Lando Norris topped the FP1 session at the F1 Japanese GP ahead of George Russell and Ferraris Charles Leclerc, full report and results below.
The McLaren driver eventually got a clean lap time after a couple of small errors at the final turn while his teammate Oscar Piastri had a quiet session.
A flurry of cars left the pit lane at Suzuka to kick off the first practice session of the weekend for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen set the pace in the opening stages with a 1:30.738 before going one second quicker to lower the benchmark.
Fernando Alonso sat in second place for Aston Martin on the hard tyre as Charles Leclerc held third position for Ferrari.
Oliver Bearman had a difficult start to the session as he was forced to stay in the garage as work was done to the Haas for the opening 10 minutes.
The British driver eventually joined the track with 15 minutes gone to gather data as the American team look to respond after a lacklustre opening two rounds.
George Russell led ahead of Max Verstappen
As first practice progressed, Russell topped the timesheets ahead of Verstappen with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar in third place.
The two Ferraris sat in fifth and sixth place, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc with just over half an hour to go.
Mercedes tends to impress on Fridays, and Russell set a 1:28.809 on a new soft tyre but did gain a significant amount of time despite the extra mechanical grip.
Norris sat 11th out of the top 10 and didn’t look completely comfortable on the medium tyre at Suzuka.
The British driver made a mistake at the Casio Chicane and ran into the gravel at the end of an attempt on the soft tyre in a relatively tricky session. Norris eventually got a clean lap time a went quickest, a tenth ahead of Russell.
Tsunoda was very competitive on his first outing for Red Bull and finished sixth, just a tenth slower than his teammate Verstappen.
Liam Lawson was dropped by Red Bull and set the 13th-quickest time in the first practice, behind his teammate Hadjar.
The track was quite green throughout the session but got quicker as more rubber was put down by the 20 cars.
The final order after the hour of running, full results of FP1 at the Japanese GP
