While the fans seemed delighted just to be there, Chase Carey and co will have been less than impressed at the lack of running in today's second practice session at Suzuka, the ninety minute session ending with just five drivers having posted times.

While there is the obvious concern at drivers spinning off and crashing in such conditions, the teams are also compromised in terms of the number of wet tyres they have available, a situation made all the worse on weekends when further rain is expected.

With just 14 drivers dipping a toe in the water this morning, Daniel Ricciardo has called on the authorities to approve drivers being given an extra set of wet tyres next season. Under the current regulations, drivers are allowed just three sets of wets for a Grand Prix weekend.

"They give us an extra set of inters for Fridays but not extremes, so that is why we didn't run," explained the Australian at the end of today's 'action', "because if we need to use the extreme we want to save it for when it counts, in qualifying.

"It was good some guys ran," he added, "but to get all of us running they need to give us a set of extremes for Friday.

"It seems like the rain is going to stay overnight, at least P3 looks wet," he said, aware that such conditions play in Red Bull's favour. "Qualifying at this stage is hard to say, but it looks like it will be wet. We need to save our cards for tomorrow. We have probably more to gain.

"Ferrari and Mercedes, everyone expects them, and they always expect to be at the front," he added. "We can be there at times, so any kind of uncertainty or changing of conditions gives us a bit more gamble to take.

"FP1 was pretty good," he grinned. "We went out really early because we thought the rain was going to come. We just got into the program and in the end we were pretty good.

"Ferrari was quite strong, and Mercedes always get better on a Saturday. So we still have some pace to find but it was a pretty good morning. The car felt good. We just need to find some global lap time now, but the balance was pretty good."

Check out our Friday gallery from Suzuka, here.