Kubica fastest in damp final Japan practice

Toyota's Timo Glock continued his strong Friday form to take second, ahead of Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld, while the title contenders were edged down the timing screens as others improved late in the session - leaving Felipe Massa (Ferrari) seventh and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 11th.

The rain had largely ceased by the time the session started and the track dried steadily throughout, although times remained seven seconds down on Friday's levels.

Glock, Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso), and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) took turns to lead the way early on as drivers played it safe on full wet tyres initially, before Hamilton tried intermediate tyres with 18 minutes gone and duly moved to the head of the standings, albeit only by 0.3 seconds.

Hamilton then briefly lost the top spot to Glock again, before Massa moved to the front with a 1:25.709 lap 23 minutes from the end of the session.

With conditions not improving enough to make dry tyres worthwhile, the Brazilian would remain at the head of the order until the final two minutes, when first Kubica, then Renault's Nelson Piquet edged ahead.

Heidfeld also threw away in a late flying lap to beat both his teammate and the Renault, but Kubica wasn't finished yet - setting a 1:25.087 with his final lap of the session to end the hour on top.

Glock then improved to second moments later, just 0.084 seconds slower than Kubica, with Piquet reclaiming third and edging Heidfeld down to fourth.

Local favourite Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) leapt to fifth in the closing seconds, with David Coulthard (Red Bull) also improving near the end to complete the top six.

Massa was pushed back to seventh, followed by Mark Webber's Red Bull, Fernando Alonso's Renault and Vettel.

Unsurprisingly the session saw countless trips across run-off areas - including a simultaneous excursion at Turn 1 by both Williams drivers - but Jarno Trulli's rotation at the Turn 6 hairpin and Kimi Raikkonen's quick spin out of the final corner were the only spins.

Force India had a troubled session, with brake problems and a hydraulic leak respectively confining Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil to the garage for much of the hour. They finally emerged with 10 minutes to go but remained at the back of the field.

Many teams also expect rain to feature in this afternoon's qualifying session, but predictions for tomorrow suggest that this year's Fuji race will be dry.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:25.087           19
 2.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:25.171 + 0.084   25
 3.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:25.415 + 0.328   19
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:25.474 + 0.387   24
 5.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:25.563 + 0.476   23
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:25.614 + 0.527   20
 7.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:25.709 + 0.622   15
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:25.785 + 0.698   20
 9.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:25.799 + 0.712   19
10.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:25.880 + 0.793   24
11.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:25.901 + 0.814    8
12.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:25.984 + 0.897   22
13.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:26.013 + 0.926   21
14.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:26.213 + 1.126   19
15.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:26.239 + 1.152   10
16.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:26.277 + 1.190   18
17.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:26.662 + 1.575   22
18.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:26.922 + 1.835   26
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:27.357 + 2.270   12
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:27.918 + 2.831   17

All timing unofficial