McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris celebrate following their one-two finish in Japan GP practice. | AFP
Image: HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
McLaren showed no signs of letting off the throttle as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were the fastest during the first and second practice sessions on Friday at Suzuka.
Piastri posted a fastest lap of 1:28.114 with Norris +0.049 seconds behind the lead pace.
Norris posted the fastest time during the first practice but Piastri went faster during the second
The Racing Bulls seems to have overtaken the senior team during practice as both Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson cracked the top five fastest.
Hadjar was +0.404 seconds off Piastri’s pace and 0.030s ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari.
Lawson made up the top five with his best lap of 1:28.559, +0.445 seconds behind the Mclaren.
The 23-year-old Kiwi showed up his former team, Red Bull, placing ahead of both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda. To no fault of their own, unfortunately, as four incidents during practice could not allow Tsunoda and Verstappen to complete a full lap on their fastest tyres.
Tsunoda did not complete a lap on soft tyres as well.
The Kiwi’s confidence could have arguably enjoyed the little boost from Friday’s practice as they head into qualifying on Saturday, after suffering a disastrous start to his season.
A crash, a spinout and two fires caused a delay of around 40 minutes during the weeknd's second practice. Alpine's Jack Doorhan put his car into the wall at turn 1 at high speed which took up 20 minutes alone to clear.
George Russell of Mercedes made P6 in practice while Ferrari’s Charles Le Clerc posted 7th fastest of the day.
Max Verstappen had to take the 8th spot having not gotten a solid lap through at Suzuka, ahead of Pierre Gasly in the Alpine. Williams racer Carlos Sainz made up the top 10 for practice, +0.718 seconds behind the pace.