Championship leader Jenson Button is confident of running strongly in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, regardless of the weather.
Friday practice in Suzuka began in damp conditions before heavy showers in the afternoon wrote off the day’s running.
Button, who goes into Sunday’s grand prix needing to score just five points more than title rival Rubens Barrichello to be crowned champion, paced eighteenth and ninteenth quickest, but he is confident the team have collected enough data to be strong in qualifying should further rain come.
“We spent the morning session working on the balance of the car with the wet and intermediate tyres to ensure that we are prepared if the same wet weather does continue over the weekend.
“It was important to achieve some running and it feels good to be back at Suzuka. This is a great drivers’ track so hopefully we’ll get some dry running tomorrow.”
Team principal Ross Brawn added: “The weather conditions impacted on our practice plans today as the wet track meant that we opted for a reduced programme.
“We completed an installation run on the wet weather tyres this morning before Jenson and Rubens switched to intermediates as the track started to dry out over the course of the session. With a heavy downpour between the two sessions, the condition of the track deteriorated further.
“As the weather forecast shows a dry qualifying and race and with limited wet weather tyres, we felt that there was nothing further to be learnt from running again this afternoon.”
