Sebastian Vettel took pole position by less than a hundredth of a second for last year's Japanese Grand Prix.
He expects another tense contest for pole position at Suzuka on Saturday: 'I think tomorrow will be very, very close, so everything we can get out of the car will matter,' he said.
Red Bull were quickest of all in Friday practice but McLaren aren't far behind on single-lap pace. Expect an exciting the battle for pole position between these two teams.
Fernando Alonso believes that, though his Ferrari may lack outright pace, he can manage his tyre temperatures well, which should stand him in good stead for the race.
Here's the data from Friday practice.
Longest stint comparison ' second session
This chart shows all the drivers' lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
There's not much to choose between McLaren and Red Bull on their long stints. Lewis Hamilton began his stint lapping slightly slower than Vettel, but was more than able to match the times the RB8 was setting later on.
Alonso was not too concerned about his car race stint pace: 'Overall, the feeling is good and I don't think the high temperatures can constitute a problem for the tyres.'
'We have done a lot of races in hot conditions, and not that long ago either, given that Singapore was only a fortnight ago and just like we did there, we will have to learn to manage them, which indeed will be the case for everyone.'
Last year three pit stops were the way to go for most drivers. This year Pirelli have swapped the medium/soft tyre mix for hard and soft, and expect there will be fewer pit stops as a result.
Motorsport director Paul Hembery said: 'This year we're more likely to see two stops, depending also on outside factors such as safety cars and weather conditions. We've got a lot of data to look at now, but we would expect the performance gap between the two compounds to be in the region of 1.0-1.2 seconds.'
Sector times and ultimate lap times ' second session
Hamilton's lap was slightly untidy and he expects to find more from the car: 'I feel comfortable with our car ' it's the best that it's ever been around here ' and I think I could have matched Mark's [Webber] fastest time with an optimal lap.'
However his team mate limited his running in the second session having been quickest in the first: 'The balance wasn't quite right,' Jenson Button explained, 'and we knew we couldn't go back on the changes we'd made until after the session, so there wasn't any point doing too much running.'
Half of the Suzuka track has been resurfaced since last year's race and the steady improvement in track conditions seemed to have an effect during the second practice session. When drivers began their qualifying-style runs on soft tyres they generally went faster the later they left the pits.
Romain Grosjean was one of the earlier driver to do his lap and later found room for improvement that showed he was capable of beating Alonso: 'It's hard to say if [sixth] is the kind of position we'll be in qualifying,' he said. 'There are definitely still a few tenths we can find so let's see what happens tomorrow.'
Fourth-placed Nico Hulkenberg is happy with Force India's one-lap pace and is focused on making gains elsewhere. 'I'm quite happy with the car on low fuel, but I think we still have some work to do to improve our high fuel performance,' he said.
Sauber were not as quick as expected but Sergio Perez believes they have potential to do better this weekend than their Friday pace indicated: 'We have to improve our speed and I think we can do this,' he explained. 'I also ran wide on my fastest lap, so I know there is more to come and we will be in a better shape tomorrow.'
Complete practice times
Ferrari technical director Pat Fry is unsure how close they will be to their rivals: 'Honestly, it's hard to say where we are compared to our main competitors, both in terms of where we might be in qualifying and as far as our race pace is concerned.'
Mercedes made a substantial set-up change to Schumacher's car which cost him time at the start of the second session.
Giedo van der Garde made his second appearance in a practice session for Caterham. He will drive again during the same session in Korea next week, taking over Vitaly Petrov's car.
Speed trap
Timo Glock was seventh-quickest through the speed trap but he is concerned about his car's acceleration: 'We are a little further behind our competitors because of the KERS effect. I had the chance to follow some cars but when they deploy the KERS it has such a big effect here in Japan.'
2012 Japanese Grand Prix
- Close qualifying battle in prospect at Suzuka
- 2012 Japanese Grand Prix practice in pictures
- Wind tunnel problem impeding development - Ferrari
- Who will win at Suzuka? Make your predictions
- Webber fastest in eventful second practice
Images © Red Bull/Getty images, McLaren/Hoch Zwei
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