Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "It's been a relatively productive day of practice here in Suzuka, despite the second session having been interrupted by a few Red Flags for different reasons. We are all relieved to see that Jack Doohan could walk away from what was a big crash, which left us worried for a few seconds.
"Overall, we would have liked to have taken a bit more of a look at the behaviour of the tyres, but it's the same for everyone, so we will now try to put together all of the information we have acquired to be prepared for Qualifying and the race."
This morning's free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix went off as normal, with Scuderia Ferrari HP having a trouble-free time, getting through its programme. However, the afternoon hour was frenetic, with the red flag putting in no fewer than four appearances, with several drivers not managing to get even one clean lap. In this the fastest of the two sessions, Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest and Charles Leclerc was seventh. Obviously, with such a stop & go session the teams had to give up on some aspects of their programmes. This means that tomorrow's final hour of free practice that starts at 11.30 will be even more important than usual.
The team still acquired plenty of data to study tonight, including from the first sector of the track which has been resurfaced and is thus offering much more grip than in previous years. The wind is another factor to be taken into consideration and today it already affected car behaviour. Tomorrow, another factor to take into account during qualifying, which starts at 15 local (8 CEST) is that rain is expected for Sunday.
In the morning session, Lewis and Charles used both the Medium and Soft compound tyres, setting their best times of 1'28"965 and 1'29"051, which was good enough for third and fourth places respectively. In the final part of the session, they both reverted to the Mediums used at the start to run in race trim. Overall, the Monegasque did 27 laps, two more than his team-mate, making a team total of 52.
In the afternoon session, Lewis and Charles had just started their run on Hard tyres when Jack Doohan in the Alpine triggered the first red flag crashing heavily at Turn 1. After a twenty minute break to repair the barriers. Leclerc managed one flying lap, unlike his teammate, before another red flag, this time caused by Fernando Alonso, who ended up in the gravel at Degner Curve. When the pit lane light returned to green, Hamilton and Leclerc went back out on Soft tyres setting times of 1'28"544 and 1'28"617, fourth and seventh respectively. Immediately after, came another red flag, this time because the grass caught fire at the exit to turn 9. With just seven minutes remaining, the action resumed with the team splitting the tyre strategy, Leclerc on used Softs and Hamilton on Hards with a heavier fuel load. Charles now improved to 1'28"586 but stayed seventh fastest before another grass fire brought the session to a close. The Ferrari pair completed 14 laps each, for a team total of 28.
The first day of running ahead of this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix saw plenty of interruptions, with four red flags flying in FP2 alone. Nevertheless, the team was still able to complete plenty of running across all three compounds.
Both George and Kimi ran a similar programme, taking the Medium and Soft compounds in FP1 before running the Hard tyre and a second set of Softs in FP2. Both drivers showed good pace in the first hour on track, George ending FP1 in P2 and Kimi, who is driving at Suzuka for the very first time, P9.
FP2 was a highly disrupted session; a sizeable shunt for Jack Doohan brought out the red flags early on and, following the restart, Fernando Alonso skated into the gravel causing a second pause. The final 15 minutes were twice halted for small fires breaking out on the grass beside the track, impacting the ability to complete a high volume of single lap or long run work.
Tomorrow will offer a challenge for all teams as the wind is forecast to rotate 180-degrees, moving from a headwind through the Esses to a tail wind.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Today was a decent start to our Japanese Grand Prix weekend. We got a look at all three tyre compounds, evaluate the resurfaced first sector, and got a good read on the car balance. George was up to speed immediately and delivered some competitive lap times on the single lap in FP1 and had what looked like a solid long run. FP2 was a much more disrupted hour with four red flags so there wasn't as much we could learn.
For Kimi, this is his first time in Suzuka. It's a track that requires commitment and confidence and he's been steadily building both through the day. No doubt he'll be able to make another step tomorrow and fingers cross we'll have a clean session without so many red flags in FP3.
The wind will turn through 180° for tomorrow which tends to have a big impact on the balance here, but we can assess that on the simulator overnight and look at any changes that are required to rebalance. Added to that, there is a risk of rain on Sunday. McLaren still look like the ones to beat but it's been an encouraging start to the weekend. Hopefully we'll be in a position to fight for the podium on Sunday.
Oliver Oakes, Team Principal: "We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks. It was a misjudgement of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage. From a performance point of view today, there are some things for us to work on. Pierre had a good run in Free Practice 2, which bodes well for tomorrow, as did Ryo, who did a great job to run through the programme this morning. We tried some set-up options between cars and we have a good direction to go in ahead of Qualifying."
Round 3 of the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at the Suzuka International Circuit as teams prepared for Sunday's 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon kicked off FP1 running baseline stints on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires - Bearman making his debut F1 laps at the famed venue running a new-spec floor on his VF-25. A switch onto the softer Red tire followed with Bearman recording a best lap of 1:30.077 for P18 while Ocon landed P19 with a 1:30.123.
FP2 was disrupted by no fewer than four separate red flag stops - less than half the session executed under green flag conditions. With the interruptions ensuring most run plans were negated, Ocon finished the session P14 having set a fastest lap of 1:29.507 on soft tires. Bearman clocked a 1:29.654 on the medium compound for P15.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 61 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 27 by Bearman with 34 from Ocon.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "In FP1, in terms of the car balance window, we weren't quite there but in terms of the issues we had in Melbourne, we didn't see them. In FP2, we pushed the car a lot further, much closer to how we did in Shanghai and actually that gave us answers on the new floor which is pretty good - so it's definitely better for the problem, and it was a good job done by the aero team and the design office to improve that. We improved the car balance as well, but with four red flags in FP2, it was a disrupted session so we didn't complete the run program. I think especially on Ollie's side, his car configuration is better, so we'll look at the data and update Esteban's floor to Ollie's spec tonight, we just need to find a bit more performance."
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: "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."
