Alonso fastest as Schumacher crashes in wet opening practice in Suzuka

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time during a wet opening practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka as Mick Schumacher crashed his Haas after the chequered flag.

The Alpine driver was quickest on the intermediate tyres with a 1’42.248, ahead of the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc. As conditions first improved, then deteriorated through the hour, Schumacher lost control of his Haas after the chequered flag rounding the Dunlop curve, causing major damage to his car heading into the second session.

Rain earlier in the morning had left plenty of standing water around the circuit, but there was lttle falling as the first F1 practice session at Suzuka for three years got underway. Although many were hesitant at first to venture out onto the track, eventually both Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda headed out on exploratory laps on the full wet tyres before pitting.

Around ten minutes into the session, many drivers started to head out onto the circuit for the first time, helping to start and clear away the standing water that was on track. There were reports that the circuit was offering more grip that a lot of the drivers were expecting, with some openly pondering whether intermediate tyres would be more suitable than the extreme wets.

Drivers remained cautious as they refamiliarised themselves around the Suzuka circuit, with Leclerc setting the fastest time on the wet weather tyres with a 1’48.104. That was beaten by team mate Sainz, who went three tenths of a second quicker, also on the full wets.

Around half an hour into the session, championship leader Max Verstappen left the garage for the first time on the intermediate tyres. Any question of which of the two wet tyres were the better suited for the slippery conditions was answered when the Red Bull driver immediately went fastest by over three seconds.

Nicholas Latifi had a brief trip over the gravel at the hairpin after locking up under braking and skidding off the asphalt. Thankfully for the Williams driver, he was able to recover back on the track and continue on his way without interrupting the session.

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Drivers began to improve across the field on the intermediate tyres, with Fernando Alonso going quickest with a 1’42.248. However, Leclerc was warned that more rain was expected over the final 20 minutes of the session and Ferrari were soon proved right as the conditions visibly worsened with the rain intensifying.

As surface water increased and grip levels fell, Leclerc had a brief trip across the gravel between the two Degner corners, leading him to abandon his run and return to the safety of the garage. He joined the rest of the field, the track falling silent once again with just under ten minutes of session time remaining.

Fortunately for the thousands of eager fans around the Suzuka circuit, there was some track action in the closing minutes as around half the field opted to head back out for a final run on wet tyres. Valtteri Bottas demonstrated just how much the grip levels had fallen when he ran off track at the 130R, but managed to rejoin the track using the asphalt run off.

The chequered flag flew to signal the end of the session, leaving Alonso as the fastest driver at the end of the hour. However, as the remaining drivers returned to the pits, Schumacher lost control of his Haas heading up the hill approaching the Degners and spun into the barriers, wrecking his car. The Medical Car was deployed, but Schumacher was able to climb out of his VF-22 unaided, reporting that he had aquaplaned off the course while cresting the brow of the hill.

Alonso was ultimately three tenths faster than the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, with Esteban Ocon finishing the session in fourth position. Kevin Magnussen was fifth fastest in the Haas, ahead of Verstappen and the crashed Schumacher in seventh. Lando Norris was eighth for McLaren with the top ten completed by Bottas and Sergio Perez.

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2022 Japanese Grand Prix first practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’42.248		7
2	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	F1-75	1’42.563	0.315	15
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	F1-75	1’42.634	0.386	16
4	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’43.022	0.774	5
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’43.258	1.010	15
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB18	1’43.362	1.114	4
7	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’43.761	1.513	13
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’43.889	1.641	7
9	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’43.969	1.721	13
10	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB18	1’44.234	1.986	4
11	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’44.429	2.181	15
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’44.486	2.238	8
13	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W13	1’44.558	2.310	6
14	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’44.570	2.322	10
15	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’44.791	2.543	9
16	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’44.878	2.630	12
17	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’45.424	3.176	11
18	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W13	1’46.103	3.855	4
19	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’46.192	3.944	16
20	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’48.090	5.842	8

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2022 Japanese Grand Prix

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