F1 Japanese Grand Prix 2026 Practice Round-Up: Mercedes in Charge but Reliability is Friday’s Real Story at Suzuka

Friday at Suzuka had a familiar feel at the top and a complicated one everywhere else. George Russell led a Mercedes 1-2 in FP1 with Kimi Antonelli just 0.026s behind, the W17 looking composed and controlled from the first flying lap. Norris spent the opening half of FP1 in the garage before making it back out for a Soft run, then lost most of FP2 to a suspected hydraulic leak. Alexander Albon fishtailed through the Degner gravel, then made contact with Perez into the chicane and came home with front wing damage. Red Bull spent both sessions working through setup with neither Verstappen nor Hadjar satisfied with what they had. Oscar Piastri topped FP2. Further down the order, lost track time was already shaping the story of the day. One day in at Suzuka, and the 2026 reliability story is still very much being written.

Key Points – F1 Japanese Grand Prix 2026 Practice

• Russell topped FP1 with a 1:31.666, just 0.026s ahead of Antonelli, with Mercedes going 1-2 on the C3 Soft compound
• Piastri topped FP2 with a 1:30.133, heading Antonelli by 0.092s with Russell third, McLaren showing genuine single-lap pace at Suzuka
• Norris lost most of FP2 to a suspected hydraulic issue, eventually rejoining for a single Soft lap to finish fourth, half a second off his team-mate
• Verstappen and Hadjar both complained about downshifts and balance throughout FP1, Red Bull running flow-vis paint as part of a four-component update package at Suzuka
• Albon was involved in two incidents across FP1, a big moment through the Degner gravel and a collision with Perez that damaged his front wing and was investigated by the stewards
• Lindblad completed just one out-lap in FP2 before parking up
• Bortoleto managed two laps in FP2 before his Audi was lifted onto the high stands with a reliability issue, leaving Hülkenberg as the only Audi driver with meaningful running

FP1: Mercedes Go 1-2 as Red Bull Search for Direction

The hardest compound range Pirelli bring all season. C1, C2 and C3. Suzuka demands that. And from the moment the pit lane opened, it was clear this would be a session about finding the line through the high-speed sequences, building rhythm on a surface that had barely been touched all year.

Audi sent both cars straight out. Hülkenberg on the Mediums, Bortoleto on the Hards. Most of the field followed on Hards, with McLaren, Red Bull, Sainz, Gasly and Perez opting for Mediums early. Crawford was out in Alonso’s Aston Martin running aero rakes. Norris had scaffolding on his car too, both teams gathering aerodynamic data before the serious running began.

The early times came quickly. Piastri led briefly, Leclerc slotted in close behind. Then Russell put in a 1:32.429 on the Hard compound and went to the top by nearly four tenths. The championship leader was already looking comfortable at Suzuka.

Verstappen and Hadjar were clearly working through a setup programme rather than chasing lap times. Flow-vis paint covering the RB22, Verstappen sitting seventh on the Mediums over a second off the pace with a big wobble accelerating out of a corner. Hadjar on the radio complaining about his car pulling and a snap of oversteer through the final corner. Both drivers giving the engineers exactly the kind of feedback you need when you are still searching for the right direction. The times did not matter yet. The data did.

Norris had his own problems early. One out-lap and then parked up. Aero rakes being removed from his car, but the issue clearly ran deeper than aero hardware. He sat in the garage while the session continued without him, eventually making it back out in the final phase to set his time on the Softs.

Mercedes moved to the C3 Soft first. Russell straight to the top with a 1:31.755. Antonelli locked up slightly on his run and ended the lap four tenths behind. Antonelli came back around, tidied the lap and got down to 1:31.692. The teenager had taken top spot.

Russell answered immediately. A 1:31.666. Just 0.026s clear of his team-mate. Both times stood to the end of the session.

Norris finally made it back out and went to the Softs late. A 1:31.798. Third place, 0.132s off Russell. Piastri followed with a 1:31.865, 0.199s back. The top six were covered by under four tenths of a second, McLaren having leapfrogged Ferrari in the closing stages.

Leclerc took fifth on 1:31.955, Hamilton sixth on 1:32.040. Ferrari close but unable to match the pace of Mercedes or the late McLaren push.

Behind the top six, the gaps opened up sharply. Verstappen seventh on 1:32.457, 0.791s off the pace, still vocal on the radio about downshifts and balance that never improved across the session. Lawson eighth for Racing Bulls, 0.072s behind Verstappen and the same margin ahead of Ocon in ninth for Haas. Lindblad rounded out the top ten, 0.999s off Russell on his first visit to this circuit. The support series do not race at Suzuka, so every lap was new to him. He still finished inside the top ten.

Hadjar ended up thirteenth, 1.137s off the pace, his session summed up by the radio complaints that started before the first timed lap was set.

Albon’s afternoon was the messiest on the grid. A big moment at the Degner Curves, the Williams fishtailing through the thin gravel trap and touching the barriers. He limped back to the pit lane for a floor check. Then, in the closing stages, he tried to pass Perez into the chicane. Perez did not see him and turned in. Contact. Debris on track. Albon came home with front wing damage. The incident was referred to the stewards for post-session investigation.

Albon ended up eighteenth, behind team-mate Sainz in seventeenth. A difficult session for a team already dealing with an overweight car. And with Norris reported to have a hydraulic leak heading into FP2, McLaren have their own problems to manage before the afternoon session gets underway.

Aston Martin were back near the bottom. Crawford took Alonso’s seat for the mandatory rookie session, completing just 11 laps before finishing last on 1:36.362, 4.696s off the pace. Stroll twenty-first on 1:35.294. Alonso returned for FP2, but the team were always going to be short on data heading into the afternoon.

The top of the order looked familiar again. Three rounds into 2026, Mercedes are once again the team to beat.

Technical Updates: Who Brought What to Suzuka

Seven teams arrived at Suzuka with updates on their cars. The scale of those updates tells its own story, particularly for Red Bull, who brought the largest package of the weekend despite their car giving both drivers problems from the first flying lap.

Red Bull’s four-component update centres on the sidepod inlet, with the team revising the inlet profile to pull higher pressure air from upstream and improve flow efficiency. The engine cover and floor were both updated as a direct consequence of that inlet change, with the floor also extending forward to the chassis to extract more load. A fourth update targets the rear corner specifically for Suzuka’s braking demands, with revised inlet and exit geometries on the rear wheel bodywork to handle the brake material requirements of this circuit. That is a big package to bring to Suzuka. What happens with it across FP2 and Saturday will tell you whether the sim results match reality.

Ferrari brought two updates. A smaller front brake duct geometry trades off some brake cooling for external aerodynamic performance, a change the team say Suzuka’s braking profile specifically allows them to make. The second is a floor body update, a reprofiling of the front floor stay fairing to improve local flow and recover floor performance.

Aston Martin brought three updates, which is notable given the weekend they are having. Front wing and front wing endplate changes work together to improve load distribution at the outboard end of the wing. The floor leading edge devices have also been revised to modify how load is generated across the full width of the floor. Three updates from a team that could not turn a meaningful lap in FP1. They need FP2 to start delivering answers.

Alpine arrived with three updates of their own. A redesigned front deflector targets flow management consistency across the operating range. The rear wing and rear wing endplate have both been revised, with the team looking to extract more performance in both cornering and straight-line modes.

Haas brought a front wing update, simplifying the SM linkage to reduce blockage and improve airflow towards the rear of the car. Cadillac updated the diffuser fence and the central diffuser trailing edge, targeting rear aerodynamic load and ride height behaviour. Williams revised the front suspension claddings, optimising the external profiles around updated internal suspension structures to reduce the impact on downstream airflow.

McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Audi submitted no updates for this event.

One thing worth noting. Bringing an update to a race weekend does not guarantee it races. Friday is when the sim meets reality. If the data does not match, the parts come off and the team regroups. That is what Friday is for.

Between Sessions: Hydraulics, Floor Damage and a Long List of Questions

The gap between sessions gave teams very few answers. McLaren were chasing a suspected hydraulic leak on Norris’s car, the implications of which were still unclear heading into FP2. Cadillac were repairing floor damage on Perez’s car after the Albon contact, the Mexican driver facing a race against time to get meaningful laps in the afternoon. Racing Bulls were monitoring Lindblad after his FP1 running, and Audi had Bortoleto’s car to assess as well. The stewards cleared the Albon and Perez contact as a misunderstanding and took no further action, but both drivers still had damage to deal with.

Pirelli’s compound range for the weekend stays at C1, C2 and C3. Most teams had split their running in FP1 across Hards and Mediums before switching to Softs for the quick laps. FP2 would shift focus towards race simulation, longer runs and understanding what the tyres do over distance. But first, the teams that had lost running in the morning needed to find their way back onto the circuit.

FP2: Piastri Tops the Day as Reliability Bites Again

Hamilton led the queue out as FP2 got underway, Colapinto, Lawson and Bottas following onto a circuit that had cooled significantly from the morning. Track temperature had dropped over ten degrees since FP1, down to 25 degrees. That cooling changed the grip picture and made tyre warm-up harder across the field, with Colapinto visibly weaving to generate temperature on his opening lap.

The reliability problems started almost immediately. Norris stayed in the garage. A suspected hydraulic leak. Perez also absent while Cadillac finished repairing his floor. Lindblad completed a single out-lap before parking up, his session compromised before it had properly started. Bortoleto made it out but managed just two laps before pulling in, the car going up on the high stands in pieces. Four drivers missing meaningful running at the same time. A pattern that is starting to define this season.

Piastri led the early timing screens on Mediums with a 1:31.495. Russell second, Antonelli third, Hamilton fourth, Lawson fifth. The order shifting constantly as the field worked through their run plans. Leclerc came out late after a wait in the pits, moving straight onto Mediums and climbing to the top with a 1:31.019 as the soft tyre runs began to build.

Alonso was an anomaly. Having sat out FP1 entirely, he went straight to the Soft compound in FP2, the team prioritising single-lap data after losing the morning session. It still left them well off the pace in the classification by the end of the afternoon.

Albon had another difficult session. A car parked on the apex of the Esses brought an angry radio message. Then a throttle problem mid-session, Albon stopping briefly before getting going again under his own steam. He eventually made it through to eighth in the final classification, which given the day he had, was something.

When the Soft tyre runs arrived in earnest, the picture changed quickly. Piastri fired in a 1:30.133 to go top. Antonelli answered with second, 0.092s behind. Leclerc was back in third but the gap was growing. Russell moved to third with a clean lap, two tenths off Piastri and pushing Leclerc back to fifth.

Norris finally made it out. The hydraulic issue was managed, if not fully resolved. He went straight to the Softs and put in a 1:30.649, fourth overall, half a second off Piastri. His lap had a touch of traffic and the car looked slightly twitchy through the quicker sequences, but getting that time on the board was the priority. He had lost most of the session. He still finished fourth.

Hülkenberg was the story of the midfield. Seventh overall on 1:31.441, comfortably the best of the rest and running as the only Audi with meaningful laps completed. Albon eighth. Bearman ninth, separated from Albon by just 0.002s. Verstappen tenth, 1.376s off Piastri, the Dutchman’s afternoon disrupted by a Colapinto weaving incident in the Esses that was referred to the stewards for investigation after the session.

Hadjar fifteenth. The two Red Bulls split by nearly three tenths on a day where neither driver had looked comfortable in the RB22 from the first lap of FP1.

Bortoleto sixteenth, a single timed lap after the team managed to get him back out in the closing minutes. Lindblad twenty-second with no time set, sat on the pit wall watching the final phase of FP2 rather than adding to his Suzuka experience. The session ended with practice starts on the straight, every car cycling through apart from Lindblad. His afternoon was already done.

Coffee Corner Take

Two sessions at Suzuka. A lot answered. A few things that need another look on Saturday.

Mercedes handled Friday the best. Russell topped FP1, Antonelli kept him honest throughout and closed the gap to 0.026s by the end of the session. In FP2 Piastri split them on the timesheet but the silver cars were never in trouble. The W17 looks planted around here, both drivers comfortable, the car behaving predictably through the high-speed sequences that punish any instability. Russell leads the championship and is behaving exactly like a championship leader should. Calm, methodical, consistently at the sharp end. They never looked like they needed to push in FP1. The pace in FP2 came without any visible stress.

McLaren could be the story of the weekend, but there is a caveat that matters. Piastri topped FP2 and his Soft lap was clean and controlled, the MCL40 looking genuinely comfortable at Suzuka. Norris is a different picture. He lost most of FP2 to a hydraulic issue, missed the race simulation phase entirely and got one Soft lap in the closing stages, finishing just over half a second off his team-mate, with traffic and a car that looked slightly twitchy through the quicker corners. Whether that behaviour came from the hydraulic issue or just a lack of running is impossible to say from one compromised lap. FP3 needs to be clean and the team needs a proper read on both cars before they even think about qualifying.

Ferrari are consistent, which at Suzuka isn’t enough. Leclerc fifth in both sessions, Hamilton sixth in both sessions. The SF-26 has pace in it but Palmer’s comment on F1 TV about the car looking lively at the rear matched what was visible on track, both drivers managing rather than pushing through the fast stuff. The floor body and brake duct updates they brought here may shift that on Saturday. They may not. There is a gap to the front that Friday did not close.

Red Bull brought four updates to Suzuka and neither driver looked happy in either session. Verstappen and Hadjar were on the radio from the very first lap, complaining about downshifts, balance and a car that was not responding the way they wanted it to. The flow-vis work in FP1 was clearly about gathering data rather than chasing lap times, which is the right call, but the setup window they were searching for did not appear across the afternoon either. Verstappen tenth in FP2, Hadjar fifteenth. The sidepod inlet package is the centrepiece of their update and if the sim correlation holds, there should be more in the car than Friday showed. Whether that comes out on Saturday is a different question.

For Audi, the conversation this weekend is not really about where they qualify or finish. Hülkenberg was quietly the best of the rest in FP2, seventh overall and just 0.055s clear of Albon. Bortoleto managed two laps before the car went up on the high stands and his afternoon was done. Getting both cars through a full grand prix without a reliability issue is what the team needs right now, and Friday did not suggest that is straightforward.

Lindblad’s situation is becoming a pattern that needs addressing. China cost him running. Japan has cost him again. One out-lap in FP2 before parking up. He has no real-world laps at Suzuka to draw on, the support series do not race here, and every session lost is data he cannot get back. Racing Bulls clearly have pace in the car, Lawson has shown that across the weekend. But Lindblad is being asked to develop as a rookie on a circuit he does not know, with a reliability record that keeps cutting his sessions short before they have started.

Aston Martin brought three updates to a weekend they cannot afford to waste. Front wing, endplate and floor changes arrived with the team sitting at the bottom of the order. But aerodynamic updates only go so far when the Honda power unit is also causing problems. Alonso missed FP1 entirely due to the mandatory rookie session, returned for FP2 and finished nineteenth. Stroll twenty-first. None of the aero work matters if the car doesn’t run.

Saturday at Suzuka will give a much clearer picture. But nothing from Friday suggested the order at the front is about to change dramatically.