Verstappen crushed the competition in first practice! Who is the favourite to win in Japan?

As usual, the Japanese Grand Prix started with the first free practice at 04:30 in the morning. The opening act at Suzuka was won by Max Verstappen, so what do the final FP1 results say?

As usual, the opening practice was marked by setting up the monoblocs for the rest of the race weekend, collecting data and testing the tyres and race strategy.

This is the reason why the results from the first two practice sessions are not very representative, the teams are rather testing what setup of the monoblocs will work in qualifying and especially in the race.

In any case, the first practice (FP1) was clearly dominated by Max Verstappen, who crushed the competition with his time. So it seems that after the failed Singapore Grand Prix, which he finished only in fifth place, he will want to take revenge on his rivals at Suzuka in Japan.

The Red Bull driver clocked a time of 1:31.647, with second-placed Carlos Sainz an abysmal six tenths of a second behind. Third place after FP1 was recorded by Lando Norris, but it wasn’t until the end of this opening act on Friday that the McLaren drivers made any sort of quicker attempt.

Of course, practice times don’t compare to qualifying, where the drivers give it their all. Fourth place went to Charles Leclerc, Sainz’s teammate. Fifth was Júki Cunoda, sixth Fernando Alonso, seventh Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren.

Pérez up to eleventh, Mercedes down

Eighth place was eventually claimed by Alexander Albon, ninth by Liam Lawson, a replacement for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten. Verstappen’s stablemate Sergio Pérez finished eleventh otherwise.

The Mexican lost almost 1.4 seconds. But we’ll see how representative this result was later in the race weekend. The same is true of the form of Mercedes, whose drivers finished deep in the field.

In particular, George Russell finished FP1 in thirteenth place, with Lewis Hamilton in sixteenth. Not much is expected from the Silver Arrows due to the circuit configuration, with Red Bull and McLaren among the main favourites to win. Second free practice starts at 08:00.

Source: F1, Twitter