Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo said Friday night was “the latest” a decision could be made. “Come Friday, at some point, they should make a decision,” he said. “Not wait until Saturday. I think they will get enough of an understanding about what is going to happen, so I think Friday night is early enough. If that is the case, then Sake bombs Friday night and sleep in Saturday….but I don’t like Sake!”
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That’s 2AM Sunday morning in case you’re planning on waiting till Qualifying before making your Superbru prediction picks 
With race start set for 7AM, messing up in Quali and hurting your car could have serious consequences for making the start grid.
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Very interesting look at how weather has affected the Japanese GP in the past, from over on the F1 Reddit.
The Japanese Grand Prix and typhoons
Decided to do a bit of research into how the Japanese Grand Prix has been affected by the weather in the past and came up with this.
Due when the Japanese Grand Prix is scheduled within the West Pacific Typhoon season, a number of previous races have been affected in some way by typhoons.
If the Saturday qualifying session is moved to Sunday due to Typhoon Hagibis, this would be the third time that a Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session has been cancelled due to severe weather; having previously occurred in 2004 (Typhoon Ma-on) and 2010.In the history of Formula 1, a postponed qualifying session has only occurred two other times (Australia 2013 and USA 2015) alongside Japan 2004 and 2010
The Japanese Grand Prix race has regularly been affected by heavy rain, and at least two race sessions have been affected by typhoons at Suzuka. In 1994, the race was run in very wet conditions at the back end of Typhoon Zelda. In 2014, Typhoon Phanfone led to another very wet race with two red flags and the tragic accident for Jules Bianchi.
At least 8 Japanese Grands Prix have been affected by rain:
-1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2014 at Suzuka
-1976 (the Hunt v Lauda season) and 2007 at Fuji
The 2005 qualifying session at Suzuka was also affected by rain, which led to a very mixed-up grid and one of the most memorable races in recent history, when Kimi Raikkonen won from 17th
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And on the subject of F1 and Reddit, this is one of the funniest F1-related subreddits:
Inspector Seb: A collection of pictures of Sebastian Vettel inspecting things
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Luckily I always do an EarlyBru… but I usually gauge how FP3 goes. Now I’m not sure what to gauge on haha.
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Funny enough I actually always notice Lewis inspecting when he loses a race lol.
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Same here. That said, if it rains, qualy and the race become a lottery anyway.
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It’s confirmed: All running for Saturday has officially been cancelled. FP3 will not take place, and qualifying has been rescheduled for Sunday morning.
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It’s official. All Saturday running has been cancelled. No FP3, Quali Sunday morning.
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Daaayum. It’s scary how in sync we are.
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Practice 2 has just started. With added importance now that it’s the last running all the teams will get before Sunday qualifying.
Here’s the results and report from the earlier FP1 session
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Interesting note about the importance of the currently running FP2 session just been mentioned in commentary: if for some reason the rescheduled Qualifying session on Sunday cant be run, the race start order will be based on the results of the FP2 session.
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Interesting. Didn’t know that was in the rules. I don’t recall it ever being done before.
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FP2 timesheet. Another Bottas P1 and Merc 1-2. That Constructors Championship is in the bag. Max slots in between the Ferraris this time, with Charles pipping Seb. Both McLarens solidly Top 10. And a tip of the hat to Sergio too.
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Merc selling themselves short again.
“We’re not really bringing major updates for the rest of the year.”
“There is a minor tweak to the car for Suzuka”
BAM. Opposition destroyed.
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Well its a track that suits them and the redbulls more than ferrari so I was expecting that
I’m very excited for the boat race this weekend
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