REACTIONS: What did teams and drivers have to say after the interrupted opening day at Suzuka?

McLaren ended up quickest on the opening day of the Japanese Grand Prix, but practice time was heavily limited due to multiple red flag interruptions across the second one-hour practice.

Lando Norris – FP1: 1:28.549, P1; FP2: 1:28.163, P2

“A good first day back on track. It takes a little bit of time to get back in the rhythm of things around here because it’s so quick, but the car is in a reasonable place. We’ll work together overnight to make some changes going into tomorrow, but I’m feeling positive.”

Oscar Piastri – FP1: 1:29.708, P15; FP2: 1:28.114, P1
“It’s been a bit of an up-and-down day but there’s definitely been positives in there. We’ve got a few things to tidy up for tomorrow. FP2 was a pretty stop-start session, which made it tricky to go through everything but there were still some good learnings. A couple of tweaks and we’ll be good to go.”

George Russell – FP1: 1:28.712, P2; FP2: 1:28.567, P6

“Firstly, it’s good to see that Jack (Doohan) was OK after his accident. That was a very big crash and hopefully he’ll be able to get back out in the car tomorrow morning.

“From our side, we had a positive day. The car has been handling nicely, although we know the forecast wind change tomorrow will have an impact. McLaren once again looks very strong, and there were several other teams that were competitive on the single lap. It’s unusual to see so many teams so close together so we will have to be at our best to be competing near the front. If we do the job we know we can do though, I’m confident that we can be in the fight for the front two rows in Qualifying.

“Given the interrupted FP2, we still have a few unknowns heading into the race on Sunday. We were only able to complete four laps on the Hard tyre. We therefore have little data to work with in terms of degradation, and any possible graining, on that compound. There is also a threat of rain for race day which could make things interesting. The important thing for Friday though is that we were competitive on the timing screens and that gives us a good platform to build on.”

Kimi Antonelli – FP1: 1:29.284, P9; FP2: 1:29.733, P16

“This is my first time at Suzuka and it’s an amazing track to drive! I enjoyed myself out there and I’m looking forward to building my confidence more and more as we head through the weekend. FP1 was a solid session for us, and I was able to put together some decent laps. FP2 was much more disrupted, and a little messy on my side. I wasn’t able to get a clean lap, and I didn’t get the most out of the car in sector one. We will work on that overnight, analyse the data, and come back stronger tomorrow.

“There are definitely promising signs for us. George did a good job all day and was consistently near the front of the field. The balance of the car also feels good, and I know there is more that I can extract from it. I’m looking forward to getting back out there in FP3 and using that to build positively into Qualifying.”

Charles Leclerc – FP1: 1:28.965, P3; FP2: 1:28.586, P7

“It was a constructive day, we tried many different set-ups throughout the practice sessions and I feel that I learned a lot about our car and how we can extract the most from it in the upcoming races.

“We didn’t put everything together, with multiple red flags and traffic interrupting FP2, but I think that our performance is better than it is on paper right now. It will be interesting to see how the change in conditions, in particular in terms of the wind direction, will affect tomorrow’s sessions.”

Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:29.051, P4; FP2: 1:28.544, P4

“Overall it was a positive day. This is an incredible track and the first sector feels great – you can really push there, especially with the new surface. In FP1 the balance wasn’t as good as it could have been, but we made strong progress between sessions and I’m happy with the direction we took.

“There’s still some work to do overnight, and with the weather set to change, we’ll need to stay focussed – but we’re in a good position and I’m excited to see what we can do. It was amazing seeing so many of my fans in red, which I’m really grateful for and I hope I can bring them some good results this weekend!”

Max Verstappen – FP1: 1:29.065, P5; FP2: 1:28.670, P8

“Of course, it was quite chaotic out there for everyone with the red flags so, like everyone else, we couldn’t complete what we wanted to do. This meant that today has been quite difficult for us as we were trying different things in the car and a lot of things weren’t clicking as much as we would have liked.

“It is quite difficult to put the lap down: you need quite a lot of confidence and commitment around here and, at the moment, I feel like I still have a bit of work to do. I was on the soft tyre, which requires a lot of management, and you can’t really push it so I only got about three laps at the end which wasn’t a great read. I think Yuki started off really well today even though FP1 and FP2 was very chaotic for everyone. Tomorrow in FP3 we can hopefully have a bit of a longer run but overall it hasn’t been an easy day.”

Yuki Tsunoda – FP1: 1:29.172, P6; FP2: 1:30.625, P18

“I think we can say today was ok, but it could have been better. FP1 was better than FP2, I gained a lot more learnings. We didn’t set a lap time in FP2 due to the number of stops in the session, you could maybe call the session a shambles for everyone. Overall, it is ok and I am happy to have confidence in the car.

“The car feels a bit different to what I felt on the simulator, a bit more than I expected in terms of car feeling, it is a bit more exaggerated in the real car. We still have some work to do and we have a lot to explore in the data before tomorrow.”

Isack Hadjar – FP1: 1:29.225, P8; FP2: 1:28.518, P3

“It was more than an encouraging Friday. I loved driving here today, and this car and track combo is definitely the best out there. It’s an impressive circuit to drive in a Formula One car, and it was something I was really looking forward since the start of the season, especially Sector 1 is really fast and satisfying.

“We had a good FP1 and FP2 and overall, it was an enjoyable day; it was the same in Australia and China, so we know what to work on. I felt good in the car and I think we’re on the right trajectory to get a nice result tomorrow, so we’ll give our best to qualify well.”

Liam Lawson – FP1: 1:29.536, P13; FP2: 1:28.559, P5

“It was a good day, it’s nice to be back, everyone’s been very very positive. I’ve spent a lot of time with this team, they’re a great bunch of people and it’s nice to feel welcomed back again. Also nice to be driving in Suzuka again, it’s a very cool track, with the resurfacing in sector one it’s even faster now; it just feels like it’s tearing your head off, which is quite exciting.

“All in all, a good day, but obviously tomorrow is the more important one. The car felt good, it does feel different, the window that the guys have at the moment is very very good, the car is pretty fast so far this season so hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow as well.”

Fernando Alonso – FP1: 1:29.222, P7; FP2: 1:29.978, P17

“It’s always great to drive around Suzuka. It’s a fantastic circuit with a great atmosphere thanks to the amazing fans. The new surface is better. It’s very smooth in the first sector’s high-speed corners. In FP2 I lost the car into Turn 8 and I ended up in the gravel. We’ll have a look at what happened and let’s see what we can do tomorrow in Qualifying.”

Lance Stroll – FP1: 1:29.758, P16; FP2: 1:30.845, P19

“It’s nice to be back in Suzuka. There wasn’t too much running in FP2 due to multiple red flags, but we’ve been able to learn quite a lot and will analyse the data tonight. I’m looking forward to applying what we’ve learnt and getting back in the car tomorrow.”

Alex Albon – FP1: 1:29.392, P11; FP2: 1:29.023, P11

“I think we need the sprinklers out! We maybe weren’t as quick as we wanted to be but today has been very disjointed. We know where we need to improve though, so we’ll do some tuning overnight. I’m feeling good in the car, I’m confident and I hope we can score some points this weekend.”

Carlos Sainz – FP1: 1:29.333, P10; FP2: 1:28.832, P10
“An eventful Friday here in Suzuka. During FP1 we managed to test a few things on the car and do some good running. However, FP2 was very disrupted and I really couldn’t get a proper read of the things we wanted to try out, although it seemed we were working in the right direction.

“It’s going to be a hectic FP3 for everyone tomorrow, there’s a lot of things to try and the wind direction is going to change, so the cars may feel very different compared to today. I hope Jack is feeling well after his incident and tomorrow he can be back at it.”

Nico Hulkenberg – FP1: 1:30.023, P17; FP2: 1:29.062, P12
“I think Friday was okay. FP2 was obviously very limited – we didn’t deliver as many laps as planned because of the four red flags. But that’s the same for everyone, it means we have a limited amount of data and limited information, but the car felt okay and a bit better than in FP1.

“Obviously, it was difficult to retrieve a proper read and understand everyone’s performance this afternoon. We‘re analysing everything now to optimise the set-up for tomorrow.”

Gabriel Bortoleto – FP1: 1:30.147, P20; FP2: 1:29.335, P13

“Today has been a positive first day on track; I was really looking forward to driving in Suzuka, and I enjoyed every second of it. It’s possibly the most beautiful track I have ever been to. FP1 went smoothly and allowed us to go through our plan. FP2, on the other hand, has been pretty eventful, with several red flags.

“We didn’t manage to complete our programme for the session, but I doubt anyone did – still, we’re going to be working on the learnings from today as we are trying to extract as much as possible from the data we gathered ahead of tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon – FP1: 1:30.123, P19; FP2: 1:29.507, P14

“It was a difficult session; it was interrupted by many red flags so we couldn’t complete the run program we wanted. It’s more difficult compared to China currently, we’re lacking a bit here and there, there are things we need to work on, and there are things we’ve tested across cars. We need to dig into it overnight and choose the best for us, it’s all on us to find more performance. I think we’ve made progress with the floor; I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Oliver Bearman – FP1: 1:30.077, P18; FP2: 1:29.654, P15

“FP2 was tough, not getting many laps in with such an interrupted session. The track is tough with this wind, so it was no surprise that things happened – it was very gusty and inconsistent. I felt pretty good out there, so I’m annoyed that I couldn’t do a proper lap and show what we could do.

“I had a decent feeling in the afternoon, this morning was a bit more difficult, but we made some changes and we’re making small steps. The new floor seemed okay – we haven’t got a full read on it yet – we have to look overnight to make sure it’s all correct, but so far there’s nothing that has caught us out by surprise which is good.”

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