Adrian Sutil took his Force India to the top of the timesheets at the end of a heavily curtailed second practice session ahead of the Japanese grand prix.

Sebastien Vettel ended the session six tenths down on Sutil’s pace in second on the leaderboard and the Red Bull driver was in a Force India sandwich as he had Vitantonio Liuzzi directly behind him in third place.

Rain lashed down on the Suzuka circuit for the start of the second 90-minute Friday practice session.

The restricted number of wet tyres allocated to each team for a race weekend curtailed everybody’s running.

Half an hour in, the rain persisted and there was still no times on the board.
Dry weather is forecast for Saturday qualifying and the race on Sunday and so teams decided it would not be useful to send their drivers out in such treacherous conditions.

Only the Toro Rosso pairing of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi ventured out on circuit to complete installation laps, although with 45 minutes to go, an origami boat was also seen travelling down the Suzuka pit-lane.

Eventually, one hour into the session the determined and enthusiastic Alguersuari completed a timed run, despite the persistent rain and the rivers of water streaming across parts of the track.

On his first timed lap, the Spaniard recorded a time of 1m56.848 and a tentative sighter lap from fellow rookie Romain Grosjean in his Renault brought a brief flurry of activity to an end.

Once again Alguersuari demonstrated how switched on he is by informing his drivers of a river running across turns seven and eight, stating that he was not pushing because the conditions were too treacherous.

Fernando Alonso returned to the track with just over 15 minutes to go in the session to get some running on the drenched Suzuka circuit.

The double-world champion was 4.5 seconds up on Alguersuari at the end of the first sector, improving by a further two seconds in the middle sector and eventually crossing the line to record a time of 1m48.6 to go quickest.

Alonso stayed out and he was joined out on the circuit by Grosjean and Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber who recorded a 1m50.848 to go third quickest behind the Renault pairing.

Kazuki Nakajima also made an appearance with ten minutes to go to set a 1m57.0 on his first attempt.

Kamui Kobayashi took his Toyota out on track shortly afterwards, but he was over four seconds off Alonso’s pace and he slotted into sixth place on the timesheets.

Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber emerged from the pit-lane in the final minutes of the session to post a time.
Webber went fourth fastest on his first attempt, whereas Hamilton slotted into 11th with a 1m51.6, after getting it all crossed up at the exit of the final chicane.

Jarno Trulli meanwhile had slotted his Toyota into second, ahead of Buemi in the Toro Rosso and Nakajima’s Williams.

Buemi soon improved his time and he was the first to enter the 1m48s, only to be eclipsed by Nakajima seconds later.

Hamilton then went second quickest and Adrian Sutil once again placed his Force India up at the top of the timesheets with a 1m47.2.

As the clocked ticked down, 17 runners had opted to set a time and, although Vettel came close to beating Sutil’s time by popping up into second fastest, nobody could match the Force India driver’s lap time.

Kimi Raikkonen found himself down in 11th fastest in his Ferrari, despite setting the fastest time through the final sector.

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