Max sixth in first free practice Suzuka

Published on 07 October 2016 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen opened his Japanese Grand Prix weekend with a sixth place in the first free practice session on Friday. The Mercedes led the way in first and second – Nico Rosberg was fastest – followed by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in their Ferraris. The Red Bulls finished in fifth and sixth. Both Mercedes and Ferrari set their quickest times on the softer, faster tyre, therefore making predictions about Red Bull’s relative pace to the front difficult.

Max’ return to Suzuka iss not smooth as he hoped. In his opening run, the gearbox is hammering down the gears: “Downshifts feel like a handbrake”, Max remarks to the team over the radio.

As usual, the drivers explore the limit in the FP1 of a Grand Prix weekend. Fernando Alonso is the first to find, and go over it. The Spaniard loses his McLaren into Spoon corner. Despite a broken rear wing, he is able to drive his car back to the pits.

After struggling with brake issues in Singapore and Malaysia, Romain Grosjean again has problems stopping his Haas F1. This time, the French man has an off at the high speed Degner corner, damaging his front against the tyre wall.

Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing uses the opening session for several aero test, which explained the ‘flow-vis’ pain and the sensor frame attached to the Daniel Ricciardo’s RB12. The Austrian outfit open the session on the hard tyre before switching to the medium Pirellis.

Both Max’ and Ricciardo’s fastest laps are set on the latter tyre. Ferrari and Mercedes both clocked their quickest efforts on the faster, soft tyre. The end results is therefore a top six made of two Mercedes, followed by two Ferraris and both Red Bulls.

Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka - Friday 7 October

FREE PRACTCE 1 RESULTS

01  6 Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                    1:32.431           24
02 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:32.646  +0.215s  21
03  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:33.525  +1.094s  19
04  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                     1:33.817  +1.386s  17
05  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:34.112  +1.681s  23
06 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:34.379  +1.948s  26
07 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Force India Mercedes        1:34.530  +2.099s  28
08 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:34.767  +2.336s  30
09 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:35.003  +2.572s  10
10 77 Valtteri Bottas     Williams Mercedes           1:35.381  +2.950s  31
11 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:35.446  +3.015s  23
12 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:35.672  +3.241s  27
13 22 Jenson Button       McLaren Honda               1:35.677  +3.246s  24
14  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:35.688  +3.257s  17
15 12 Felipe Nasr         Sauber Ferrari              1:35.967  +3.536s  15
16 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:36.169  +3.738s  23
17 21 Esteban Gutierrez   Haas Ferrari                1:36.219  +3.788s  21
18  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:36.294  +3.863s  19
19 20 Kevin Magnussen     Renault                     1:36.822  +4.391s  30
20 31 Esteban Ocon        MRT Mercedes                1:37.797  +5.366s  29
21 94 Pascal Wehrlein     MRT Mercedes                1:37.966  +5.535s  24
22 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                     1:37.992  +5.561s  13

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