George Russell put his Mercedes a quarter of a second ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli in first practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. The Englishman set a 31.666 as the teams gap appeared to slightly narrow with Lando Norris a tenth and a quarter further behind, as McLaren made a decent start to the weekend.
With Russell and Antonelli having divided the first two grands prix wins between themselves, Mercedes’ early-season dominance showed little signs of slowing down at the third weekend of 2026. When the frontrunners switched to Pirelli’s softest compound, Russell and Antonelli further cemented their spot at the top of the order.
Russell, who leads Antonelli by four points in the championship, set his fastest time on soft tyres midway through the session. But it was an encouraging start for Norris, who was a tenth behind the Italian, with teammate Oscar Piastri seven hundredths further behind. Piastri goes into this weekend with the basic aim of trying to start after crashing on his way to the grid in Melbourne, and a technical problem in Shanghai.
Norris had started FP1 by doing some aero testing before switching to his performance running. While the session played out in warm spring-time conditions under sunny skies, Norris, Russell and Leclerc all had off-track moments at the long, curved Spoon corner.
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari nearly three tenths behind Piastri as he went eight and a half hundredths faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton, the duo the last two cars to lap within half a second of the Mercedes.
Max Verstappen was seventh, the Dutchman who has won the last four Grand Prix at Suzuka, goes into this weekend admitting Red Bull doesn’t have the pace and performance to go for a fifth win in a row. Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar could only manage thirteenth following an early brake temperature issue.
Red Bull did, though, use the first session to evaluate the biggest suite of upgrades introduced to a car across the grid this weekend, with the RB22’s changes including revised floor and sidepod design. Many teams have brought their upgrades a race early, due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, due to the war in Iran.
Ferrari has brought revisions to its floor and front corner, whereas Mercedes and McLaren have stuck with their aerodynamic packages from Shanghai. Many teams will be expected to bring their first big upgrades to Miami and/or Barcelona, which would have been scheduled for Sakhir.
Liam Lawson put his Racing Bull three-quarters of a tenth behind the Dutchman, as Esteban Ocon went ninth, splitting the Racing Bulls. He was also three-quarters of a tenth behind Lawson and ahead of Arvid Lindblad by six and a half hundredths as he completed the top ten.
The Audi duo missed out on the top ten by nearly a tenth, with Gabriel Bortoleto going four hundredths ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Ollie Bearman put his Haas fourteenth ahead of the Alpine duo by three-quarters of a tenth, with Pierre Gasly nearly four hundredths ahead of teammate Franco Colapinto.
Carlos Sainz was three tenths faster than teammate Alex Albon, the British-Thai was involved in a collision with Sergio Perez at the Casio Chicane. As he tried to overtake, under braking down the inside, the two cars made contact, scattering debris across the track.
Perez said on team radio, “Oh my god! I had no idea the Williams was next to us. He crashed into me.”
Albon said on Williams team radio: “I don’t know if he saw me.”
Perez had earlier been branded an “idiot” over team radio by Russell when the Mercedes driver was caught behind the Cadillac exiting the final corner of what still proved to be the session’s quickest lap.
Albon and Perez were summoned to the stewards after the session amid an investigation into the incident. Hamilton, Verstappen, Lawson and Sainz, were also called to explain alleged incidents of blocking during the hour of running. However, stewards took no further action regarding any of the three incidents.
Perez was just over a quarter of a second faster than Cadillac teammate Valtteri Bottas, followed by the two Aston Martin’s. Lance Stroll was a second faster than test driver Jak Crawford, who replaced Fernando Alonso, who has been on paternity leave and arrived early on Friday following the birth of his first child.
But Crawford was only able to complete eleven laps due to bodywork damage on the car, while Aston continued to struggle for pace, they were eight tenths behind the Aston Martin’s.
