The heavens opened over the Suzuka Circuit on Friday morning for the first practice sessions of the SMBC/BH Auction Suzuka 10 Hours weekend.

First, there was a Bronze Driver Practice at 8:45 AM, where a heavy downpour created the worst conditions imaginable for sportscar drivers. Eventually, the rain eased off, and the Bronze drivers did get some significant run time, with the #60 LM Corsa Porsche 911 GT3-R of Shigekazu Wakisaka leading the way, followed by the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Kenny Habul, whose only drama was limited to a harmless spin at the Triangle Chicane.

It was a quick turn-around to a two-hour Paid Practice at 10 AM, but the teams found their return on investment to be lacking.

30 minutes into Paid Practice, Adrian Henry D’Silva was the first driver to have a significant incident, which brought out a red flag for 13 minutes. The Malaysian driver spun into the sponge barriers at the Hairpin Corner and walked away with only minor damage on the rear wing.

Maximillian Buhk, driving for defending Suzuka 10 Hours champions Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing, put the yellow and green #999 Mercedes on top with a best lap of 2’14.076, just 10 minutes into the session. Any aspirations of toppling that mark, though, were snuffed out as the rain came down heavier, and effectively wiped out the rest of Paid Practice.

Marco Mapelli in the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 was 2nd, Dries Vanthoor in the Nogaro Blue #25 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 LMS was 3rd. 559 laps were completed in total, despite there being so little running in the 2nd hour.

That set the stage for 2:10 PM and the first of two Free Practice sessions on a cloudy, wet track to start. Teams and drivers were eager to get as much running in as they could before the heavens opened up again.

The #25 WRT Audi, driven at the start of the session by Kelvin van der Linde, was the first to seize the initiative, setting fast lap after fast lap, ultimately improving to a 2’13.772 – the first sub-2’14 lap of the day in the wet conditions.

Then, 25 minutes in with his first flying lap, defending Suzuka 10 Hours champion Maro Engel put the #999 GruppeM Mercedes back on top with a best lap of 2’13.117.

40 minutes into the session, a persistent drizzle once again turned into a downpour, and all the teams went back into the garage. It was becoming clear that the afternoon was going to be a wash, but eventually, the showers eased off a little, just enough to encourage some cars to get back out on track for the second hour of practice.

In that time, Yelmer Buurman took the #77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing AMG GT3 up to P2 in the running order, getting to within 0.087 seconds of Engel’s benchmark in the #999 GruppeM Mercedes which remained the top time of the session.

The #25 WRT Audi was third, ahead of the #44 Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing GT3 of Lewis Williamson, who took fourth. Three-time Suzuka 1000km winner, Juichi Wakisaka, was fifth-fastest in the #60 LM Corsa Porsche 911 GT3-R – which was also the fastest Pro-Am Cup car.

Despite the rain, 948 laps, or just over 5,505 kilometres were completed by all 36 cars in FP1. Bringing the total for the day to 1,626 laps, or 9,442 kilometres. All without a serious accident, despite the on/off rain.

How much these laps will matter come Saturday or Sunday, however, remains a mystery.

Free Practice 2 begins at 6:30 PM local time, under dark of night.

AFTERNOON PRACTICE TIMES >>

Featured image courtesy of IGTC