Red Bull‘s star driver intensified the weekend competition following the red-flag intermission triggered by Logan Sargeant‘s crash. With a heat-laced lap executed on soft tyres, he clocked an impressive 1m30.056s, setting a challenging precedence for the remainder of the weekend.
There appeared to be among the teams a collective strategy in forecasting the possible bad weather at Suzuka in the coming weekend. Thus, planning longer runs during the FP1 was seen as a precautionary step in case FP2 has to encounter undesirable wet conditions.
This predictive approach somewhat curtailed the duration of rapid runs on the soft tyre. As a result, the initial half-hour saw more focus on employing the hard and medium compounds, which were used during the primary installation laps.
The lead in the beginning was held by Lando Norris after marking impressive times in the first 15 minutes. Melbourne victor, Carlos Sainz, was his immediate competition. However, to add a twist, Fernando Alonso matched Norris’s best time right to the thousandth.
Bringing into play his competitive edge, Verstappen set a new standard with a 1m31.463s, interestingly on the hard tyre. This was prior to a period of less intensity with most of the field as the teams transitioned from the medium and hard tyres to a soft run during the second half of the session.
Amidst this shift, the session was brought to a halt by a red flag due to a concern that developed when Logan Sargeant rammed his Williams car into the wall. The incident took place at the Dunlop Curve, where the American skidded on the gravel and spun out, resulting in a heavy frontal collision with the wall that caused the car to rotate rearwards.
Considering the damage sustained by Sargeant’s car, Williams will need to conduct an evaluation. To compound the situation, this same car had been crashed at the Australian Grand Prix during the FP1 session by Albon, leading to required repairs to the chassis. A detailed prognosis is pending completion of a spare tub, which is not expected until the Miami races at the latest.
After a 10-minute recess to handle Sargeant’s situation, Verstappen clocked in a 1m30.056s to resurrect his dominant position in the session. He was closely tracked by his co-driver, Sergio Perez, who was 0.181s short of Verstappen’s timing in this phase.
The two Red Bulls maintained their superiority on the time charts, later switching back to the hard tyres to accomplish more running on the widely popular Japanese figure-of-eight circuit.
Carlos Sainz came in third, trailing just over two-tenths from his Red Bull rival’s top time. In a close competition, the Ferraris and the two Mercedes cars interchanged positions with George Russell marginally beating Lewis Hamilton by 0.013s. Charles Leclerc was nipping at Hamilton’s heels.
Aston Martin‘s Fernando Alonso claimed the seventh-fastest time, running on his old-spec AMR24, while Lance Stroll ran the updated sidepods on his vehicle. However, the session was not completely smooth, with an aero rake failure on Stroll’s car occurring early on.
Oscar Piastri of McLaren clinched the eighth spot closely followed by Japan’s local favourite Yuki Tsunoda, while the top ten was rounded off by Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, and Alex Albon.
Making his FP1 debut on his home turf, Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa secured the 16th-best time. The young talent, who is a Formula 2 race winner, was observed to acclimate to the situation gradually, clocking a lap time that was 0.9s off Tsunoda’s best, without a single error.