Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

LIVE: Japanese Grand Prix FP1

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Follow live coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend with F1i.

Just a week on from the spectacular modern setting of Singapore, there's a contrast in store as Formula One arrives at an historic track in Japanese motorsport.

The track itself dates from 1962 when it was originally designed as a test track for the Honda company. It's 3.609 miles in length (or 5.807km) with 17 corners. The lap record is held by Kimi Raikkonen who set a time of 1:31.540s in the McLaren in 2005. Suzuka is one of the few circuits in the world to have a 'figure of 8' configuration meaning that the track passes under itself between turns 9 and 10.

Mercedes arrives at Suzuka with question marks over its form following its struggles in Singapore. While Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are expected to return to being the men to beat this weekend, Ferrari will hope to keep the pressure on after Sebastian Vettel's dominant victory at the Marina Bay Circuit on Sunday.

Friday is set to be a testing time for the teams, with wet weather at Suzuka. With last season showing the potential for a wet race, there should still be some running despite it only being practice.

One man who will hope to get out on track is Jolyon Palmer, with the Lotus reserve having yet to drive an F1 car in the wet. The 2014 GP2 champion is keen to impress, with a seat opening up at Lotus as Romain Grosjean will move to Haas next season.

You can follow all the live coverage on F1i's live page, which can be bookmarked as it will provide commentary on every session of the 2015 F1 season.

LIVE: Japanese Grand Prix FP1

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.