#JapaneseGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest by 0.626s over @Carlossainz55. #F1

Verstappen Japanese GP FP1 – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the time-sheets in the opening practice session at the Japanese GP ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris who were second and third respectively.

The championship leader posted the benchmark of a 1:31.647 on the red side-walled C3 softer compounds and was 0.626 seconds over Singapore GP winner Sainz and Norris was a further 0.745 seconds adrift in third.

Overcast conditions greeted the drivers at the Suzuka International Racing Course and after Red Bull’s down-to-earth race last time out in Singapore, the Milton Keynes based-outfit’s Verstappen dominated the early proceedings – not only leading the field out but heading the time-sheets from his opening flying lap, a 1:33.719 set on the C1 Pirelli Hard tyres, which no one else could get anywhere near pack as the field was split across the harder rubber range.

This included the new prototype medium tyre Verstappen swapped over to after going fastest again on his second hard hot-lap, his next tour after a quick trip to the pits, a 1:33.597.

The Dutchman lowered the benchmark to a 1:32.442 before pitting at the Free Practice 1’s opening third, his gap to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso – who was still a solid 0.7 off, with the rest of the pack well over a second adrift.

After a break in the pits with the rest, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was amongst the first of the field to emerge back on the C3 red-marked softs, which need a slow preparation tour due to the abrasive nature of the Suzuka International Racing Course with it’s high-energy demanding corners.

After his first softs’ flying lap, Perez still trailed Red Bull team-mate Verstappen’s best effort on the prototype medium rubber by 0.6 seconds, before the reigning his world champion team-mate increased his gap to almost 1.4 seconds with his opening softs time – a 1:31.647.

Sainz jumped into second just after Leclerc relegated Perez, with Alonso then splitting the Ferrari duo as FP1 hit the two-thirds point and Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson reported some light rain falling from the overcast sky.

With the rest of the leaders back in the pits after his sole softs flyer, Leclerc remained out and was able to reclaim third in the order on his second flyer for Ferrari, but with an effort almost a second off Verstappen.

As Free Practice 1’s leaders returned to the pits to make final changes and add on more fuel for long race-data runs to close out the session, several drivers made late improvements.

This included McLaren’s Lando Norris moving up to sixth using the prototype mediums, before home-favourite Yuki Tsunoda moved in-front of the Briton and Alonso to put his AlphaTauri fourth on the time-sheets with a late softs effort as the session went into the final ten minutes.

McLaren then shuffled the order behind session-topper Verstappen again with both it’s drivers on the softs for the first time in the session, which Oscar Piastri now with his MCL60 fully upgraded with its latest updates climbing from 16th to seventh behind Leclerc, Tsunoda and Alonso.

Norris completed his sole-effort on the red-branded tyres to jump to third place behind Sainz just after the chequered flag, wounding up 0.745 adrift of Verstappen in third.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was eighth and ahead of the other AlphaTauri AT04 entry Liam Lawson who took ninth and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who did not take part in last week’s Singapore Grand Prix, rounded out the top 10.

Red Bull other RB19 entry of Sergio Perez finished outside the top ten in 11th place and 1.396 seconds off session-topping team-mate Verstappen as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Mercedes’s George Russell and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg were all 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon placed 15th and in-front of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton who took 16th and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who came 17th in the classification.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen ended the opening session in 18th and in-front of Williams’ Logan Sargeant and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1220/japan/practice-1.html

#Formula1 Lenovo #JapaneseGP 2023 Preview. #F1