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Max Verstappen prepares to conquer Suzuka after a challenging start to the F1 season in Australia.

After a challenging start to the campaign where Mercedes has struggled with its W15, duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth and fifth quickest respectively in Suzuka’s morning free practice session, which offered the only representative running with FP2 taking place in damp conditions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ricciardo has struggled to match team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year and has suggested that something might not be right with his package.

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.