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Oscar Piastri set the fastest
time on the first day of free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
McLaren’s Australian driver headed the time sheet from the second session
with a lap in 1’28”114, 83 thousandths under the pole position time set in
2024 by Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. McLaren were also on top in the
first session, the only one of the two where there were no interruptions to
track time, with Lando Norris fastest in 1’28”549.
THE DAY ON TRACK:
All three compounds came into play in both free practice sessions. However,
track time in the second one was reduced to just 21 minutes, because of four
red flags caused by crashes from Jack Doohan (Alpine) then Fernando Alonso
(Aston Martin) and two incidents when small areas of grass at the side of
the track caught fire. All this meant that no driver was able to do more
than three flying laps at a time!
Today, no fewer than 15 drivers
used a set of Hards: five of them in the first session (Stroll, Alonso,
Hadjar, Lawson and Bortoleto) and ten in the second (Piastri, Leclerc,
Hamilton, Antonelli, Russell, Doohan, Gasly, Albon, Sainz and Hulkenberg).
The five who opted to keep both sets of the C1 for the rest of the weekend
were Verstappen, Tsunoda, Norris, Ocon and Bearman. On Friday last year,
only five drivers – the Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Perez, the Ferrari
duo of Leclerc and Sainz and Magnussen in the Haas - had used the hardest
compound that Pirelli supplied for this Grand Prix. However, one should take
into consideration that last year’s FP2 was affected by intermittent rain.
Simone Berra: Chief Engineer:
“In some respects, this was a difficult day to assess, because in the second
session, no one was able to run with any continuity because of the four red
flags. However, we were still able to draw some important conclusions. The
first point is that the track proved to be significantly quicker than last
year, considering that Piastri’s best time is already lower than the pole
time from 2024. That’s down in part to the natural progression of the
current generation of cars and also, significantly, to the increased grip
from the new track surface, from the exit of the final chicane to the end of
the first sector. In fact, over half the time improvement from last year to
this one, can be attributed specifically to that first sector, based on FP1
times.
“Even though no one managed to do any long runs in the second
session, we managed to gather some data from the first one, when several
drivers did a long series of laps, split between different compounds. In
general, apart from a few exceptions, we did not see any graining and it
became clear that, on paper at least, all three compounds could have a role
to play in the race. Furthermore, unlike in 2024, three quarters of the
drivers opted not to save both sets of Hards.
“The level of
degradation seen on the long runs today is lower than expected, which could
suggest that a one-stop strategy might be more competitive than a two-stop,
which theoretically was considered to be the quickest. We’ll see how the
situation evolves, also taking into account the weather, as rain is forecast
overnight from Saturday to Sunday."
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