Fernando Alonso leads in first practice

First part of free practice

Cloudy. To rain. Air +15C, Rail +19C

Formula 1 returned to Japan for the first time since 2019 – the podium was not held the previous two seasons due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The first practice met the riders with rain and a wet track. The weather forecast promised no improvement in the weather in the next few minutes, so no one was in a hurry to leave the boxes. Five minutes after the start of the session, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda took to the track on wet tires, but showed no time and returned straight to the pits.

Fifteen minutes after the start of the training, the riders took to the track one by one to assess the condition of the asphalt. Someone limited himself to the assembly circle, someone drove short series on wet tires.

Max Verstappen was the first to start on intermediate tires – this happened half an hour after the start of the session. At the same time, yellow flags appeared on the track – Nicholas Latifi drove into the gravel in the hairpin of corner eight, but returned safely.

The rain stopped, the track started to dry out – and the riders, following the championship leader, started switching to intermediate tires. Gradually the speeds increased, the riders worked on long series. Charles Leclerc and Daniel Riccardo left the track without affecting the car.

Fifteen minutes before the end of the session the rain got heavier and everyone returned to the pits. In the closing minutes, Zhou, Bottas, Gasly, Tsunoda, Vettel, Stroll, Magnussen, Schumacher, Sainz and Leclerc came out on wet tires but no one improved their result. After completing practice on the way to the pits, Mick Schumacher lost control on a wet track in Turn 7 and the car crashed.

The best time was shown by Fernando Alonso – 1:42.248 seconds.