Barrichello still struggling with balance

The Brazilian endured a torrid Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago, and the problems continued in today's practice, as Barrichello again had problems with his car's handling.

His day was made worse after he made contact with Spyker's Sakon Yamamoto in the afternoon session, where he finished down in 17th place.

"I have the same problem here as I had in Spa and the car is running short on aero balance," said Barrichello. "I just don't have the grip level and the balance that I would like, so we changed some parts on the car this afternoon to see if this helps with the issue.

"We have a lot of data to look at overnight to try to make some improvements for the morning. I like the circuit here, the only issue is that there are some blind corners so the marshals will need to react quickly with the yellow flags as you are not able to see when coming round some corners, which is what happened when I hit Yamamoto."

Teammate Jenson Button had a better day, posting the 14th fastest time. The Briton admitted he was impressed by the new Fuji circuit.

"Everything ran pretty smoothly today as we experienced the new Fuji circuit for the first time," said Button.

"After trying some different set-ups on the car this morning, I felt more comfortable with the balance in the afternoon session and we understand where we are going with the set-up for the rest of the weekend.

"As for the circuit, I was really pleased with the flow and there are some tight challenging corners towards the end of the lap and a couple of potential overtaking places, so generally I was impressed."