:21and relying on the power from the honda engine they have really been pushing the envelope to try and gain
33:25any tenth of a second performance out of the chassis and it's paid off because now as you're right you
33:30see 105 points second place in the constructors championship that ain't bad that's not shabby at
33:34all in fact some of that technology i think i saw somewhere recently that some teams in open
33:40wheel racing in the united states were being investigated for some some interesting little
33:45developments on their wing surfaces probably shouldn't go any farther with that
33:52there's a look at the order as we currently stand olivier panis standing there in the garage
33:58this will be his final race they wanted to get llarno truly on track in the toyota so they came
34:03up with
34:04a unique arrangement ricardo zonta would stand down for this race so that truly would partner olivier
34:10panis then panis will stand down so that zonta can run his home race in brazil in two weeks the
34:17result
34:17being two weeks from now when we are watching the race from sao paulo it'll be the first formula one
34:23grid since 1967 containing nary a single french grand prix driver wow there's another look at takuma sato
34:33applying his trade on a very damp track here at suzuka we'll take another break and hopefully someone
34:38will be on track when we return rubens barichello the number two driver for ferrari what's his job
34:47to help michael win the championship and he does it by winning the japanese grand prix unbelievable
34:58what a moment for rubens barichello who's on quite a roll that victory from pole here at suzuka
35:03last year was the second of what has become four consecutive victories from pole position britain
35:10in japan last year the italian grand prix and two weeks ago in china this year tell you what bob
35:17just
35:17looking at that little replay we had there from last year in the ferrari's rear wing it's amazing
35:22how big those wings even from one year ago look in comparison today when they were running three
35:26elements as we're just talking about with bear now of course in 2004 reduced down to two elements
35:33and next year more aerodynamic changes to remove downforce off the car they're going to move the
35:38rear wing forward about 100 mil which will affect the leverage on the wing and that's going to reduce
35:44quite a lot of downforce off the car as well they're going to raise the front wings they're going to
35:48destroy the effects of diffuser should be something like about 25 percent less downforce on the car in
35:552005. see the pawns on the infield they have names they are known as yamada and naka
36:03and they may well be brimming before this weekend is over is kimmy raikkonen looking like he's
36:10anything but ready to go back out on the circuit now i think uh in 10 minutes to the left
36:15we're going
36:16to see very little running on the track michael schumacher obviously not looking too
36:20looking pretty happy about his stomach notice he also isn't cowed by that request from bernie
36:26ecclestone that he not wear that commemorative seven world championship hat since as bernie puts it
36:33he is not after all the world champion until we say he is right at the foreground of that shot
36:39there you
36:39saw an aluminium frame bolted to the chassis this device put on by the mechanics to adjust the ride
36:46height to make ride height figures don't normally have to do that during the sessions because now
36:50certainly the top teams ferrari amongst them change all their ride heights by interchangeable shims in
36:56the pushrod it's a very quick and accurate way of doing it but of course when you've got so much
36:59time
36:59like this when the cars are not running the mechanics are desperate to get those ride gauges on the car
37:04and
37:04double check that the figures coming off the telemetry match real world so you can exactly see what the
37:10right eye it is well i'm not sure anyone's going to be going back out in these conditions but one
37:16way
37:16or the other join us early tomorrow morning for coverage of qualifying for the japanese grand prix
37:20we'll start things off once again at 1 a.m eastern time when the first car rolls out and we'll
37:25continue to
37:26cover them straight through to the interview room where peter windsor will be asking questions of the top
37:30three qualifiers again it's tomorrow morning 1 a.m eastern only here on speed but subject to blackout
37:39boy you've got to feel sorry for these people all come to watch takuma sato and the formula one action
37:43and they get one shot a year out here in japan uh not a great day for it let's hope
37:49the weather does
37:50clear up as the weekend progresses but that typhoon lurking out there in the pacific is not looking good
37:54at the moment well i tell you a lot of these people came from a long way off too because
37:58the suzuka
37:59circuit is set in a fairly rural part of the island we're about 90 or 95 miles from nagoya
38:07from osaka about 30 miles from osaka look at it pouring yeah well anyway the two large cities are
38:16a long way off yeah 150 odd miles from uh tokyo so traveling back and forth soaking wet and if
38:24you
38:24remember on our first trip there we drove on those pine new roads weaved all over the place everybody
38:30saying hello i'll tell you a couple of hours about six hours later we dragged our sorry you know what's
38:35into uh the circuit area there beautiful country but boy it is a drive yeah it was all the cars
38:41are
38:41white they're all right hand drives and all the roads are narrow and twisty for a country that produces
38:47such spectacular automobiles you really couldn't tell just for looking at the highway well they just
38:52have the room there because when you go there you realize just how mountainous the whole island is and
38:56that uh there's 127 million people live in japan and most of them live on a coastal strip really
39:03very steeply hilly in there there you see him locking up or just losing a little bit as he comes
39:08to that
39:08little sweep because carries too much speed locks up the fronts carefully drives through the gravel trap
39:19ross brauner
39:22oh water's running down one it looks like he's fishing didn't it looks like he should be sat on
39:28well it looks like it looks like a typical saturday afternoon on english summer when they do sit on the
39:32canal bank with those stupid fishing rods dangling in the water trying to catch a two-inch
39:37canal perch or whatever those itty-bitty hooks they use yeah whatever that lives in those canals it
39:42definitely looks like it's getting worse other than dead dogs and cats and things like that
39:45inner tubes and oh my god look at that rain yeah you see you can't as uh steve pointed out
39:51a few
39:51minutes ago when it's damp or wet you can learn quite a bit uh for chassis setup in your aerodynamics
39:57and that sort of thing and obviously where where the the really dodgy patches are but when it rains like
40:02this
40:02you're absolutely completely out of luck because the car is just going to float there's no way it'll
40:06clear that water from under the tires you're learning you can't do it no and that's the reason why
40:10the third drivers are not running either because really all you're doing is putting the drivers
40:17safety at risk and putting the car at risk well that's more important well i'm saying that i'm saying
40:25i wonder whether or not panis is going to be able to complete a full lap here in these conditions
40:29well this will tell us everything i'm sure i look at that i don't know if they just want to
40:37get a
40:37little bit of data on on the start control remember launch control per se is banned but the engineers
40:43will be keen to get a little bit of day to see what the grip level is like there but
40:46for the rest of the lap you ain't learning now
40:53just look at that that's real flotation weather that is this is where you grasp the other side of
41:01the seat now you can see how high the underside of the chassis is relative to running in dry conditions
41:08you'll probably find there's about 30 or 40 mil clearance there 30 at least which is what an inch
41:12and a half usually you're down to in dry conditions to a couple of mil about a sixteenth of an
41:16inch
41:16but just get the car to survive to at least allow the car some chance in these wet conditions you
41:22need to lift to raise the underbody away from that standing water on the track if you don't
41:28all you end up with is 180 mile an hour surfboard i mean the steering will just have no effect
41:33at all
41:34in case you haven't done the math to convert from celsius the temperature is a fine 60 degrees to go
41:41with
41:41all of this rain just a few moments ago we saw one of the tire engineers doing a
41:45testing the track temperature i would have thought you could tell by looking at it it's pretty
41:50came back it's official it's wet it's cold yeah it's cold oh look at that water i wonder whether or
41:57not um the toyota engineers have probably made some software adjustment or they've had some problem
42:02with gear selection and they just want to use this time to really do a very basic installation
42:07lap get out and put the thing through its paces just to check that the thing's got seven ratios up
42:12and
42:12down because other than that right there you see as soon as the driver starts to accelerate away
42:16the back end is twitching all over the place yeah or maybe bridgestone wants some nice pictures of
42:22their tires throwing up gallons of rain water makes his way through the only first gear corner on the
42:29track the air pin we'll be right back welcome back while we're away two things happen olivier pandas pitted
42:39his toyota without beginning a second lap and david hobbs reminded me that those are michelin and not
42:44bridgestone tires on the japanese car with that the session is now complete let's take a look at the
42:51results michael schumacher leading away david these are combined results of this morning and this
42:56afternoon's practice michael schumacher slightly quicker this afternoon than he was this morning
42:59fissi keller again doing a good job there in the sauber also on bridgestones kimmy reichler in the
43:03first the michelin shot cars rivers barichello down there one and a half seconds on his teammate
43:09cool todd having a good run there and the second of the mclarens timbo glott doing really well
43:13hyde felton sato and jack villeneuve intense alonzo in left behind his teammate his new teammate yeah
43:20ral schumacher button and montoya truly there that there are all the names it's very difficult to read
43:25anything into those results at all the weather was so bad in that session really clean leaners bruni
43:30it really means very little and that yellow indicator next to jensen button's name is indicative of the
43:37fact that he actually went quicker in this morning's first session that'll do it for our first hour of
43:43coverage of the 2004 japanese grand prix weekend we certainly hope it will get more dramatic and it
43:48certainly should in qualifying when they pretty much have to go out so join us at 1 a.m eastern
43:53for
43:53coverage of qualifying immediately following qualifying at 2 30 a.m eastern check out inside
43:58grand prix as we preview the upcoming grand prix of japan finally sunday morning live coverage of
44:03the japanese grand prix begins at 1 a.m eastern a half an hour later than normal as always we
44:08start
44:09things off with the accurate pre-race show and at 1 30 the cars will roll off until qualifying for
44:14david hobbs and steve match it i'm bob barsha sayonara until tomorrow
44:19comes out in the forest across the forest in May the sea right now it's 20th prize
44:19there's a very common plan for the sea right now so my Laboratory's gonna start to get
44:19really nice to have a conversation over the island over the island but I was very nice to see you
44:19and that's crazy to have a friend of time around the island this is very different
44:19but we see that for sure just aишь too much to have a friend of time in this
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