The Friday practice sessions were dominated by heavy rain that severely reduced running time.
Toyota's Timo Glock was advised not to drive as he was suffering from a fever, and was replaced by GP2 driver Kamui Kobayashi.

The first practice session saw Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton set the early pace, with lap times rapidly falling as the track dried out.
The second half of the session was dominated by local driver Kazuki Nakajima, who narrowly missed out on setting the fastest time after McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen set a time three tenths of a second quicker in the final phase.
Championship contenders Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button finished 10th, 17th and 18th respectively.

The rain increased markedly for the second session, which saw very limited running in the first hour with Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi being the only drivers to set times.
Owing to poor visibility and limited tyre allocations, many of the drivers elected to do only a handful of laps; Nico Rosberg did just seven in comparison to the twenty he had done in the first session, a pattern followed by many other drivers.
Heikki Kovalainen and both Brawn GP drivers elected not to take to the circuit.
Adrian Sutil went on to set the fastest lap of the session with Sebastian Vettel in second, both of them some seven seconds slower than Kovalainen's first session time.

Saturday's third and final practice session started with contact between championship leader Button and Alguersuari that saw the Brawn driver require a replacement front wing.
The session was largely dominated by Alguersuari's Toro Rosso stablemate Buemi, with fellow Red Bull compatriot Sebastian Vettel a close second until Jarno Trulli set a time six hundredths of a second quicker on his final lap.
The hour-long session was dry, with Trulli's 1:31.709 almost ten seconds faster than Heikki Kovalainen's FP1 time and 17 seconds quicker than Adrian Sutil in FP2.
At the end of the hour, championship contenders Vettel, Barrichello and Button were fourth, seventh and ninth respectively and separated by just over two hundredths of a second; just one second ultimately covered the top 16 drivers.
Elsewhere, Timo Glock returned to his seat whilst Romain Grosjean out-paced Renault teammate Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull's Mark Webber crashed near the Degner Corner, damaging his car to such an extent that he was unable to take part in qualifying.
As the damage was heavy enough to require the chassis to be re-built, Webber had to start the race from the pit lane.
The Friday practice sessions were dominated by heavy rain that severely reduced running time. Toyota's Timo Glock was advised not to drive as he was suffering from a fever, and was replaced by GP2 driver Kamui Kobayashi.
The first practice session saw Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton set the early pace, with lap times rapidly falling as the track dried out. The second half of the session was dominated by local driver Kazuki Nakajima, who narrowly missed out on setting the fastest time after McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen set a time three tenths of a second quicker in the final phase. Championship contenders Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button finished 10th, 17th and 18th respectively.
The rain increased markedly for the second session, which saw very limited running in the first hour with Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi being the only drivers to set times. Owing to poor visibility and limited tyre allocations, many of the drivers elected to do only a handful of laps; Nico Rosberg did just seven in comparison to the twenty he had done in the first session, a pattern followed by many other drivers. Heikki Kovalainen and both Brawn GP drivers elected not to take to the circuit. Adrian Sutil went on to set the fastest lap of the session with Sebastian Vettel in second, both of them some seven seconds slower than Kovalainen's first session time.
Saturday's third and final practice session started with contact between championship leader Button and Alguersuari that saw the Brawn driver require a replacement front wing. The session was largely dominated by Alguersuari's Toro Rosso stablemate Buemi, with fellow Red Bull compatriot Sebastian Vettel a close second until Jarno Trulli set a time six hundredths of a second quicker on his final lap. The hour-long session was dry, with Trulli's 1:31.709 almost ten seconds faster than Heikki Kovalainen's FP1 time and 17 seconds quicker than Adrian Sutil in FP2. At the end of the hour, championship contenders Vettel, Barrichello and Button were fourth, seventh and ninth respectively and separated by just over two hundredths of a second; just one second ultimately covered the top 16 drivers. Elsewhere, Timo Glock returned to his seat whilst Romain Grosjean out-paced Renault teammate Fernando Alonso. Red Bull's Mark Webber crashed near the Degner Corner, damaging his car to such an extent that he was unable to take part in qualifying. As the damage was heavy enough to require the chassis to be re-built, Webber had to start the race from the pit lane.
2009 Japanese Grand Prix