Wet weather at the Japanese Grand Prix again produced something of a random appearance to the timesheets at Fuji Speedway, with only the bottom four drivers occupying places they might have been expected to fill.
Overnight rain left the circuit wet for the start of the final 60 minutes of preparations before qualifying but, with no further precipitation, the surface dried throughout, allowing times to improve. While never threatening to challenge the 1min 18.383secs benchmark established by Timo Glock on Friday afternoon, the improving conditions allowed some unsung names to appear towards the top of a still-close ranking, with
Robert Kubica finally coming out on top as he timed his final lap just right.
The Pole was involved in a showdown with
Timo Glock,
Nelson Piquet Jr and
David Coulthard, who were all circulating at the track reached its driest, while
BMW Sauber team-mate
Nick Heidfeld and
Williams'
Kazuki Nakajima pushed themselves into the mix without threatening top spot.
Kubica eventually left the target at 1min 25.087secs, with Glock his closest challenger at +0.084secs, but the opposition was marginalised slightly by the decision of the two main title protagonists -
Lewis Hamilton and
Felipe Massa - opting to sit out the end of the session. The Brazilian emerged as the better-placed of the pair, in seventh spot to Hamilton's eleventh.
Both the leading pointscorers took their turn at the top of the order during the hour, with Hamilton supplanting
McLaren team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen at around 30 minutes and Massa biding his time before benefiting from the improving conditions to topple his rival by a couple of tenths after the field ditched the 'extreme' wet tyres.
