53 laps of the 5.807-kilometre Suzuka International Racing Course 05th April Practice 1 03:30 - 04:30 05th April Practice 2 07:00 - 08:00 06th April Practice 3 03:30 - 04:30 06th April Qualifying 07:00 - 08:00 07th April Race 06:00 - 08:00 All times are UK times Poll closes before Quali.
sadly another race i won't get up early for. This again like australia was a MUST watch and you'd be up trying not to wake the house despite having the big race on. Thats all gone. Susuka is too narrow for these generation of cars, just like melbourne The track is high DF and we might see 2 pit stops as the pit is short. HOWEVER pirelli have seen fit to bring the 3 harest possible compound tyres here so theres a good chance this goes 1 stop. They ahve also required high tyre pressures to survie the high speed sections so lets see what impact that has on certain cars (merc) I would be interested to see what advatnage if any the red bull has in the first half of the lap and really see if they have the aero package but then the second half is all speed and with the hairpin testing their traction and the chicane testing the car stability. We can but hope for a dnf again but in reality this track should be a classic but can they even pass? Quali last year was 1:28.877 from verstappen so you have to expect a 1:27.999 kind of time form the evidence of this season so far. P1: 1:31.647 P2: 1:30.688 P3: 1:30.267 This race is on at a completely different time of year so who knows what that will do? what we do know is the mclarens were close last season and the evidence form melbourne suggests they could be close again to the front. I expect mercs to be out in Q2 honestly, a bet might be to cover at least 1 merc out before Q3.
There are some upgrades appearing in pitlanes- RBR have some tweaks to those letterbox inlets and sidepod I believe. Aston have new sidepods and floor. Il try and grab some photos from the pit lane experts later to add to team discussions.
Definite changes to Aston and tweaks on the Red Bull. Cant see anything on Ferrari yet - McLarens livery is putting me off seeing the details - can you see any changes on that?
all we know is some folk didn't bother in the rain. they will regret it. very good fp1 for merc. everyone close before the power is unleashed.
I feel genuinely gutted the way the Japanese fans have been treated in recent seasons. The weather causing chaos and limited running. They are some of if not THE most genuine fans on the calendar- instead the pundits all get a bit giddy because they make creative hats and outfits instead of calling out the BS of them paying top money to watch the FP2 timer tick down with zero action. 1 hour practice sessions yet again an issue, especially when the clock is always running.
the mercs and Hamilton again making silly comments about their fp1 session. the times are not quick. the track will be green I can only see them tumbling back come quali tomorrow.
Yeah I think they need to be careful- however the car visibly looked better than I thought it would would- I thought it might be a horrid car at high speed here but it’s been okay. Talk about cooler temps possibly helping but that theory yet to be fully proven. Sainz was an eye catching lap- matched Max everywhere bar final sector and I understand McLarens hot laps on fresh softs were compromised so we’ll get their true representation tomorrow. Alonso did a respectable lap in the non-upgraded Aston- he’ll have a busy P3 getting up to speed with the new parts should they chose to use them but hopefully the upgrades work as I think there is raw pace in that package somewhere.
Better being optimistic than pessimistic They're not winning the race, but all making it in to Q3 is alright.
