Kimi Raikkonen tops first practice - Japan

Ferrari led the way as the Formula One field got to grips with the new Fuji circuit in the first free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix.

After trailing teammate Felipe Massa for most of the morning, Kimi Raikkonen grabbed the fastest time with a 1:19.333 lap in the closing minutes of the session, and then improved to 1:19.119 with his last lap.

The McLarens had to settle for third and fourth, and also swapped places on the final laps.

Lewis Hamilton had held the upper hand over Fernando Alonso during their first runs, but in the end it was the reigning world champion who secured third place - half a second off Raikkonen's pace and 0.140 seconds ahead of his teammate.

Williams showed strong form with Nico Rosberg in fifth and Alex Wurz seventh, the pair split by BMW's Robert Kubica.

Jarno Trulli took eighth for track owners Toyota, but his teammate Ralf Schumacher was only 15th, and had a spin at Turn 6 with half an hour remaining.

Spyker's Adrian Sutil was one of the few drivers to try soft tyres during the session, and leapt to a remarkable fifth place with ten minutes to go.

Even as others improved, the German rookie was still able to hang on to ninth position, ahead of Anthony Davidson and Rubens Barrichello, the latter also using softs in the final moments.

Heikki Kovalainen had held fifth for most of the session, but did not make a sufficient improvement on his last run and was shuffled back to 12th. Nick Heidfeld ended up 13th, but had also shown better form earlier on.

Several drivers had their mornings interrupted by mechanical problems.

Both Sakon Yamamoto and Sebastian Vettel stopped on track, although the Toro Rosso was returned to the pits in time to rejoin before the end of the session, while local favourite Takuma Sato spent the first hour in the Super Aguri garage with the mechanics attending to the rear of his car.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:19.119           26
2.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:19.498 + 0.379   27
3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:19.667 + 0.548   27
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:19.807 + 0.688   24
5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.058 + 0.939   26
6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.297 + 1.178   26
7.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.411 + 1.292   24
8.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:20.483 + 1.364   32
9.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:20.516 + 1.397   29
10.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:20.601 + 1.482   22
11.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:20.686 + 1.567   24
12.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:20.718 + 1.599   27
13.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.728 + 1.609   26
14.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:20.808 + 1.689   29
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:20.828 + 1.709   28
16.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:20.851 + 1.732   23
17.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:21.186 + 2.067   15
18.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:21.437 + 2.318   18
19.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:21.541 + 2.422   22
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:21.854 + 2.735   18
21.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:22.436 + 3.317   18
22.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:22.902 + 3.783   17