Max Verstappen was back on top in FP1 of F1 Singapore GP as Carlos Sainz slotted in second from Lando Norris.
After the blip in Singapore GP, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was back on top in FP1 of F1 Japanese GP at Suzuka after setting a 1m31.647s lap from last race winner Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari, who was 0.626s off on the soft compound run in slightly cloudy conditions.
The Spaniard had his teammate Charles Leclerc in third for most part until McLaren’s Lando Norris jumped to third after his last lap push. Leclerc was fourth then from AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in sixth.
Tsunoda had some run-in with Williams’ Logan Sargeant late in the session but nothing harmful. The other McLaren of Oscar Piastri was seventh after his last lap push to drop Williams’ Alexander Albon to eighth, who faced some DRS issue during the session.
The team managed to fix it to get him a soft tyre run as he led AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the Top 10. Running the old floor, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was 11th from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Mercedes’ George Russell.
The Brit set his best time on the medium tyres as did his teammate Lewis Hamilton in 16th, who was behind Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Also on the medium tyre was Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in 17th with teammate Zhou Guanyu in 20th.
Slotting in between were Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Sargeant, where some of the drivers had few off moments but nothing too dramatic. There was light rain during the session too as the F1 field trialed a new C2 compound given by Pirelli.
In terms of the power unit elements, the fourth ICE has been taken up by both the Red Bull and Aston Martin drivers along with Hamilton, Piastri and Sargeant. The same group took a new and their fourth TC, MGU-H and MGU-K as well.
