Pirelli's rejection
A wet second practice session meant there was limited running as teams sought to preserve their allocations of intermediate tyres.
For this season, the rules were amended to allow drivers five sets of the green-walled intermediates with teams not obligated to return a set as was the case in previous seasons.
Lewis Hamilton described the change as not "making sense" but Pirelli's motorsport chief engineer Simone Berra has pointed out that the teams, along with F1 and the FIA had actually voted for the change.
READ MORE: Pirelli responds to Hamilton criticism over rules change
Leclerc has Red Bull on alert
Owing to the rain and a crash for Logan Sargeant in FP1 which had him sit out of FP2, running was heavily disrupted for the field.
This means that the usual cache of data gathered for race runs was not quite possible, but there are still some intriguing clues from the limited laps.
One Charles Leclerc stint in particular has piqued Red Bull's interest and has the team, considered favourites, on alert.
READ MORE: The Leclerc laps that has Red Bull on alert for the Japanese GP
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Hamilton's failure
Whilst he enjoyed Mercedes "best session" of the season, things not not quite go to plan for Hamilton.
The team has diagnosed his engine failure in Australia back to a 'bottom-end' failure, which means the unit cannot be used again - even for practice sessions.
Losing an engine so early in the season raises the prospect of Hamilton taking an engine penalty sometime later in the season.
READ MORE: Hamilton suffers further setback after power unit failure
The F1 update
As ever, Nick Golding and Ian Parkes are on hand to bring you everything you need to know or might have missed from the first day of on-track running at Suzuka.
The two are back with the latest F1 Update, as they also discuss Daniel Ricciardo and the steps RB is taking to help him find comfort in the car following a challenging start.
Click the link below to watch - and be sure to subscribe to never miss another RacingNews365 video!
WATCH: Williams again count cost of latest smash & Ricciardo on the ropes | F1 Update
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