Red Bull predictably enjoyed a strong start to its Japanese GP weekend, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez leading the field in FP1 at Suzuka.
The Dutchman edged his teammate by 0.181s while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was third, 0.213s adrift, the Australian GP winner leading the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton who completed the top six.
Unfortunately, there was another setback for Williams, with Logan Sargeant crashing out on his own mid-way through the session and damaging the front-end of his freshly rebuilt FW46, a mistake that left the Grove-based outfit’s mechanics with another hefty repair job on their hands.
The event’s scheduling in April means that running conditions are slightly cooler than usual, and on Friday as the opening session kicked off, ambient temperatures were set at 17°C with tracks temps at 25°C.
The F1 field welcomed to its ranks local rookie and Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa who was handed his maiden F1 practice, the young Japanese driver running in place of Daniel Ricciardo.
Installation laps and aero rakes were the norm in the opening minutes of the 60-minute workout, but Norris nevertheless provided the early leading lap time.
The McLaren driver gradually improved on his early effort while Perez slotted into second, with both drivers opting for the medium compound.
Changes at the top of the leaderboard saw Alonso and then Verstappen take charge, the Dutchman putting down his first marker on the hard tyre.
But thirty minutes into the session, drama ensued, and it was once again Williams that brought out the first red flag of the weekend, with Logan Sargeant running wide at Suzuka’s Turn 7 and heavily hitting the outside wall.
The American driver was fortunately ok but was left to contemplate a crumpled FW46, with the car’s front-end coming off the worse for wear although all four wheels remained attached.
Sargeant’s chassis had just underwent an extensive repair job at Grove following Alex Albon’s mishap in Australia, so Williams’ mechanics were facing another hefty rebuild ahead of the afternoon’s FP2.
As a reminder Williams still doesn’t have a spare chassis on hand, a deficit it hopes to solve by next month’s Miami GP.
The session went green once again with 18 minutes left on the clock, which caused a rush at the end of the pitlane as everyone was eager to resume their preparations after losing a chunk of time.
As the field switched to the soft rubber for quali simulations, Verstappen set a new benchmark with a 1m30.056s and was followed by Perez while Sainz and Russell slotted into third and fourth.
Having put in the work on the softs, Verstappen reverted to long-run data gathering on the hard tyre but the Dutchman’s flyer remained unchallenged in the remaining minutes of the session, with Red Bull predictably leading the charge.
Behind Sainz and Russell, Hamilton and Leclerc rounded off the top six, while Alonso, Piastri, Tsundoa and Norris completed the top ten.
Esteban Ocon in P11 led the second half of the field for Alpine, a group that included Albon, both Haas drivers and both Sauber drivers.
RB rookie Iwasa acquitted himself well for his first official F1 experience, concluding his session P16 but more importantly keeping himself out of trouble.
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