Super Soggy Suzuka Caps Saturday F1 Action: Qualifying to be held Sunday

Day 2 of the Japanese Grand Prix has amounted to a full wash-out due to heavy precipitation. Perhaps better identified as 'Wipeout Japan', an estimated daily accumulation totaling nearly 50 millimeters of rain made the Formula 1 cars stay garage-dwelling for the duration of Saturday. Even with full wet weather tires, the presence of standing water on the Suzuka Circuit made the conditions impossible to for those Bridgestone tires to obtain any grip.

Delayed as rain fell, Formula 1 officials were eventually faced with the only sensible solution was to postpone the qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix to Sunday morning. Though the precipitation is excepted to continue through Saturday night into race day, there is expectations that the rain will let up into the day.

Prior to choice to postpone qualifying, an early Saturday practice session proceeded with little participation. In the 3rd practice session, only two cars recorded lap times eager to get the names of their respective teams and drivers at the top of a Formula 1 speed chart in 2010. The Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso in the hands of Jaime Alguersuari tip-toed around the wet 3.609 mile Suzuka track with a 1 minute, 55.902 second lap time. Second-fastest (only fastest rather loosely) was the Virgin-Cosworth piloted by Timo Glock running almost 11.6 seconds below the pace of Alguersuari.

As qualifying will be scheduled just three hours before the start of the race, teams at the Japanese Grand Prix will be busy during a packed and likely still wet Sunday.

Rain soaks the 2009 Petit Le Mans race; Peugeot takes victory

At 4:09PM, the red flag dropped on the American Le Mans Series crucial Petit Le Mans round. While the American Le Mans Series vehicles are equipped to run in rainfall, the rate of the precipitation on the 2.54 mile road course made racing too unsafe for the various sport car classes. As several cars lost traction even under a yellow flag pace, the call was well-warranted but nonetheless disappointing. At 8:00pm, IMSA and the American Le Mans Series announced that the standings at the moment of the race stoppage were the final standings for the 2009 Petit Le Mans.

Taking their first win on American Le Mans Series schedule, the #08 diesel-powered Peugeot 908 piloted by Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin took victory over their #07 team car driven by a Lamy/Capello duo. Before the rain fell, the Audi R15 had the perfect chance to capture what could have been their 9th victory during the Road Atlanta. In the last race stint Allan McNish had the lead until the wet track caused the Audi R15 and its driver to become unsettled. The Audi R15 received a third place finish. Both Audi Sport and Peugeot are wrapping up their 2009 American Le Mans Series season after competing in only two races.

Another 1-2 team finish at the Petit Le Mans occurred inside the P2 class as the Mazda B09/86 fielded by Dyson Racing. The Chris Dyson/Guy Smith #16 appeared in the top position while the #20 car, who started on the P2 class pole, came second for the category.

With the diverse class of GT2 in the American Le Mans Series, Risi Competizione can take enormous pride keeping their Ferrari F430 GT ahead as the downpour soaked the Road Atlanta circuit. The grouping of Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo celebrates for a second straight year on the top spot of the Podium with the red #62 car. Rahal Letterman Racing trio of Dirk Müller, Jörg Müller, and Andy Priaulx settled with second place in their BMW M3. Rounding out the top five in GT2 were the #87 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR campaigned by Farnbacher Loles Racing, the #4 Chevrolet Corvette C6R, and another Porsche 911 GT3 RSR from Flying Lizards.


With only 4 of the race's 10 hour timed distance ran on the track, the force of mother nature has proven stronger than the forces of race-prepped engines. The hindered running of the Petit Le Mans of Road Atlanta is minor disturbance caused for what has been an disastrous ongoing weather event which the citizens of Georgia state are enduring. With record of more than 5 inches rainfall damaging and destroying property, the Petit Le Mans feels a little less smaller in 2009.