McLaren Off To A Fast Start At Suzuka

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.

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 – Pirelli 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.”