iWitness in Japan: Friday

Posted on Saturday 03 Oct 2009 and tagged with iwitness, japan, suzuka.

Nico Rosberg had a stalker this afternoon. When he came to leave the AT&T Williams merchandising area after making an appearance, a Japanese fan followed him back to his car and grabbed hold of him as he opened the door. “If the same thing had happened in Europe, it would have been very frightening,” said Nico. “As it was, this man was polite and not threatening at all.”

The arrival of new aerodynamic parts kept the AT&T Williams mechanics in the pit garage until 0300 last night. “It’s been a gruelling week for the boys,” said race team coordinator, Paul Singlehurst. “We worked all night on Sunday night in Singapore, then we flew overnight on Monday to Japan and we’ve been working long hours at Suzuka ever since. The glamorous word of F1!”

Much to the disappointment of the spectators, there was very little on-track action during today’s wet second practice session. But the track came alive this evening when drivers donned trainers and went for a run. Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Pedro de la Rosa and a host of team personnel were on-track, but it was still no good for the spectators because it was dark!

Some of the people who felt short-changed by the lack of action were the friends and family of Kazuki Nakajima, who were watching from the new grandstand opposite the pits. They saw Kazuki complete only 26 laps in total, but at least he was quick: he ended the sessions second and fifth quickest.