Verstappen Tops Friday Practice for 2023 Japanese GP

Roundup of Friday Practice for 2023 Japanese Grand Prix as Max Verstappen dominated both sessions.

Fresh off the back of a difficult Singapore Grand Prix which saw Red Bull’s winning streak ended, Verstappen blitzed FP1 before he went on to top FP2 in a confident day of running, which included a Pirelli test tyre ahead of next season.

Now, here is a full roundup of FP1 and FP2 for 2023 Japanese GP at Suzuka.

 

FP1

Verstappen was the first driver to hit the track as he looked to put a difficult Singapore GP weekend behind him, and immediately set the benchmark time of 1m 33.719 on the hard tyre, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc on medium and test tyres respectively.

On his next flying lap, Verstappen found 0.365 seconds to lower his benchmark time to 1m 33.354 and remained unbeaten throughout the session, as he twice set quicker lap times on the test tyre that Pirelli have brought for Friday’s running.

The two-time champion ultimately set his quickest lap time on the soft tyre of 1m 31.647 in the 34th minute, having sat top from Alonso and Hamilton at the halfway mark as the latter pair set their quickest laps at that point on the medium tyre.

Sainz eventually finished second-fastest at the checkered flag ahead of Lando Norris as only four drivers got within one second of Verstappen’s quickest lap time.

George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou were the only drivers to set their best lap times on the medium tyre, whilst everyone managed to produce their quickest lap on the soft tyre.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1m 31.647
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0 626
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.745
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.927
5	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 0.950
6	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 1.003
7	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 1.066
8	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.344
9	Liam Lawson	AlphaTauri	+ 1.358
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.393
11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 1.396
12	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.482
13	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 1.663
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+ 1.801
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1.869
16	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 2.052
17	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+ 2.213
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 2.328
19	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+ 2.565
20	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 3.184

 

FP2

A frantic start to FP2 saw almost everyone instantly hit the track with Bottas setting the initial pace on test tyres with 1m 33.163, but Verstappen ran his opening stint on the soft tyre and posted 1m 31.377 in the 10th minute to go fastest from Norris, Leclerc and Perez.

Leclerc and Sainz however responded six minutes later to go second and third quickest ahead of Qualifying simulations, which saw Norris go fastest with 1m 31.152 in the 26th minute.

Leclerc displaced him by 0.144s three minutes later but Verstappen eventually posted a session topping 1m 30.688 in the 34th minute, which ensured that he topped both sessions in Friday Practice, ahead of Leclerc and Norris.

The session however came to an early end with two minutes left after Gasly locked up and crashed at Turn 9.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1m 30.688
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.320
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.464
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.549
5	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.640
6	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.804
7	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.867
8	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.974
9	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 1.022
10	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.051
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.083
12	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1.106
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+ 1.109
14	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 1.141
15	Liam Lawson	AlphaTauri	+ 1.453
16	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.477
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 1.481
18	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 1.490
19	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.491
20	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+ 1.632