Highlights

Honda tester Davidson leads wet Japanese practice

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-06 20:49

Honda test driver Anthony Davidson led a wet and low-key first practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday as title contenders Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso held fire.

Schumacher, who leads Renault's champion Alonso in the standings 7-6 on race wins after pulling level on 116 points with two races remaining, did not turn a wheel during the hour long session.

Spaniard Alonso completed an installation lap without setting a time.

Schumacher can clinch a record eighth Formula One championship on Sunday if he wins and Alonso fails to score a point. Otherwise the title will be decided in Brazil on October 22.

In their absence, the crowd that huddled in the open grandstands under plastic raincoats and umbrellas had mostly test drivers to watch powering through the spray.

Briton Davidson did 18 laps of his team's home circuit with a best time of one minute 45.349 seconds. Toro Rosso's Swiss reserve Neel Jani was second, 0.789 seconds slower, with BMW Sauber's German teenager Sebastian Vettel third.

The top five on the timesheets were all test drivers, none of whom will race on Sunday.

The fastest race driver was Toro Rosso's American Scott Speed in sixth with Spyker MF1's Dutch driver Christijan Albers following behind.

The only other race drivers to set a time were Williams' Austrian Alexander Wurz and Super Aguri's Japanese duo of Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto.