Suzuka, FP1: Hamilton in charge

In opening practice for Japanese Grand Prix

By Franck Drui

5 October 2018 - 04:35
Suzuka, FP1: Hamilton in charge

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in the opening practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix finishing half a second clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and almost seven tenths of a second ahead of the third-placed Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen and championship challenger Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fourth and fifth places, but both set their best times using the supersoft Pirelli compound, while Hamilton session-best time of 1:28.691s was delivered on soft tyres. Vettel ended the session just under a second off his title rival.

Ricciardo and Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen took an early hold of the top spots on the timesheet, running on the soft tyre, but when Bottas moved from mediums to softs as the session approached the half way mark he put Mercedes on top with a time of 1:29.842s.

The Finn later improved to a time of 1:29.137s but that was soon bested by Hamilton who shot to the top of the order with his first flying lap on soft tyres.

Hamilton’s session was not without incident. The Briton was forced to take evasive action as he approached the final chicane when he unexpectedly came across the slow-moving Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman had dropped his pace dramatically as he prepared for a flying lap but had stayed on the racing line. The Toro Rosso driver was checking in his mirrors but Hamilton’s approach was too quick and the Mercedes driver had to swerve dramatically at the last second to avoid Gasly a collision. The Toro Rosso man was later reprimanded by the stewards for ‘driving unnecessarily slowly and impeding car 44 in turn 16’.

Vettel, 0.994s behind Hamilton, was the last driver to finish within a second of the defending champion, with Verstappen taking sixth place 1.150s behind Hamilton.

Beyond the top three teams, Racing Point Force India’s Esteban was best of the rest, though the French driver ended the session 1.9s off the pace. Haas Romain Grosjean was eighth ahead of the Saubers of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson.

At the other end of the order, Lando was the session’s slowest man, with the 2019 McLaren driver finishing 3.9s off the pace, as he stood in for regular race driver Stoffel Vandoorne.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:28.691 25
02 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG 1:29.137 26
03 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:29.373 32
04 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:29.627 20
05 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:29.685 20
06 Max Verstappen Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:29.841 30
07 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:30.591 28
08 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:30.814 22
09 Charles Leclerc Sauber Ferrari 1:30.929 27
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:31.073 29
11 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso Honda 1:31.073 20
12 Carlos Sainz Renault F1 1:31.100 26
13 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:31.272 29
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:31.274 28
15 Nico Hulkenberg Renault F1 1:31.418 18
16 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:31.508 27
17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso Honda 1:31.908 23
18 Fernando Alonso McLaren Renault 1:32.034 21
19 Sergey Sirotkin Williams Mercedes 1:32.513 26
20 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:32.683 30

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