#F1 #JapaneseGP FP1: @LandoNorris edges @GeorgeRussell63 by 0.163s.

Norris Japanese GP FP1 – Championship leader Lando Norris was fastest in the opening FP1 session for McLaren at the Japanese GP pipping Mercedes’ George Russell as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three.

Norris set the session-topping benchmark of a 1:28.549 and was 0.163 seconds clear of Russell whilst Leclerc was a further 0.416 adrift in third.

Beautiful sunny conditions at Suzuka greeted the drivers with the first hour-long practice session as track temperature were a warm 35.5 Degrees Celsius, whereas the air temperature is only 13.6 Degrees.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Oliver Bearman (on the C2 mediums) lead the pack out for their sighting tours of the Suzuka International Racing Course.

Chinese GP winner last time out Oscar Piastri registered the opening benchmark of a 1:32.615 on the mediums then was ousted at the top by Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton with a 1:31.902 who was also on the medium compound.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen then jumped to the top posting a 1:30.738 as the Dutchman ran the C3 red-branded softs.

Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar moved up into third in the order demoting Williams’ Carlos Sainz with his 1:32.092.

Championship leader Lando Norris then followed and slotted in second setting a 1:31.383 with the C2’s and ended up 0.645 off Verstappen.

Piastri moved up into third briefly until Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc bursted onto the scene to go second in the with a 1:30.769 also on the medium rubber.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso running the C1 harder tyre then demoted Leclerc posting a 1:30.747 and ended up 1.057 seconds off Verstappen who improved on his effort at the top with a 1:29.690.

Norris then moved back into second place with his 1:30.233 effort and then was relegated by Mercedes’ George Russell who set a purple second sector with two personal bests to jump into second place on the C2’s and was 0.016 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark on the softs.

Mercedes’ Russell then found more time on the mediums to jump Verstappen’s effort with a 1:29.616 and was 0.074 seconds clear of the reigning four-time world champion.

Norris’s MCL39 racer was sporting a lot of flow-vis paint on the front wing as the Woking based-outfit were gathering aero data. The Briton was bouncing over the kerbs – cutting the racing line pretty fine.

Leclerc then slotted into third ahead of Norris, as Ferrari seek to finally kickstart their season after a tough start.

And then Hamilton went third, four tenths back until Williams’ Alexander Albon demoted the Briton to fourth in the classification posting his 1:29.976 effort.

Hadjar then returned to third in the order, relegating Albon to fourth by 0.002 seconds.

After a lull in the session’s action just before the half-way point of proceedings, Piastri emerged on track with the C3 red-branded softer tyres.

Verstappen reported over the radio aboard his RB21: “It’s super weird man; the car is flexing a lot.”

Russell then improved on his effort with a purple middle sector to set a 1:28.809 and the gap to Verstappen was at 0.717 seconds. Piastri then slotted into third on his soft tyre flyer and ended up 1.031 seconds off the Briton.

Then Williams duo Albon and Sainz pipped Piastri into third and fourth respectively.

Then came Antonelli who blasted to second place behind his Mercedes team-mate until Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda shot to second place on his soft tyre hot lap ending up 0.363 seconds off Russell’s benchmark.

Verstappen set three personal bests to take second place then came Leclerc to snatch second place from the Dutchman and was 0.256 seconds behind Russell.

Russell then improved once more by a fraction posting a 1:28.712 to go 0.253 seconds clear of Leclerc at the top.

Norris was then on course to improve on his flyer on the softs, taking two personal bests before clapping the second kerb at the Casio Triangle chicane, which sent the McLaren into the gravel out of the exit of the chicane, forcing the championship leader to abort his effort.

Albon then suffered a lock up at the Casio Hairpin, which sent the Williams driver understeering off into the gravel with a bump. He was another who was able to crawl back to the race track, but those tyres had taken a battering.

Albon was P10 at the time for Williams, with team-mate Sainz P8.

Norris then after cleaning his C3’s, went again and gone fastest. His 1:28.549 session-topping effort was 0.163 seconds in-front of Russell. With Leclerc in third, once again the top teams were not split by much.

A few others had switched back to their hard and medium compounds, as they start to get a feel for tyre degradation out there on the newly-surfaced Suzuka track.

Hamilton was fourth in the order and ahead of Red Bull duo Verstappen and Tsunoda who were fifth and sixth respectively.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso followed in seventh and ahead of Hadjar who placed eighth for RB and Antonelli who was ninth for the Silver Arrows.

Williams’ Sainz and Albon finished opening practice in 10^th and 11^th respectively.

Alpine pairing Ryo Hirakawa (who was running in-place of Jack Doohan for FP1) and Pierre Gasly were 12^th and 14^th respectively as Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson (who was demoted back to the Faenza based-squad for Tsunoda who was promoted) sandwiched in 13^th.

Piastri ended opening practice 15^th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who took 16^th and ahead of Sauber Nico Hulkenberg followed in 17^th as Bearman’s late improvement put him 18^th to pip both Haas team-mate Ocon and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto who brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix 2025 Free Practice 1 Results at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1256/japan/practice/1

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