McLaren Pace Signals Surprise In Japanese Grand Prix Practice, Russell Sees Opportunity

Add as a preferred source on Google

George Russell, who leads the Formula One drivers' standings, reported that Mercedes did not expect McLaren to be so strong in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying trim, after Oscar Piastri set the pace in second practice at Suzuka with Russell only third fastest.

Mercedes had dominated the opening two rounds, with Russell and Kimi Antonelli sharing wins and securing successive one-two finishes. Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had been Mercedes' closest rivals in Australia and China, yet McLaren now appear serious contenders again heading into the rest of the Suzuka weekend.

Piastri topped Friday's second session with a lap that was 0.092 seconds quicker than Antonelli and 0.205 seconds ahead of Russell. Lando Norris was fourth quickest, giving McLaren two cars near the front and suggesting the team have strong single-lap speed at this demanding high-speed circuit.

Key times from second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka were as follows:{TABLE_1}

Russell accepted that McLaren had caught Mercedes slightly off guard in those conditions and underlined that Mercedes still had areas to refine, especially with energy deployment over a lap, which Russell felt had hurt personal performance compared with both team-mate Antonelli and McLaren.

"McLaren were pretty fast," Russell said afterwards, as quoted by Sky Sports. "It was a little bit of a surprise, to be honest. There are still some improvements we need to do, so some work to do overnight. Lando had a disrupted day, but Oscar was on it from the first lap out of the box. We have got some more to give, and things were not quite optimised, especially on my side with the energy management."

While Mercedes assessed McLaren's step, Hamilton concentrated on understanding Ferrari's SF-26. Hamilton had recently welcomed Formula One's rule changes, saying the new regulations made racing more enjoyable, yet Hamilton admitted that the current Ferrari still felt tricky at Suzuka in its early development phase.

"Interestingly, it's something in how this car is set up. There are some similarities to what I felt last year, so we are working on that," Hamilton said. "I'm confident overnight we can find something and get it into a better place. It's an awesome circuit, but you need to be able to sit in the rear and be comfortable that it will stay with you, and today I had the snaps. I just can't seem to match the other guys. We will do a deeper dive tonight, get some interesting readings from the simulator. I feel I've got a bit of a north star, it's just how we get there, so I'm going to try to figure that out."

The opening day at Suzuka therefore ended with Mercedes still ahead in the championship yet under pressure from McLaren's pace, while Ferrari and Hamilton looked for a better SF-26 balance overnight, setting up an important Saturday for strategy, race runs and qualifying preparation at the Japanese Grand Prix.