Castroneves: Loss of practice no issue

Rain curtailed yesterday's practice session and caused the cancellation of all track activity today, including qualifying. Castroneves was therefore placed on pole position as he currently leads the championship.

The Penske driver was in the top five in both Thursday sessions, and does not think the loss of practice will make much difference to the pecking order in the race - although he admitted that those drivers who were immediately quick in practice will benefit.

"Most of the guys that are here have enough experience (of the track) so I don't think it will affect things that much," said Castroneves in the pole-winner's press conference.

"In my case I didn't do that many laps but I feel comfortable that we don't have any issues. Once you have a good car and it gets rained out, you definitely prevent a lot of competitors improving and we hope tomorrow we will be okay."

Castroneves was handed pole at Motegi in the same circumstances in 2006, and went on to dominate the race - a performance he hopes he can now repeat this weekend.

"Hopefully we will have the same result as 2006," he said. "Trust me, if I could pay Mother Nature to do that every time, it would be awesome, but it's out of my control.

"We feel that we have a very competitive team and a good car, so I can wait for tomorrow. Hopefully our chances will be good and we'll have a dry and fun day."

Unlike 2006, there will not be another practice session before the race start, and Castroneves expects the track to be very 'green' in the opening laps with today's downpour having washed away the rubber build-up.

"Not only that, but when they use the turbine to dry out the track, sometimes it leaves a little bit of kerosene on the racetrack, which makes it even more slippery," said the Brazilian.

"Yesterday in the first session, that's why nobody went out until there was some rubber on the track. But the track always seems to improve as the race goes by, so I don't see it as an issue."