Only one of today’s free practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix was of any significant use, as the second hour was affected by intermittent rain, with the track surface too dry for intermediate tyres and, in the final minutes not dry enough for slicks. However, the drivers did at least get to try a low grip race start off the grid at the end of the session. In the morning, on a dry track, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc covered a total of 38 laps between them, with Carlos third fastest and Charles sixth.
Both drivers felt comfortable at the wheel, although there was still plenty of work to do to fine tune the set-up. Clearly, the team was unable to work in race trim, nor validate changes relating to a flying lap, based on the data acquired in the morning, so that preparation for qualifying and the race will now have to be squeezed into the third and final free practice hour, which starts tomorrow at 11.30 (04.30 CEST) prior to qualifying at 15.00 (8.00 CEST).
FP1. In the morning, Carlos and Charles started out on the Hard tyre, setting exactly the same time, to the nearest thousandth of 1’31”913. The session was then halted for 12 minutes after Logan Sargeant went off the track. At the restart, both Ferrari drivers went out on track on Soft tyres, with which they set their best times: 1’30”269 for Carlos, 1’30”558 for Charles. Towards the end of the session, both SF-24s ran with a heavier fuel load in race trim, the Spaniard on Soft tyres, the Monegasque on Hards. Sainz did 20 laps, Charles 18.
FP2. In the afternoon session, the two SF-24s completed a total of seven laps. The Ferrari pair waited for the track to be almost dry before going out, mainly to do a practice start off the grid on the Soft tyre. Charles managed just four laps and was third quickest in 1’38”760, four seconds slower than Oscar Piastri, the only driver to do any significant running. Carlos did three laps, none of them timed.
Carlos Sainz #55
It was not an ideal Friday as we lost all of the second session due to the changing conditions. This morning in FP1 I was quite comfortable in the car, but I was looking forward to the afternoon session to continue working on the setup. The track was too wet for slicks and too dry for Intermediates, so it really made no sense to run and we decided to stay in the garage.
Anyway, we are all in the same situation and we still have tomorrow morning to fine tune the car ahead of qualifying.
Charles Leclerc #16
It was a mixed day. In FP1, we identified a few things we needed to work on in terms of set-up. But then, we barely ran in FP2 and so we couldn't find the answers we were looking for over a flying lap, so we will have to focus on that tomorrow morning to be ready for qualifying.