McLaren suffer another failure

McLAREN suffered a miserable day yesterday after Kimi Raikkonen was forced to change an engine while Toyota set the pace in damp practice conditions ahead of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa had set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1:30.532 in the morning before rain affected the second session at the Suzuka circuit to leave Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta on top.

But Raikkonen suffered a disaster when the engine in his car blew up halfway through the morning practice, leaving him with a certain 10-position penalty on the grid for Sunday’s race.

“Obviously I’m a bit disappointed with the engine failure which stopped my first practice session prematurely,” Raikkonen said, “but we managed to get some running in the second practice.

“There is still plenty of time left to work on the car tomorrow morning. The balance is basically okay but a lot depends on what the weather will do for the rest of the weekend.”

The McLaren man lost the drivers’ world championship to Fernando Alonso at the last race in Brazil but the latest failure will be a blow to the team’s hopes of winning the constructors’ world championship.

McLaren took the lead in the championship in Brazil but the engine change will do them no good at all as they aim to extend their slender two-point lead over Renault with two races left to run.

Overcast conditions set in yesterday on Friday morning but it was not until midway through the second practice hour that the rain began to fall and that meant left Brazilian Zonta’s second session time of 1:30.682 was untouchable.

Rain is predicted again for qualifying today here Saturday but new champion Alonso, who finished both sessions in the top ten, is prepared for all conditions and said: “It is all okay from my point of view.

“We expected rain in the afternoon so ran a lot in the first session, which was quite difficult for the drivers, but I think we looked reasonably quick and there is more potential in the car and myself to improve.”

Michael Schumacher, who has won four of the last five races in Japan, finished second fastest for Ferrari in the second session while Spaniard de la Rosa had to settle for third.

Ferrari looked strong in the damp conditions with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello ensuring both of the Italian cars were in the top four while Raikkonen completed the top five.

But Schumacher was making no predictions and said: “I find it difficult to judge how we went today and we will have to study the data in depth but the time difference is down to the fact we were probably the only ones to run new tyres.”

Toyota drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli finished sixth and seventh with Alonso in eighth place in the leading Renault car, his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella down in 14th.

Jenson Button finished ninth fastest for BAR-Honda and Mark Webber completed the top ten runners in his Williams while Juan Pablo Montoya finished a surprising 22nd.

Red Bull Racing test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi went off track at turn 17 after 13 minutes but there was little other incident until the rain began to fall around the circuit with 20 minutes left to run.