Results of F1 Free Practice 1 for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Formula 1 moves to Japan for the Japanese Grand Prix, where Red Bull will attempt to recover from a poor performance at the Marina Bay Circuit last weekend.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull comfortably set the fastest time in Free Practice 1 of the Japanese Grand Prix, beating out Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and Lando Norris of McLaren.
Just one week after the Singapore Grand Prix, Formula 1 resumes competition for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Will Red Bull recover from its disappointing Marina Bay Circuit performance last weekend?
“Green light”.
The first lap time of the session was set by championship leader Mac=x Verstappen.
A time of 1:33:719 was recorded by the Red Bull driver using the hard tyre.
Sergio Perez, a teammate of the Dutchman, finished 1.9 seconds slower than the current world champions.
Fernando Alonso, the driver of an Aston Martin, would jump up to second place, 1 point 359 seconds behind the leader. The Spaniard was using a prototype tire as Pirelli tested its tires for the 2024 season.
Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver, complained that the McLaren car in front of him had sprayed flow viz on him.
Verstappen would accelerate on the hard tyre and record a time of 1:33.354.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, both McLaren drivers, would improve to finish second and third, respectively, trailing the Dutchman by more than eight tenths.
With the test tyre, the current world champion would resume racing.
A quarter of the way through the session, he would improve his time on the hard tyre, posting a 1:32.597.
With his time on the same tyre, Perez would only finish 1 point 2 seconds behind his teammate.
Again, Alonso would advance to second.
The Spaniard set his lap time on the medium tyres and finished 0.569 seconds behind Verstappen.
But the Red Bull driver would once more move ahead by two tenths of a second.
Run soft tires.
The first driver to record a time on the soft compound was Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.
With a time of 1:33.448, the German moved up to third place, but it was still one second slower than Verstappen’s winning time on the prototype tires.
The next driver to record a lap on the softs would be Perez. He would move up to second place, but despite being on the fastest compound, his time was still six tenths slower than that of his teammates.
Verstappen would smash the Mexican’s time after the Dutchman went over 1.3 seconds faster and set a 1:31.647 on the soft tyre.
On the softer compound, both Ferrari drivers would record a lap time. Leclerc finished second, just over six tenths off the lead, while Carlos Sainz set a time good enough to finish second and one second off the lead.
The Williams FW44 driven by Alex Albon, which is not anticipated to perform well here, would move up to fourth. The Dutch driver’s time was ahead of the Thai driver at the top, by 1 point 344 seconds.
A lap on the soft tyre would be followed by Alonso moving back up to third.
One point 003 seconds separated the Aston Martin driver from the leaders in the times.
Leclerc, going a tenth faster, would quickly pass the Spaniard for third.
Driver Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri put together a strong lap to advance to fourth.
After failing to complete a single racing lap in the previous two races, the Japanese driver will be hoping for a better performance at his home race.
In the final lap of the session on the soft compound, both McLaren drivers would give it one last push. Norris advanced to third place, and Piastri advanced to fifth.
