McClaren fast but flawed in Japan

Kimi Raikkonen’s engine curse struck again today in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix as McLaren proved to be fast but fragile at Suzuka.

The Finn will suffer a 10-place grid penalty after the Mercedes engine failed in first practice, dealing a severe blow to McLaren’s constructors’ championship hopes.

McLaren, who lead Renault by two points, have been beset by reliability problems this season, with Raikkonen’s championship hopes terminally damaged by several retirements and four engine failures in practice.

Raikkonen has enjoyed the fastest car for most of the season but failed to capitalise due to a string of troubles, and McLaren’s year was encapsulated when practice began today.

Test driver Pedro de la Rosa set the pace but Raikkonen’s troubles were the story of the first one-hour session. He pulled on to the grass with 24 minutes remaining with smoke spewing from the right bank of his Mercedes engine.

The 25-year-old was left to watch the remainder of the session from the sidelines but McLaren changed his engine in time for second practice.

That session started under threatening skies and all drivers were quickly out on track to make the most of practice before any rain.

Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta set the fastest lap before the rain came, clocking a best time of one minute 30.682 seconds.

Halfway through the session a light rain began to fall, catching out Michael Schumacher who ran wide on the slippery track.

That mistake aside, the Ferrari driver enjoyed a promising session and set the second fastest time, albeit over a second down on Zonta.

De la Rosa was third quickest as Rubens Barrichello backed up Schumacher’s display with fourth place. Raikkonen, with his new engine, was fifth on the timing sheets, just ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher.

Jenson Button took ninth place for BAR on home ground for Honda, the team’s new owners, while Red Bull’s David Coulthard was 11th.

The local fans are contemplating a season without a Japanese driver on the grid next year after BAR’s decision to drop Takuma Sato but today they had two home heroes to cheer.

Sato has traditionally excelled at Suzuka, helped by one-off engines from Honda, but after an encoraging eighth in the first session he was 13th in the second.

Further down the grid, Sakon Yamamoto made his Formula One debut as Jordan’s third driver.

The 23-year-old tested for Jordan last week in preparation for his practice sessions today and that helped him settle in quickly.

Yamamoto, who has raced twice at Suzuka in Formula Nippon this season and finished 13th both times, put in an impressive performance to go faster than regular race drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro in each session. He was 20th in the first and 17th in the second.