The 2026 Formula 1 season will continue at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix, which marks the third stop on the calendar.
Mercedes returns to Suzuka off the back of a dominant start to the 2026 season, with the Silver Arrows claiming pole and victories at the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.
George Russell leads the championship from Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who scored a maiden pole and victory last time out in China.
Ferrari will hope to close the gap as it continued its trend as Mercedes' closest challenger in China, with Lewis Hamilton taking a maiden podium for the Scuderia last time out after a thrilling duel with team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Ahead of this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, the FIA announced that it had reduced the energy harvesting limit from 9MJ to 8MJ, in a bid to combat energy management fears some had expressed coming to Suzuka.
The hope is that this will reduce the amount of superclipping seen during qualifying laps at Suzuka, with some drivers highlighting in China that the new cars could peg back the speed of some corners like 130R.
McLaren will be looking to get its season back on track at Suzuka, after suffering a double non-start in China due to a battery issue related to the Mercedes power unit.
Red Bull will also be hoping for better fortunes in Japan, after it struggled throughout the China weekend, while Max Verstappen retired due to a mechanical issue.
Verstappen grabbed headlines on Thursday at Suzuka after he refused to begin his media debrief until one journalist was ejected, over bitter feelings about questions over his clash with Russell in Spain last year.
The Dutchman also comes to Japan off the back of being disqualified from a victory in the NLS2 at the Nurburgring.
Fernando Alonso will sit out FP1 at Suzuka on Friday morning, with Jak Crawford taking his place at Aston Martin. The Spaniard was absent from Thursday's media day owing to the birth of his first child.
2026 Japanese Grand Prix Friday schedule
FP1 - 2:30am-3:30am GMT
FP2 - 6am-7am GMT
Comfortable at the top, Mercedes has Russell doing a long run on the hard tyre, while Antonelli completes the same programme but on softs. Highlighting McLaren's early pace this weekend, Norris now goes third, gaining lots of time in the final sector as he falls 0.132s short of Russell.
Although limited on what he could achieve in the session, Crawford is 21st, and 0.6s clear of Stroll, who foots the time sheet. Aston Martin has shown nothing compared to even Cadillac, the team directly ahead of them in the points and on today's times.
With plenty of soft tyre running complete, Piastri has closed to 0.199s off the Mercedes duo. That said, his time was completed a decent period after Russell and Antonelli, so a certain element of track evolution needs to be factored in there. Leclerc and Hamilton are also in the top five, with Hamilton footing that order, 0.374s back - so it's tighter than some may have feared, although with that evolution caveat.
Leclerc is the latest driver to get a real swapper on at The Spoon as he looks to maximise the exit. We mentioned that area of the track as being crucial for lap time with this generation of machinery, and the limits are really being tested now. Expect to see more than a few drivers running wide in qualifying, meaning track limits deletions.
For the sake of Aston Martin, you have to hope that the team is focused on something other than performance. 1.7s off 20th place, and 5.2s off the ultimate pace... What else can you say?
A huge one for Albon, as he runs into the gravel at Degna 2 and scrapes the barriers. How he kept that out of the barriers, only he knows. Worse for Williams, he was running more aero paint to look at the new front suspension. Wipe it off and try again.
You can see how crucial the run out of The Spoon is going to be, with the straight immediately after being a prime area for energy deployment. Russell and Norris are among those to have fully explored the extremity of the track as they look to slingshot hard onto the straight. As a veteran of many, many hours of F1 games over the years, that corner is tricky at the best of times.
With half an hour gone and the times dropping, the top 10 looks as follows:
With the softs, Russell and Antonelli take to the top. but the margin is not as great as you might expect. From Russell in first to Leclerc in third, the gap is only 0.505s. Keep in mind that Leclerc's time was set on hards. There isn't much between the tyres at this stage.
Norris is back out on the track! Soft tyres are beginning to appear, with Mercedes drivers Russell and Antonelli the first to make the switch.
Thoughts on these race suits? To me, they look like someone has let a white cat loose in the Mercedes garage, which has dropped fur all over the place.
An update on Norris' McLaren, and all is well. It was a suspension change on the rear, but he should be back out on the track very soon.
Turning to the times for the first time today as we reach the 15 minute mark, Leclerc leads the way with a 1m32.260s effort. Russell and Antonelli are 0.013s and 0.044s back respectively, with the top three all setting times on the hard tyre. Piastri and Hadjar complete the top five, on the medium tyre and over half a second back.
Another driver who had only completed a single lap was Albon, but he has now returned to the action with a heap of flo-vis paint across his front suspension.
Norris appears to be in some strife, and has only been out for a single installation lap. Work is taking place on his car, although this could largely have been to remove the rake from his car.
There will certsainly be comments about this. As we ride onboard with Russell on the long run to 130R and the final chicane, the super clipping is massively evident, with a downshift required before the usually flat-out 130R, and further slowing ahead of the braking zone to end the lap. The FIA changes don't appear to have fixed the issue.
Hadjar has been on the radio complaining of cold brakes as he gets to grips with a significant aero upgrade for Red Bull. It doesn't seem to be too much of a hindrance as he sits fourth in the very early standings.
Wow! Jak Crawford is running the biggest aero rake you have ever seen on the rear of his Aston Martin. Sitting in front of the rear tyres, that will be gathering significant data. Norris also has a rake in front of his sidepods.
A very odd start for Bortoleto, who was unable to launch from the pit lane and was left sat with his 'hazard lights' flashing. He gets going in the end and the queue is able to move off.
We are go for FP1, and no time is being watsed, as over two-thirds of the field take to the track instantly.
The music has played, and we're ready for an hour of action at one of the most iconic venues on the F1 calendar. Now, please don't let the super clipping be as bad as we are all fearing!
The message that always tickles me when a session is about to start under bright blue skies has appeared on the timing screen - "Risk of rain for F1 free practice is 0%".
We're less than 10 minutes away from the opening session of the weekend. Who will start the weekend on the right foot and who will have a nasty shock at the level of work on their plate? The answers are getting closer.
The weekend is currently forecast to be bone dry - something that is not always the case for Japan - and temperatures are currently an agreeable 16.3C with minimal wind. If you could choose the ideal conditions for running, this would be pretty close to that.
After the sprint action in China, we return to a regular schedule at Suzuka, with FP1 and FP2 taking place today, FP3 and qualifying on Saturday, and then the Grand Prix on Sunday.