F1 | Suzuka, Free Practice 1: Verstappen immediately, but Sainz is very close

This F1 is scary: Max Verstappen in the first free practice session of the Japanese GP in Suzuka with the soft tires easily achieved a time of 1'30″056 which is 1″6 faster than the equivalent session last year . The growth of these ground effect single-seaters is impressive because we are talking about performances that in 2023 had not even been achieved in FP3.

Red Bull, with a significantly revised RB20 in the cooling system, placed one one two in the flying lap, with Sergio Perez arriving 181 thousandths behind his captain. The Milton Keynes team wants to make up for the defeat in Melbourne and immediately wanted to reaffirm its supremacy on Honda's home track.

The only one that seems to keep up with Red Bull is Ferrari: Carlos Sainz, pumped up after the victory in Australia, drove the SF-24 to 1'30″269, i.e. 213 thousandths of a second from Verstappen with the same tires The red car demonstrated a good adaptation to the Japanese track, where last year, however, it had suffered, confirming the consistency of the Prancing Horse car. Charles Leclerc did not find a clean lap and finished only in sixth place with a half a second delay: the Monegasque tried to relaunch with the soft tyres, but the softer compound at Suzuka does not allow a second attempt.

Ferrari, however, impressed in the mini long run: Leclerc, with the hard (race tyre) was very competitive, lapping with an even better pace than Verstappen. The red car, as soon as it was put on the track, immediately adapted to Suzuka, raising the hopes of Maranello fans despite having only introduced detailed changes to the rear suspension.

The others are decidedly further away: Mercedes is fourth with George Russell 474 thousandths behind the leading Dutchman and followed by Lewis Hamilton at just 13 thousandths. The seven-time world champion uses the second power unit after firing at Albert Park. The W15 started better than the previous race, but it doesn't have the pace to rival Red Bull and Ferrari: its race pace was rather disappointing.

Fernando Alonso is seventh with Aston Martin: the Spaniard is close to Leclerc's Ferrari, but pays more than half a second from the top. The Asturian has the standard AMR24, while Lance Stroll debuted the version with a new aerodynamic package that offers new bellies and a different bottom. The Canadian carried out aerodynamic tests with rakes behind the rear wheels. He didn't impress, finishing only in 15th place, but the gap of almost two seconds indicates that he wasn't looking for performance, given that he paid 1″5 from his teammate. Lance will use the evolved Aston Martin also in FP2, while Alonso will have to wait that the material reserved for him arrives at the racetrack.

McLaren didn't impress: Oscar Piastri was eighth, ahead of Lando Norris only tenth. Papaya cars leave over a second. The feeling is that they have dedicated themselves to a work program different from the others. Yuki Tsunoda slipped in between the two MCL38s with the Racing Bull: the Japanese feels the scent of home and is keen to give continuity to his season which has started well. He did not lap Daniel Ricciardo who left his car to the rookie Ayumu Iwasa: the young Japanese made no mistakes completing the work program with a 16th time.

Esteban Ocon with Alpine moved up to 11th place giving the feeling that the Enstone team could, with the first changes, abandon the last positions of the first three races, while Pierre Gasly is 17th but the transalpine worked more for the race than to look for a flying lap performance.

Alexander Albon is 12th with Williams, while Logan Sargeant in the middle of the session, during his 11th lap, caused the red flag which shortened the session by 12 minutes: the American driver, having just fitted soft tyres, ended up very wide at the turn 7, putting two wheels on the grass and triggering an inevitable off-track exit with the Williams FW44 which had been sent to Grove to repair the chassis which had been repaired after Alexander Albon's crash in Australia. Sargeant hit the barriers after a spin: the car suffered significant damage to the front wing and the integrity of the chassis will need to be checked even if the impact was not at very high speed. Driver unharmed, very disappointed by the serious mistake made because the Grove team still doesn't have a spare body.

Nico Hulkenberg with Haas is 13th: the German was warned by the stewards for overtaking while exiting the pits. The German overtook Iwasa who was slow to return to the track and touched the white line. Nothing happened, but the irregularity was there. Kevin Magnussen with the other VF-24 did not go beyond the 19th time.

Alfa Romeo brought Valtteri Bottas to 14th place, while Guanyu Zhou was only 18th.