Weather the winner at soaking Suzuka.

Although more drivers set lap times during the second hour of free practice ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, the only winner was the weather, which eventually forced the cars back into their garages and the spectators to take cover wherever they could find it.

The fans proved to be a hardy bunch, but it was near impossible for the teams to entertain them as conditions became ever more dangerous. Standing water featured in both sessions, but worsened in the second hour, with several drivers being caught out and pitched off the circuit. The impending arrival of tropical storm Ma-On now looks likely to see the cancellation of Saturday's action amid safety fears for both competitors and spectators.

Michael Schumacher again proved to be the best equipped to deal with the conditions, topping the times for the second time in as many sessions, and improving his benchmark to 1min 45.388secs, but even the world champion was forced to call a premature halt to his preparations, completing just five laps in the final hour. A brief off midway through the session no doubt convinced the increasingly safety conscious Ferrari driver that it just wasn't worth carrying on.

Giancarlo Fisichella once more gave the most valiant chase to Schumacher, occupying second spot at a distance of seven-tenths. The Italian underlined the benefits of running Bridgestone rubber on the company's 'local' track, as the tyre manufacturer shared top ten spots 5-5 with Michelin.

Kimi Raikkonen assumed the mantle of fastest runner for the French concern, and prevented a repeat of the Bridgestone 1-2-3 that characterised session one. The Finn put his McLaren ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari, but was 1.3secs adrift of Schumacher's time. Raikkonen replaced Jenson Button as leading Michelin runner, the Briton dropping to an unrepresentative 20th in session after completing just three laps. The BAR driver lapped 3.5secs slower than he had in the opening session.

David Coulthard completed the top five for McLaren, ahead of the Jordans of Timo Glock and Nick Heidfeld. The younger German had briefly topped the times before Schumacher ventured out, but the entire Jordan line-up made the most of both Bridgestone tyres and the sort of wet conditions that team manager James Robinson has been hoping for all season by taking sixth, seventh and, in the hands of rookie reserve Robert Doornbos, 16th places.

Local hero Takuma Sato at least gave the fans something to cheer, as he ventured out for his first flying laps of the day. The Japanese driver eventually claimed eight spot on the timesheets, ahead of BAR team-mate Anthony Davidson and 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Fernando Alonso took eleventh spot in the session despite an off, but there was worse news for the second Sauber of Felipe Massa, which suffered its second incident of the day and left the Brazilian as one of four drivers without a time. Massa was caught out by a particularly large section of standing water in the esses section, and joined Glock and Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni in going off at that point. Olivier Panis, approaching his last grand prix, and test drivers Bjorn Wirdheim and Ryan Briscoe were the other drivers not to set a time in the session, with the latter pair not taking to the track all day.