An interesting session saw Sebastian Vettel left sitting at the top of the time sheets with a lap of 1:29.166 followed by Lewis Hamilton two-tenths adrift, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo third, a further two-tenths back.
Kimi Räikkönen was fourth quickest ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who failed to break into the 1:29s. The top ten were completed by Verstappen, Ocon, Hülkenberg, Grosjean, and Vandoorne.
“Risk of light rain for this session is 80%,” read the timing monitors that greeted drivers as they ventured out for Free Practice 1 at the iconic Suzuka circuit shortly after 10am.
So instead of the usual slow start to proceedings that we are so used to, there was a marked uptake in track action with no less than 20 cars out on the track in the first ten minutes and flying laps being set by at least 15 drivers in the first fifteen minutes. Quite a change from the usual dribble of cars doing installation laps that we normally see in early FP1…
20 minutes in, it was Hamilton setting the pace with 11 laps in the bag and a time of 1:30.042, followed by team-mate Bottas, Räikkönen and Vettel, 0.185s, 0.470s and 0.599s behind respectively, well ahead of last year’s pole time of 1:30.647.
A third of the way through the 90-minute session all but Alonso and Ocon were into double figures for laps run with the grid’s favourite Aussie at the top of the time sheets and the first driver to break the 1:30s barrier. However this was soon eclipsed by Hamilton with a startling effort of 1:29.377, fast approaching the all time lap record of Michael Schumacher’s 2006 effort of 1:28.954.
As the rain continued to hold off, Vettel joined in, initially setting a lap just 0.042s shy of Hamilton before improving to a 1:29.166, a full two tenths clear of the Mercedes. Meanwhile Räikkönen became the fourth driver to break the 1:30s barrier.
Last weekend’s winner Max Verstappen wasn’t having things his own way, languishing down in sixth, nearly 1.6s behind Vettel and not happy judging by the radio chatter between the frustrated driver and his pit crew.
Then, just after 50 minutes into the session, the red flag came out; not for rain but for Carlos Sainz when his right rear caught the Astro-turf coming out of the Turn 11 hairpin. With his foot firmly planted on the fast pedal, the hapless Spaniard was catapulted into the barriers at a right angle, his wrecked STR12 coming to a stop in the middle of the track.
With 23 minutes left on the clock, there was a mad scramble for the pit exit as the expected rain had still to materialise. But no sooner had the cars returned to the track, it started to drizzle with Race Control finally declaring the track fully “wet” with five minutes remaining; leaving the timing sheets unchallenged as the cars returned to their garages.
