2026 Japanese Grand Prix - Friday

Intriguing Friday at Suzuka

• The opening day of track action at the Japanese Grand Prix provided plenty of intrigue with several cars in the mix at the front.
• The team got a look at all three tyre compounds across the two practice sessions, compiling long run data on the Hard, Medium, and Soft tyres.
• George topped the times in FP1, just a few hundredths quicker than his team-mate Kimi, with the rest of the field close behind on the team’s heels.
• That continued into FP2 with the McLaren of Oscar Piastri looking quick throughout and ultimately setting the pace on the day.
• His 1:30.133s put him one tenth ahead of Kimi who was himself a tenth quicker than George.
• Our duo looked competitive on long run pace but with plenty of traffic being encountered around the 5.821km, it was hard to get a clear overall read.
• The team returns to the circuit for FP3 tomorrow morning before an important qualifying session around a track that is notoriously challenging to overtake at.

Kimi Antonelli

We’ve had a decent Friday here at Suzuka. We got through our full programme and managed to gather data across all three compounds. Whilst we’re pleased with what we’ve accomplished, we’ve got work to do. McLaren in particular have looked very quick, and several other cars are not too far away either.

The W17 feels good but with changeable wind conditions and cooler tyres, it’s been tricky to put our laps together. Improving the overall balance is therefore an objective overnight and, if we can do so, then hopefully we can make sure we’re in the fight for pole position on Saturday. That could be key given the difficulty we usually face in overtaking here. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

George Russell

It’s great to be back here at Suzuka; it’s an incredible circuit and always a challenge behind-the-wheel. There has been a lot of noise about how these new cars would behave around this track and their relative pace. There are a couple of areas on the single lap that we are slightly slower into the apex, but the Esses are still super challenging and the speeds we are achieving halfway down the back straight are some of the fastest we’ve ever done. That’s been pretty cool and good to see. 

Overall, we had a decent Friday out there. It was a little surprising to see the pace of McLaren but there is no reason to believe that it isn’t genuine. We’ve clearly got some work to do overnight to find some pace if we are to challenge them tomorrow. Fortunately, we have several areas where we are aiming to improve and hopefully, we can do that overnight. We will find out where we stand come qualifying.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We've had a fairly straightforward first day here in Suzuka. The car ran reliably and we've been able to get through our planned work. This track is quite challenging from an energy point of view, especially on the single lap; we were losing some time out of the final chicane and that is something we will be looking to improve for tomorrow.

In terms of pace, it looks like we are in a reasonable place although both McLaren and Ferrari have posted impressive times during the day so we're not taking anything for granted. We've managed to long run all three tyre compounds during the day and that gives us useful information for Sunday. There are a few things we can chase overnight to try and improve the speed and balance of the car but overall we have got off to a decent start.