George Russell heads Mercedes 1-2 in opening practice session in Japan

George Russell set the pace in the first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix as he narrowly beat his Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli, with reigning World Champion Lando Norris settling for third.

Following back-to-back races in Australia and China, the grid’s 22 drivers reconvened on Friday morning at the picturesque yet technically demanding Suzuka Circuit, eager to continue learning more about the new generation of cars.

A queue formed at the end of the pit lane early on with hard compound tyres looking the popular choice, and it was the Ferrari pair of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc who exchanged the first benchmark times of the hour.

Elsewhere, teams sported aero rakes and flow-vis paint to gather information that will be reviewed in April ahead of the next round in Miami. One such squad was Aston Martin, who handed Fernando Alonso’s car over to Third Driver Jak Crawford for the opening session of Honda’s home event.

Championship leader Russell was the next to shoot to the top of the timesheets, moments after Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar suffered a scary snap of oversteer, reporting over the radio that there were issues with cold brakes and pulling.

As the drivers put in more laps, Leclerc narrowly improved on Russell’s time with only 0.079s separating the top four just before the halfway point, with the second Mercedes of Antonelli and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – who is yet to start a Grand Prix this season – looking to close down the gap even further.

Instead, Russell’s restored his advantage as he bolted on the red-walled soft tyres and cleared his team mate’s latest effort by over two-tenths, suggesting that the Silver Arrows’ pace over one lap is still the one to beat.

Antonelli, buoyed by his maiden win last time out in China, then leapfrogged the Briton to take P1, improving his own lap time while capitalising on an error that saw Russell run wide on a flying lap. He wasn’t the only one to struggle with oversteer, but was the sole driver able to eclipse Antonelli’s time as the Italian headed back to the garage.

Williams’ Alex Albon, trying out an upgraded front suspension, joined the list of those narrowly avoiding a crash as he rattled over the gravel at Degner 2 and tapped the barrier in the process, remaining in P17.

Heading into the final minutes of FP1, Albon’s day went from bad to worse as he bumped into Cadillac driver Sergio Perez heading into the same corner and caused some debris to spread across the track.

Russell’s time of 1m 31.666s was enough to keep him at the top of the order, albeit just 0.026s ahead of Antonelli to round out another strong performance by Mercedes as they showcased their wolf-inspired livery for the Japanese Grand Prix.

With Norris and Piastri seeking a much improved weekend after their double DNS in China, they got off to an encouraging start by finishing FP1 in third and fourth respectively, beating Ferrari’s Leclerc and Hamilton.

Max Verstappen could only manage P7 and was followed by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who had a shaky moment with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto late in the session. Esteban Ocon and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top 10, with the Audi pair of Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg taking P11 and P12.

A tricky FP1 for Hadjar left him down in 13th place ahead of Ollie Bearman and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Colapinto, while Carlos Sainz led his Williams team mate Albon – whose incident with 19th-placed Perez will be investigated after the session. Valtteri Bottas and the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Crawford completed the order.

With the weekend’s first session ticked off, teams will have another opportunity to gather data in FP2, which is scheduled to take place at 1500 local time.