Tyre woe frustrates Briscoe

The downpour that marred the opening day's running meant that it was too dangerous to use normal wet tyres (which are effectively intermediates) and Briscoe was not allowed to run the extreme weather tyres because his Toyota team only has a limited supply of them.

Speaking after the session about his situation, Briscoe said: "Due to the restriction of extreme wet weather tyres, I was unable to do any running today. The conditions were simply too bad to even consider going out on intermediate tyres. I am disappointed that I couldn't have the chance to drive at the Suzuka circuit and not to participate in Toyota's home grand prix."

Toyota technical director Mike Gascoyne added: "Ryan didn't go out because we have a limitation on the number of wet weather Michelin tyres we can use, so our priority is to conserve the wet tyres and ensure we have enough for the race cars."

As Jarno Trulli completed 17 laps during the two sessions to get more understanding of the TF104B, Olivier Panis, competing in what is expected to be his last grand prix this weekend, only completed an installation lap in both sessions because he thought doing any set-up work was not worthwhile.

Commenting on the conditions, Panis said: "The track was so wet, I felt that I was driving a boat, rather than an F1 car."