McLaren hands Verstappen major Red Bull worry ahead of Japanese GP

Suzuka is renowned as an F1 track that will expose the weaknesses of a car, no matter how small. 

The high-speed Esses, the fast flicks right of the Degners and the uphill braking of the hairpin before the charge around Spoon and 130R to the Casio Triangle, Suzuka will find and tell the world what weaknesses you have. 

With that in mind, McLaren comfortably topping the time-sheets in both Friday practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix is no great surprise, even if Lando Norris (FP1) and Oscar Piastri (FP2) were not 100% happy with the balance of their pace-setting MCL39. 

In third place in a messy FP2 featuring four red flags, including for a huge 185mph shunt for Jack Doohan, was Isack Hadjar some four-tenths down, but behind the McLarens, the field was remarkably close, with one-and-a-half tenths separating Hadjar and Max Verstappen, down in eighth for Red Bull. 

For Verstappen, it was a far-from-ideal day as he explained how he was not fully confident in his RB21 machine. 

But through the sweeps of Sector 1, Verstappen was nip and tuck with Piastri and Norris as only 0.024s separated the trio with Piastri pulling clear of the other two through the second sector, being particularly strong through the Degners and Spoon. 

However, in the final segment of the lap, Norris was decidedly the quicker driver, a tenth-and-a-half clear of Piastri with Verstappen languishing nearly three-tenths behind the championship leader, indicating that the Red Bull is much harder on its tyres in the opening half of the lap. 

View the data from the fast runs below. The text continues after that.

Longruns

As for the long-runs, the normal FP2 dedication was not possible owing to Doohan's crash, blamed on him not closing the DRS as he barreled flat-out into Turn 1, Fernando Alonso's beaching of the Aston Martin at the Degners whilst two grass fires also prompted red flags, with almost 40 minutes of the session lost. 

As such, the only long run data possible to analyse comes from FP1, but this is caveated with the different fuel loads among the top contenders. 

Norris completed his sample run on the medium tyres, for an eight-lap run with an average time of 1:33.361, some 0.128s faster than George Russell's Mercedes - a package Norris namechecked as being a real contender to disrupt the McLaren party.

Ferrari's best from Charles Leclerc on the mediums was a run averaging 1:33.566 over eight laps, with Verstappen doing his measured run on the soft tyres - not a compound expected to be seen during the race.

Again over eight laps, he posted an average of 1:34.432, about six-tenths faster than new team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

View the long run data from the first free practice session below!