By Max Drinkwater
F1 returned to the land of the rising sun at the ever historic Suzuka circuit for the third round of the 2026 Formula 1 season. The last race before and extended break due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix the on track action started with free practice 1 on Friday morning.
The tale of the session saw the cars struggling with down force load, multiple drivers going wide at the famous spoon corner towards the end of sector 2 as well as the Williams of Alex Albon having a trip into the gravel at Degner two.
The session was no surprise topped by championship leader George Russell who set the early pace with a 1:31:666 to go top of the timing sheets, the Brit was followed by less than three hundredths of a second by his team mate Kimi Antonelli who is looking to build on his maiden F1 win in China.
A compacted top six was covered by less than four tenths with the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri showing an upturn in pace to end the session third and fourth respectively ahead of the two Ferraris.
Max Verstappen could only muster a time that earned him seventh on the timing sheet whilst Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar finished the first session of the weekend down in P13.
It was a strong showing from the midfield runners with both VCARB’s in their stunning spring colours livery breaking into the top ten with Lawson ending the session less than a tenth behind Verstappen in eight place and Esteban Ocon secured ninth spot.
The remained of the field ended the session nearly in perfect two by two fashion with the Audi’s of Gabriel Bortoleto in P11 and Nico Hulkenberg in P12
Oliver Bearman finished behind Hadjar with a P14 result followed by the two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto in P15 and sixteen respectively.
Another slow start for Williams saw them end the session a lowly P17 for Carlos Sainz and P18 for Alex Albon who was two seconds off the pace set by Russell as well as making contact with Sergio Perez with a bizarre divebomb in turn 16.
New boys Cadillac finished FP1 in P19 for Sergio Perez and P20 for Valterri Bottas as they look build upon their start to life in Formula 1.
Further back on the grid and Aston Martin’s woes continued with Lance Stroll P21 and development driver Jak Crawford stepping in for FP1 as Fernando Alonso welcomed his first child finishing plum last in P22.
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