Red Bull offered hope as Norris sets standard in Japanese opener

Yuki Tsunoda delivered a solid performance in his opening practice session for Red Bull following his controversial driver swap.

Red Bull's decision to demote Liam Lawson after just two grands prix and promote a driver it overlooked almost four months ago, has been the major talking point since the F1 circus departed China's Shanghai International Circuit 12 days ago.

With all eyes on Tsunoda, albeit on a Suzuka circuit it could arguably be said he knows like the back of his hand, the Japanese driver - in front of his adoring home crowd - finished the hour-long session sixth quickest, just a tenth behind the pace of four-time champion team-mate Max Verstappen.

All Red Bull have asked of Tsunoda, given the travails of Lawson over the race weekends in Australia and China, is to be as close as possible to Verstappen to at least afford the team strategy options going into future grands prix.

The duo, however, were still comfortably off the pace posted by drivers' championship leader Lando Norris who led the way with a lap of 1:28.549s, two-tenths of a second quicker than Verstappen's leading time from Q2 at this circuit a year ago.

Suzuka's first sector, which includes the sweeping esses, has been resurfaced and will have played a part, and will continue to do so as track evolution ramps up, and there is no doubt Verstappen's pole time of last year - 1:28.197s - will be easily beaten.

In a British one-two at the top of the timesheet, Norris headed Mercedes' George Russell by 0.163s, followed by Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, 0.416s and 0.502s down respectively.

Verstappen 'super weird'

Verstappen set the early benchmark times, albeit on the soft tyres as the four-time F1 champion deployed a run plan different to his F1 rivals who preferred the medium compound predominantly, and for a few others, the hard rubber.

Verstappen's initial lap was 1:30.738 seconds, which he lowered to 1:29.690 seconds, quicker than his FP1 lap from a year ago. At the 20-minute mark, Russell comfortably shaved half a second off that time on the yellow-striped tyre.

As the session evolved, Verstappen clarified he was far from happy with his RB21, describing it as "super weird" due to it "flexing a lot".

As the soft-tyre runs began in earnest, Russell improved again to a 1:28.809, and then just after the halfway stage to 1:28.712, a fraction slower than last year's leading Q2 time from Verstappen.

At that stage, Leclerc was a quarter-of-a-second off the pace, followed by Verstappen 0.353s down, despite his previous moan.

Tsunoda, building slowly into the session and focusing solely on his run plan rather than those around him, was 0.460s down just past the 30-minute mark.

It was not until 40 minutes had elapsed that McLaren showed its hand. Norris, who had endured a moment on the gravel a few minutes earlier after potentially being distracted by Lawson on the approach, swiftly made amends.

Norris purpled the first two sectors en route to what proved to be the best lap of the session, 0.163s quicker than Russell.

Behind the leading sextet, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was seventh quickest, followed by Isack Hadjar for Racing Bulls, Kimi Antonelli in his Mercedes, and Williams' Carlos Sainz.

There was a funny moment for Sainz when he was told to box at one stage. With the garage early in the pit lane, the Spanish driver rolled past it, believing it was at the end. "Oh ****! I missed it. I thought we were at the end. Sorry!" he said over the radio.

As for Lawson, the demoted New Zealander was 13th on the standings, three-tenths of a second behind Hadjar.

Slowest was Stake's Gabriel Bortoleto, with the Brazilian 0.1598s adrift of Norris.