Mercedes easily led first practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka despite not using the softest tyres available for the opening session.
Despite forecasts of rain the track stayed dry for the first 90 minutes of running, allowing the teams to complete their programmes on slicks. However relatively high tyre degradation, particularly on the super-softs, limited the length of their stints.
This was particularly so for Ferrari, who spent the entire session on super-softs having chosen more sets of them than any other team.Despite running exclusively on the quickest tyre available, the Ferrari pair barely got within a second of the two Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel’s final effort at improving was compromised by traffic at the chicane.
Lewis Hamilton also encountered a slow car at this point of the track and had to take evasive action to avoid a collision with Pierre Gasly. He set a 1’28.691 on softs which stood as the best time of the session, just under half a second better than the quickest time from first practice in 2017.
Valtteri Bottas, who set his quickest time on medium tyres, made it a one-two for Mercedes. Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull separated them from the Ferraris and like them also ran the super-softs.
Esteban Ocon led the rest of the top 10, 1.9 seconds slower than Hamilton on the same tyre compound. Team mate Sergio Perez ran the medium rubber.
The rest of the top 10 were Ferrari-powered. Romain Grosjean’s Haas was followed by the Sauber pair: Charles Leclerc (on his Suzuka debut) ahead of team mate Marcus Ericsson.
Gasly matched Ericsson’s time to within one-thousandth of a second. However he is also under investigation for the near-miss with Hamilton.
McLaren brought a surprisingly large stock of medium tyres to this weekend and ran exclusively on them in first practice, ending up last among the teams. Lando Norris, who replaced Stoffel Vandoorne for this session, was slowest, while Fernando Alonso spun into the gravel at Degner One.
McLaren and Renault both broke the curfew on having personnel at the track working on their cars last night. This was McLaren’s second and final exemption from a penalty for the infringement, and Renault’s first of the year.
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| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’28.691 | 25 | |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’29.137 | 0.446 | 26 |
| 3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’29.373 | 0.682 | 32 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’29.627 | 0.936 | 20 |
| 5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’29.685 | 0.994 | 20 |
| 6 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’29.841 | 1.150 | 30 |
| 7 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’30.591 | 1.900 | 28 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’30.814 | 2.123 | 22 |
| 9 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’30.929 | 2.238 | 27 |
| 10 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’31.073 | 2.382 | 29 |
| 11 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’31.073 | 2.382 | 20 |
| 12 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’31.100 | 2.409 | 23 |
| 13 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’31.272 | 2.581 | 29 |
| 14 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’31.274 | 2.583 | 28 |
| 15 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’31.418 | 2.727 | 18 |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’31.508 | 2.817 | 27 |
| 17 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’31.908 | 3.217 | 23 |
| 18 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’32.034 | 3.343 | 21 |
| 19 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’32.513 | 3.822 | 26 |
| 20 | 47 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’32.683 | 3.992 | 30 |
First practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’28.691
+0.446 Valtteri Bottas – 1’29.137
+0.682 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’29.373
+0.936 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’29.627
+0.994 Sebastian Vettel – 1’29.685
+1.150 Max Verstappen – 1’29.841
+1.900 Esteban Ocon – 1’30.591
+2.123 Romain Grosjean – 1’30.814
+2.238 Charles Leclerc – 1’30.929
+2.382 Marcus Ericsson – 1’31.073
+2.382 Pierre Gasly – 1’31.073
+2.409 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’31.100
+2.581 Sergio Perez – 1’31.272
+2.583 Kevin Magnussen – 1’31.274
+2.727 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’31.418
+2.817 Lance Stroll – 1’31.508
+3.217 Brendon Hartley – 1’31.908
+3.343 Fernando Alonso – 1’32.034
+3.822 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’32.513
+3.992 Lando Norris – 1’32.683
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2018 Japanese Grand Prix
- 2018 Japanese Grand Prix team radio highlights
- 2018 Japanese Grand Prix Star Performers
- Mercedes take first back-to-back one-twos since 2016
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix
- Hamilton on cusp of fifth title as Vettel throws in the towel
Minardi (@gitanes)
5th October 2018, 4:05
Yawn. This latter half of this season is turning out to be a complete and utter bore. I don’t recall such boring sessions and races since 2002.
KGN
5th October 2018, 4:35
You should go and get some sleep, second practice is only 2 hours. Wat.
mystic one (@mysticus)
5th October 2018, 4:48
@gitanes last quarter you mean? it is only yawn because vettel/ferrari screwed up too many times not that their car was slower…
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
5th October 2018, 6:56
You obviously didn’t watch the previous 2 races.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
5th October 2018, 4:28
Simple solution to your terrible “boredomitis”.
A. Stop watching F1.
B. Stop reading about F1.
C. Keep right off F1 forums.
There ye go! SOLVED!
OH! D. Stop boring me too! Thanks.
Chaitanya
5th October 2018, 4:31
Nice options, there are other channels one can tune in. Last weekend I was trekking in westetn ghats and simply skipped the race rather than complain about procession..
anon
5th October 2018, 5:44
That’s what people do/will do.
Once they realise they don’t miss it they won’t tune in again.
KGN11
5th October 2018, 6:39
Still waiting on you to stop watching, so we can no longer read your pointless rants.
Chaitanya
5th October 2018, 7:50
There is also a MotoGP at the same time as F1 this weekend, one can easily switch to more exciting Moto3 and MotoGP (Usually Moto2 is a snoozefest) if they find F1 boring.
anon
5th October 2018, 8:08
These results are terrible for the sport.
We’re lucky we had Rosberg around from 2014-16 who made it interesting (out qualified Hammy 11-8 in 2014, beat him for the title in 2016).
Bottas is completely out of his depth and has no backbone.
Hammy will win every race left in the season. These records just become meaningless.
5 years of Mercedes dominance. 2014-16 the most dominant cars in the history of the sport.
People never stopped moaning when Vettel won 4 in a row, except that in 2010 you had 5 drivers in 3 different teams in contention for the title and 2012 you had 7 different drivers win the first 7 races.
Serves Liberty right.
BlackJackFan
5th October 2018, 10:27
Why do your comments look like copy/pastes on every page…? ;)
anon
5th October 2018, 5:43
Mercedes seem to have some interesting tricks.
RL
5th October 2018, 6:05
The most interesting trick is Ferrari making their pace disappear.
fuanon
5th October 2018, 6:06
Or Ferrari taking their pace advantage, putting into a box, taking out a saw and not only cutting it in half, but into many difference pieces…
Lums (@lums)
5th October 2018, 6:45
Hahahahahaha
anon
5th October 2018, 8:04
Or maybe Hammy has been exaggerating Ferrari’s speed.
Remember after Spa. He was hysterical about how fast the Ferrari was in a straight line at the start of the race.
Except the Force Indias were about to pass the Ferrari on the Kemmel straight as well.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th October 2018, 10:03
Hopefully, the rain would stay away so that the outright record would get beaten as it’s still nearly 1.4 seconds to go.