2010 Japanese Grand Prix

Championship standings

Webber leads the Drivers’ Championship with 202 points. Alonso is second on 191 after winning both the Italian and Singapore Grands Prix to cut Webber’s lead to eleven points. Hamilton holds third on 182 and Vettel fourth on 181. Button is fifth on 177 — 25 points behind Webber with four races remaining.

Previous race

Alonso won in Singapore. Hamilton crashed out in the closing stages. Webber retired from both the Italian and Singapore Grands Prix, surrendering his earlier championship lead before Alonso’s two-race winning streak.

Between-race developments

Local driver Sakon Yamamoto returns to the Hispania car, replacing Christian Klien who stood in for the Singapore weekend. GP2 driver Jérôme d’Ambrosio replaces di Grassi in Virgin’s first free practice session for evaluation purposes. Paul di Resta did not take part in Force India’s first practice session; the team wanted Liuzzi and Sutil to test new aerodynamic updates.

Car upgrades

Red Bull’s technical director Adrian Newey has moved the RB6’s front brake calipers backwards to a vertical position to prevent mechanical failures in the disc, pad and piston assembly. Both Vettel and Webber run two separate diffuser and rear wing specifications as well as a revised rear wing with a delta-shaped beam wing. Ferrari modifies the F10’s diffuser with a small omega-shaped wing on the top of the deformable structure. McLaren introduces a revised aerodynamic package featuring a new front wing, lengthened exhausts, a new engine cover, and a revised rear wing with angled gills; the standard specification was chosen for qualifying and the race.

Track changes

A 25 mm kerb replaces an existing kerb at the Degner 1 and Spoon corner exits, each extended by 20 metres. Two layers of artificial grass at the outside of the Spoon corner have been extended, and an additional layer added behind the kerbing at the Casio Triangle chicane exit.

Practice

In the first session in dry weather, Vettel set the fastest time of 1:32.585, with Webber 0.048 seconds behind and Kubica third. Hamilton lost control of his car when it bottomed out through the downhill right-hand Degner corner, hitting the tyre wall and heavily damaging the front-left corner. The car was recovered by tractor and Hamilton took no further part in the session. Button ran over the kerbs at Degner One with three minutes remaining but regained control and avoided the barrier.

In the second session, Vettel again dominated with a 1:31.465 on soft tyres, ahead of Webber, Kubica, Alonso, Massa, Button, Petrov, Schumacher, Sutil, and Hülkenberg. Schumacher ran wide on the kerbs between the two Degner apexes but avoided the wall. Hamilton, having missed most of the session while his mechanics rebuilt the car, rejoined for the final eight minutes and set seven laps.

Heavy rain arrived overnight and intensified through Saturday morning’s final session, creating rivers across multiple turns and puddles causing aquaplaning. Only two drivers set timed laps — Alguersuari fastest at 1:55.902 and Glock second. Most competitors ventured out for one exploratory lap on wet-weather tyres before returning to the garage. Hamilton reported the conditions made the track undriveable. Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn suggested qualifying be held Sunday morning or that the starting order be determined by championship standings if conditions were similar on Saturday.