F1 teams were greeted by rain as they arrived in Suzuka this week but conditions should clear up for the race weekend.
Last year a downpour on Saturday forced the postponement of qualifying to Sunday morning.
There’s little chance of a repeat scenario as all three days are currently forecast to remain dry. Temperatures will gradually climb into the low 20C region.
Friday practice could see some gusty winds at the track but this too should die down by Sunday.
Keep an eye on conditions in the region with the weather radar below:
Weather radar
Suzuka circuit location
2011 Japanese Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
Steph (@)
6th October 2011, 10:11
Good. It was so annoying last year getting up for the early sessions (especially Friday practice in 09) and absolutely nothing happened. :P
BasCB (@bascb)
6th October 2011, 10:19
Yeah, getting up in the middle of the night and watching the rain and the occasional car do an installation lap is just not the thing.
Steph (@)
6th October 2011, 10:21
I know, it is really annoying. There’s just hours of silence. No engines roaring or anything. I will say though that when rain does hit and there is no action our commentators in the UK do a great job of trying to keep the audience entertained. I remember Brazil 09 qualifying when there was the red flag for so long it was such good fun to listen to them and be on the F1f live blog.
Wooolfy
6th October 2011, 10:46
Hey, in Canada we get FP1 and FP3 around 4am and FP2 and the race at 8am for the majority of the season now this one is at 9pm/10pm and quali and race at 1am/2am. So please don’t complain, just enjoy.
sato113 (@sato113)
6th October 2011, 11:40
I’d rather watch at 1am than 6am.
Steph (@)
6th October 2011, 13:17
@Woolfy you’re right and as I said on the TV times article I’ve no right to complain as the times are so good for us UK viewers most weekends. I was just hoping rain wouldn’t hit during practice (as I do every weekend) because it’s quite annoying and I’m not a morning person at all!
Fixy (@)
6th October 2011, 21:04
@steph you’re right, I usually like early starts but last year’s qualifying left a bad memory in my head, as I stayed awake for hours awaiting the start and trying desperately not to fall asleep!
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
6th October 2011, 10:12
cool!
I’d actually rather a wet race to spice it up a bit..
but at least Qualifying shouldn’t be rained out!
marcusbreese (@marcusbreese)
6th October 2011, 10:14
So it should be cold, right? Ferrari must be cursing.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
6th October 2011, 10:18
I’m not so sure on that to be honest. There is a lot of lateral (side-to-side) load on the tyres through the whole lap as they go through Esses, the straight to Spoon; the 130R. That would help build temperature
daykind (@)
6th October 2011, 10:59
I think it will be hot, it usually is?
Ben Needham (@ben-n)
6th October 2011, 10:15
Although this means we’ll certainly see some Saturday action this year – I always enjoy rain. Being a bit of a sad act I usually base my weekends around the F1, so if it goes on to long, I stay and watch it anyway and still enjoy it…. so I always enjoy the rain! :)
Icthyes (@icthyes)
6th October 2011, 10:22
I think it says a lot about F1 this year that most of us will be glad to hear this! Would have been nice to have another wet qualifying though, with the Pirellis the race would be insane. I expect a cracker anyway!
Steph (@)
6th October 2011, 10:33
Very true! I’ve noticed far less of the old “rain dance” prayer being thrown around this season. We just don’t need. I think I only gave Canada a 7 on the rating too.
Rucknar (@superted666)
6th October 2011, 10:23
Dammit, was hoping for rain!
verstappen (@verstappen)
6th October 2011, 10:23
Suzuka can do without rain. Whereas Valencia can’t.
Although I wouldn’t mind à bit of rain. But it makes it hard to predict how long to record qualifying and race. Currently I go for 7 hrs for race and 6 for qualifying.
Off topic: @Keith, I reported problems with IPhone, they seem à little less, but THE response is very bad. And pressing THE cancellation on THE spellchecker is almost impossible, when putting in à comment.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
6th October 2011, 10:26
@verstappen If you’ve got a problem please send a report rather than leaving a comment, that way I have a note of it:
Reporting a technical problem
Steph (@)
6th October 2011, 10:35
@verstappen you’re right but I must admit I’ve never found Suzuka that exciting for racing. I’m sure it’ll be great this year with the tyres the way that they are but usually Suzuka doesn’t do much for me come Sunday. It’s an exciting track layout-wise but I thought Fuji was better for wheel to wheel racing.
Stefanauss (@stefanauss)
6th October 2011, 10:59
What was the scenario in Suzuka 2003? QLF messed up by intermittent rain and completely dry race?
I beg for that to happen again.
supernicebob (@supernicebob)
6th October 2011, 11:01
I was hoping for rain as that was instrumental in my ridiculous day dream plan for Button to still win the championship. A not outrageous call for four wet races in Japan, Korea, India and Brazil and another four wet race wins for JB. Meanwhile, Vettel would be not finishing for a variety of reasons. All set for a final showdown in Abu Dhabi (not much chance of rain there I guess) where Button would have nothing to lose, whilst Vettel would…
Meanwhile, back in reality, any result other than Vettel winning the championship would be a travesty in all honesty so I actually hope he can seal it with another totally dominant weekend at a circuit he has made his own.
Gracious (@)
6th October 2011, 14:54
Rain would have spiced things up a bit. Anywhere, Vettel is wrapping it up this weekend.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
6th October 2011, 18:37
Should be good to have some rain but not something like Korea last year when the race was posponed by it.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th October 2011, 21:23
Do you mean qualifying for the Japanese race? @omarr-pepper I only recall that being postponed.
I felt so sorry for Lee McKenzie that day, her first time in the driving seat (excuse the pun) and she barely got a break with virtually no guidance!
OmarR-Pepper (@)
7th October 2011, 18:03
no, @andrewtanner , I remember Korea and that safety car getting the race boring, cars rinsing the asphalt… until it finally started and , luckily , ended up as a good race.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
7th October 2011, 18:05
looks like “posponed” is not the right word, just “delayed”