Practice report
Formula 1 Japanese GP
F1 Japanese GP: Verstappen dominates opening practice
Max Verstappen blew the opposition away to lead first practice for Formula 1’s 2023 Japanese Grand Prix by 0.6 seconds for Red Bull ahead of Singapore winner Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Sep 22, 2023, 3:58 AM
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Nearly a week on from Red Bull’s humbling in Singapore, Verstappen utterly dominated the early stages, heading the times from his first flier, a 1m33.719s set on the hard tyres that no one else could get anywhere near as the pack was split across the harder tyre compounds.
This included a prototype medium compound Verstappen switched to after going quickest again on his second flier, his next lap after a quick trip to the pits a 1m37.597s.
He lowered the benchmark to a 1m32.442s before pitting a third of the way into the one-hour session, his gap to nearest rival Fernando Alonso at 0.7s, with the rest well over a second behind.
After a spell in the pits with the rest, Sergio Perez was among the first to head back out on the softs, which require a slow preparation lap on the abrasive Suzuka circuit and its high-energy, demanding corners.
After his first softs flier, Perez still trailed Verstappen’s best on the prototype mediums by 0.6s, before his world champion team-mate re-extended that gap to nearly 1.4s with his first softs effort – a 1m31.647s.
Sainz slotted into second just after Leclerc had demoted Perez, with Alonso then splitting the Ferrari pair around the 40-minute mark and AlphaTauri driver Liam Lawson reported light rain.
With the rest of the leaders back in the pits after just a sole softs flier, Leclerc stayed out and was able to re-take third with his second effort for Ferrari, albeit with a time still nearly a second off Verstappen.
As the leaders headed to the pits to make final changes and take on fuel for race-data gathering to close out the session, several drivers made late gains.
These included Norris climbing to sixth for McLaren while still running the prototype mediums, before Yuki Tsunoda jumped ahead of the Briton and Alonso to claim fourth for AlphaTauri with a late first softs effort heading into the final 10 minutes.
McLaren then shuffled the order behind Verstappen again with both its drivers moving to the softs for the first time in the final minutes, which Oscar Piastri used to jumped from 16th to seventh behind Leclerc, Tsunoda and Alonso.
Norris completed his only effort on the red-walled rubber to jump to third just after the chequered flag fell, ending up 0.7s behind Verstappen.
Those late changes dropped Perez out of the top 10, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ended up 13th and 16th but neither used the softs in FP1, along with Alfa Romeo pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
F1 Japanese Grand Prix - FP1 results:
Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
Driver Info
Main Information Additional Data
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h 1 M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1
Red Bull Red Bull 25 1'31.647 228.105 2 C. Sainz Ferrari 55
Ferrari Ferrari 24 +0.626 0.626 226.558 3 L. Norris McLaren 4
McLaren Mercedes 24 +0.745 0.119 226.266 4 C. Leclerc Ferrari 16
Ferrari Ferrari 25 +0.927 0.182 225.821 5 Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri 22
AlphaTauri Red Bull 21 +0.950 0.023 225.765 6 F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14
Aston Martin Mercedes 23 +1.003 0.053 225.636 7 O. Piastri McLaren 81
McLaren Mercedes 26 +1.066 0.063 225.482 8 A. Albon Williams 23
Williams Mercedes 24 +1.344 0.278 224.808 9 L. Lawson AlphaTauri 40
AlphaTauri Red Bull 28 +1.358 0.014 224.775 10 L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18
Aston Martin Mercedes 17 +1.393 0.035 224.690 11 S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11
Red Bull Red Bull 25 +1.396 0.003 224.683 12 P. Gasly Alpine 10
Alpine Renault 23 +1.482 0.086 224.475 13 G. Russell Mercedes 63
Mercedes Mercedes 24 +1.663 0.181 224.040 14 N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27
Haas Ferrari 24 +1.801 0.138 223.709 15 E. Ocon Alpine 31
Alpine Renault 22 +1.869 0.068 223.546 16 L. Hamilton Mercedes 44
Mercedes Mercedes 22 +2.052 0.183 223.110 17 V. Bottas Alfa Romeo 77
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 24 +2.213 0.161 222.727 18 K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20
Haas Ferrari 23 +2.328 0.115 222.454 19 L. Sargeant Williams 2
Williams Mercedes 27 +2.565 0.237 221.895 20 G. Zhou Alfa Romeo 24
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 23 +3.184 0.619 220.446 View full results
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