Best practices session

Championship leader Max Verstappen put Red Bull back on top of the times in the opening practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Verstappen’s best time of a 1’31.647 was over six tenths quicker than Singapore Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz Jnr in the Ferrari, with Lando Norris third-fastest for McLaren during a largely uneventful session. It was a cloudy start to the race weekend with overcast skies above the Suzuka circuit, however ambient temperatures were almost 28 degrees, providing representative conditions for what teams can expect for Sunday’s race. Pirelli had brought prototype 2024 tyres to Suzuka, providing them for all drivers to be able to run among their usual allocation of compounds for the weekend. Verstappen was the first driver out on the circuit, using the hard compound tyres. He set the first push lap of the weekend with a 1’33.719, with Fernando Alonso choosing the prototype tyres … [Read more...] about Verstappen puts Red Bull back on top in first practice at Suzuka

Max Verstappen topped the times for the second session in a row at Suzuka on Friday as Pierre Gasly suffered a crash at the very end of practice. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The Red Bull driver set the quickest time once again in second practice, being the only driver to complete a lap time under the 1’31 mark. Charles Leclerc was three tenths slower for Ferrari with Lando Norris third for McLaren. The conditions for the start of the second practice session were identical to those that drivers had experienced for the first session earlier in the day. As with the opening hour, teams had the opportunity to run Pirelli’s prototype 2024 C2 compound tyres in the second session, with many drivers opting to do so at the start of the second hour. Valtteri Bottas used the experimental tyres to set the early benchmark with a 1’33.163, well off the pace of Verstappen’s best time from the first session. The world champion was the last driver to take to the … [Read more...] about Verstappen sets the pace again as Gasly crash ends session

Max Verstappen's headline times in both of Friday's Formula 1 practice sessions at the Japanese Grand Prix proved that Red Bull's misfortune in Singapore was a mere blip. The championship leader atoned for a difficult weekend at the Marina Bay Circuit last time out by stamping his authority on FP1, capturing a 1m31.647s to sit above Singapore winner Carlos Sainz by 0.6s as Ferrari continued its recent resurgence with the runner-up spot in the noon-time session. He proceeded to claim FP2 over the other Ferrari in the afternoon, outpacing Charles Leclerc by the smaller margin of 0.3s with a 1m30.688s while Lando Norris sat in the top three of both sessions to demonstrate McLaren's credentials as a podium contender at Suzuka. Verstappen's efforts were in stark contrast to those of his team-mate Sergio Perez , who languished down the order relative to his team-mate having been more than a second behind in both sessions. The story of the day Lewis Hamilton … [Read more...] about What we learned from Friday practice at the F1 Japanese GP

Max Verstappen completed a hat-trick of fastest practice times by setting the best lap in the final practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The championship leader’s best time of a 1’30.267 was two tenths quicker than the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Sergio Perez was fourth-fastest in the second Red Bull, but seven tenths of a second behind his team mate. After overcast skies during for both of Friday’s sessions, the sun was out for the third and final hour of practice on Saturday morning. Although the ambient temperature was identical to the opening two sessions, the track was notably warmer as a result of the additional solar energy. When the pit lane opened, teams were in no rush to take to the track. It took over five minutes for the first cars to take to the track, the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc heading out one after the other. Both on the soft tyres, Sainz set … [Read more...] about Verstappen fastest again in final practice ahead of McLaren duo

George Russell said he’s “taken a step backwards” from Friday practice after qualifying eighth for the Japanese Grand Prix. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The Mercedes driver qualified three tenths of a second behind team mate Lewis Hamilton . The pair will share the fourth row of the grid, but were over a second away from pole position. Russell comfortably led his team mate in both Friday practice sessions at Suzuka. Yesterday he appeared to be in the hunt for second place behind eventual pole winner Max Verstappen , lapping close to the times set by the McLaren drivers and Charles Leclerc. However he admitted he didn’t get the best out of his car on Saturday. “There’s a sweet spot when it comes to circuits like this, which is very difficult to find and when you’re not there you can be quite far off the pace,” Russell explained. “We saw yesterday I was more competitive, we were much closer yesterday to the rest of the pack than we were today. … [Read more...] about Russell admits he “took a step backwards” after Friday practice

The three rookie drivers who will take their places on the grid for the 2023 F1 season arrive with differing expectations heaped upon them. Not only due to the different paths they’ve taken to reach F1, but also because of the teams they are joining. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The most experienced of the trio is AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries , who has one F1 start to his name courtesy of a last-minute call-up to replace the ill Alex Albon at Williams for last year’s Italian Grand Prix. His performance that weekend made him a target of multiple teams for 2023, and Red Bull’s interest won out over Williams’, so de Vries signed for its secondary AlphaTauri team for his long-awaited rookie F1 season. De Vries qualified 13th at Monza but started eighth due to others being penalised. He scored two points by finishing ninth in a car he had only driven in two practice sessions before his first run in qualifying. Team mate Nicholas Latifi came in 15th. … [Read more...] about De Vries vs Piastri vs Sargeant: Which rookie is best prepared for their F1 debut?

Nearly a week on from Red Bull’s humbling in Singapore, Verstappen utterly dominated the early stages, heading the times from his first flier, a 1m33.719s set on the hard tyres that no one else could get anywhere near as the pack was split across the harder tyre compounds. This included a prototype medium compound Verstappen switched to after going quickest again on his second flier, his next lap after a quick trip to the pits a 1m37.597s. He lowered the benchmark to a 1m32.442s before pitting a third of the way into the one-hour session, his gap to nearest rival Fernando Alonso at 0.7s, with the rest well over a second behind. After a spell in the pits with the rest, Sergio Perez was among the first to head back out on the softs, which require a slow preparation lap on the abrasive Suzuka circuit and its high-energy, demanding corners. After his first softs flier, Perez still trailed Verstappen’s best on the prototype mediums by 0.6s, before his world champion … [Read more...] about F1 Japanese GP: Verstappen dominates opening practice

Fernando Alonso said he wasn’t surprised by Ferrari’s lack of pace during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix. Alonso will start from the fourth row of the grid after lapping over a second slower than Sebastian Vettel in qualifying. “I think we were not competitive in any of the sessions this weekend, unfortunately,” said Alonso. “We’re struggling a little bit with the pace compared with our main competitors.” “But in a way is nothing new from some other weekends: qualifying struggling a little bit, Sunday improving things and at the end getting always close to the podium or in the podium so tomorrow we will try to do our good Sunday again and hopefully scoring many point and see where our main competitors finish the race.” Alonso admitted the best strategy for the race was “not so clear” following the practice sessions so far this weekend. “I think strategy is very open at the moment,” he said. “We need to concentrate step-by-step – the first is the start, the first … [Read more...] about Saturday struggles “nothing new”, says Alonso

Sebastian Vettel remained the driver to beat in Singapore but Red Bull’s rivals narrowed the gap during the final practice session. Vettel improved on his quickest time from yesterday by a tenth of a second but Romain Grosjean was within two tenths of a second of Vettel’s benchmark time. However at the end of the session Grosjean warned his team he was concerned the braking problem he’d experienced yesterday still hadn’t been completely cured. Nico Rosberg was third-fastest for Mercedes but over half a second slower than Vettel. As in yesterday’s second practice session drivers found the super-soft tyre was in the region of two seconds per lap faster than the medium. Mark Webber was the quickest driver on the track before the drivers began using the super-soft tyre, edging team mate Vettel by less than a tenth of a second. He ended the session fourth. The Ferrari remained the fourth-quickest car in Fernando Alonso’s hands, behind Lewis Hamilton and a full second … [Read more...] about Vettel stays on top in Singapore as Grosjean gains