Welcome to a notebook style post where I share my views of the Free Practice sessions of day 1 at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka as happened live.
Free Practice 1 Notes
- The Red Bulls looking fast as well as Mercedes surprisingly to start out FP1.
- Ayumu Iwasa taking his first laps easy to get comfortable. Struggling a bit at one point as he cuts some grass. Overall does well in the session. Places 16th.
- Crash! Logan Sargent bins it into the barrier halfway through fp1. Looks to have carried too much speed into turn 7 causing him to catch the grass on the front tire and lost control. Front wing part of the side seemed to have taken much of the damage.
- Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg found themselves in some two car traffic.
- Perez front brakes locked up in the final 10 minutes. Interesting because he seemed to be on a cool down lap.
- FP1 finishes with Max Verstappen taking the fastest lap followed by his Red Bull teammate, Perez, taking second. Carlos Sainz rounds out the top 3.
I have to say, the sounds that the Red Bull and Mercedes cars make going into turns 1 and 2 were most impressive. Red Bull sounds like a rocket with a progressive roar as it builds up speed out of turn 2. Mercedes sounds aggressive coming into turn 1 with a loud quick burst as it swings up in speed.
FP2
- 10 minute wait before first driver came out.
- Lewis Hamilton was the first to take the track on mediums to the delight of the fans.
- Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, and Daniel Ricciardo claiming the track is dry to the out wall but put early.
- Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu come out together.
- Tsunoda and Ricciardo take their laps on inters. The firsts to put down official lap times of the session.
- With 20 mins left in the session, it’s still only Tsunoda and Ricciardo with lap times. Tsunoda with a 1:40.9.
- Zhou back out again on inters. 19 mins left in session. Bottas shortly behind.
- Zhou back in pits for what seems like a practice pit stop but not really?
- Lando Norris and Sainz sit patiently in their cars. Still no action from their camps with 15 minutes left.
- Zhou out again with 11 mins left. Next is Bottas. Seems like Kick is sending out their drivers often, but will they finally put down lap times?
- Alex Albon comes out 8 minutes left in the session.
- Bottas no lap time…
- The Haas boys come out on track for the first time in the session with 7 minutes left.
- Kevin Magnussen on softs, then over radio says it’s still too wet for slicks.
- Piastri back out while albon pits without butting down a lap time.
- Piastri on softs picking up speed with a lap time in coming. Puts down the fastest lap at the moment with 1:39.1. 3 mins left.
- Hamilton and finally the Ferrari team send out their drivers with 2 minutes left.
- Track starting to fill up but is it too little too late?
- Hamilton and Leclerc put down lap times but still not enough to beat Oscar.
- Norris wobbles and is off track! Abandoning his lap.
- The Red Bull garage seemed very uninterested in this session.
- FP2 finishes and Piastri claimed first, Hamilton in second, Leclerc in third.
Rain in the area put a damper on the second free practice session. Therefore, there was not a full showing of lap times as teams played it safe and kept their resources protected for later in the weekend.
The big news of the day was clearly Sargent crashing out of the first free practice session, increasing the strain on Williams’ available parts . It could have been a lot worse and thankfully Sargent’s car is repairable and won’t completely ruin his weekend. Then again, this is not a good look for the American driver and will surely bring up more questions on the future of his seat at Williams.
On to free practice 3 and qualifying on day two!
