The Latest Breaking News from Suzuka

At the restart after the first-lap red flag caused by the crash between Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo, Mercedes swapped George Russell and Lewis Hamilton from medium tyres to the hard compound in a strategy switch that targeted a one-stop plan. But both drivers struggled for pace on the hards…

The Maranello outfit had hoped that the progress it had made with its SF-24 this year would allow it to pose a proper threat to Red Bull around the high-speed swoops of Suzuka.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull led the way in opening practice for Formula 1’s 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, but this was far from a repeat affair of the opening day from the 2023 event at Suzuka just six months ago.

A new way of allocating wet-weather rubber for 2024 meant teams were reluctant to use any intermediate tyres in Suzuka’s damp FP2 session because they wanted to save them for later in the weekend.

The F1 world champion led a Red Bull 1-2 in opening practice which was red-flagged midway through as Logan Sargeant crashed heavily, which ruled him out of FP2 as his Williams car was repaired.But the American driver missed relatively little running as damp conditions meant no representative running in the…

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.

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.

There was a touch of inevitability. Red Bull’s significant Suzuka upgrade has not slimmed the RB20 as predicted, with rumours Ferrari was rushing its important Imola updates scotched too on what was overall something of a slow news day on Thursday.