Verstappen was fastest in Free Practice 1, lapping in 1m30.056s, while FP2 was blighted by rain showers. That was topped by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with a quickest time of 1m34.725s.Japanese GP FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from PerezWhat happened in Japanese GP Free Practice 1?Lewis Hamilton had just sent the quickestContinue Reading
Rain started sporadically falling in the paddock with under an hour to go ahead of FP2’s 3pm local time commencement, but this intensified with 15 minutes to go.It was therefore no shock when no cars headed out as FP2 did get under way, with few drivers even in their cockpitsContinue Reading
The Grove team still does not have a spare, as Sargeant is using the chassis that was crashed by Alex Albon in Melbourne and subsequently repaired.Sargeant lost control when he put his right-hand wheels on the grass at the high-speed Dunlop Curve lefthander, striking the barrier with both ends ofContinue Reading
While the revisions did not include any changes to its aggressive sidepod solution, which is a step above what any of its rivals have done so far, there was a notable tweak to the arrangements surrounding the cockpit.Red Bull has already raised eyebrows this year by having inlets in theContinue Reading
Ricciardo has struggled to match team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year and has suggested that something might not be right with his package.Racing director Alan Permane has stressed that the fresh chassis was being constructed anyway, and hasn’t been built because of any doubts over Ricciardo’s current car.”For me the chassis isContinue Reading
The Japanese GP is being hosted in April, the earliest the event has ever been held after consistently being hosted later in the season. The race has been brought forward to be more logistically efficient along with the Chinese GP which takes place in two weeks’ time.The event coincides withContinue Reading
Verstappen retired in the opening stages of the last race in Melbourne after his brakes overheated – with it appearing that the pad had jammed on to the disc because of an issue related to the caliper.While there has been no detailed explanation from Red Bull about what exactly happenedContinue Reading
The Red Bull driver followed the red flag-enforced hiatus, produced by Logan Sargeant’s crash, with a hot lap on soft tyres that eventually landed on a 1m30.056s to throw down the gauntlet for the rest of the weekend.In anticipation of any inclement weather at Suzuka later on in the weekend,Continue Reading
The seven-time world champion retired in the early stages of the race at Albert Park after his Mercedes engine shut down following sensors detecting an unspecified problem.The power unit was flown back to Mercedes’ engine facility at Brixworth for post-race analysis to get an understanding of what happened, with noContinue Reading
The F1 pack has been quizzed extensively about the incident late in the race last time out in Melbourne as this weekend’s Suzuka race gets underway, with a notable split in opinions amongst the racing cohort.Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg “wasn’t very impressed with Fernando’s tactics”, while Sauber racers Valtteri BottasContinue Reading