Valtteri Bottas edged Lewis Hamilton within an impressive start for Mercedes out at the beginning of whats set to prove that a condescend Japanese GP weekend.
Together with the expected impact of Typhoon Hagibis significance the jogging of all Saturday has been cancelled and qualifying proceeded morning at Suzuka – at 2am UK time, four weeks – teams have only two practice sessions to prepare their new cars.
In warm glowing and calm conditions on Friday Mercedes produced by far the fastest start with Bottas and Hamilton one instant clear of the chasing pack.
Bottas, despite an earlier near-miss using Ferraris Charles Leclerc, set the pace with a 1:28.731, 0.076s clear of tournament leader and four-time Suzuka victor Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel a winner at F1s only circuit, was third at the Ferrari ahead of Leclerc along with Max Verstappens direct Red Bull.
As they bid to rally to the current surge of Ferrari, mercedes trialled some updates to their W10.
More to follow…
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