Sauber ran several new components as Friday practice took place ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. As the only home driver in the field, Kamui Kobayashi ended the day in 13th position and just eight hundredths of a second slower than Sergio Pérez. The new parts included a front wing.
“It is a fantastic feeling to drive here at Suzuka again after one year,” Kobayashi commented. “It is such a great circuit and every single lap is exciting.
"We have a couple of updates to the car and today’s job is to fully understand how the new parts work. The lap times seem to be pretty close here, which means it is too early to judge on the performance, but I feel we can improve the balance and the set up.”
The quickest Sauber lap time – of the aforementioned Pérez – trailed the overall best effort of Mark Webber by one and a half seconds.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:32.493 | 34 |
| 2. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:32.707 | 32 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:32.836 | 37 |
| 4. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 01:32.987 | 30 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:33.093 | 28 |
| 6. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:33.107 | 35 |
| 7. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:33.349 | 22 |
| 8. | B. Senna | Williams | 01:33.499 | 35 |
| 9. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:33.614 | 32 |
| 10. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:33.750 | 13 |
| Full results | ||||
| Kamui Kobayashi | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Kamui Kobayashi photos | |||
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