The Grand Prix of Japan will be anything but an ordinary racing weekend, as the organizers, together with the race commissioners and the International Automobile Federation, decided in full due to the approaching typhoon cancel Saturday program or partially postpone it to Sunday. As previously reported, the third free practice has been canceled, while the qualifiers will try to take place on Sunday morning (at 3am our time). If this is not possible, the starting places will be determined based on the results of Friday's second free practice. All of this meant that Friday’s program for the teams was much more crowded than usual.
Typhoon Hagibis was supposed to reach Suzuko on the night from Friday to Saturday, but another typhoon devastated the trail on Friday, a typhoon named Mercedes. In the first free practice, both silver players had almost a second advantage over the competition, only in the second training session Red Bull and Ferrari approached a slightly more bearable lag. Even a more in-depth analysis of the times of both training sessions is far from encouraging for Mercedes competition. Ferrari is losing on average 2 tenths per lap in slower turns, 1,2 tenths in medium-fast turns and as much as 3,6 tenths in fast turns. It shows a shade better Red Bullu, which loses only 7 thousandths in slow turns, 1,1 tenths in medium speed and almost 2 tenths in fast.
Fastest individual laps:
1 Mercedes Benz
(Valtteri Bottas) 1m27.785s
2 Red Bull (Max Verstappen) 1m28.066s + 0.281s
3 Classic Ferrari for sale (Charles Leclerc) 1m28.141s + 0.356s
4 McLaren (Carlos Sainz) 1m29.051s + 1.266s
5 Racing Point (Sergio Perez) 1m29.299s + 1.514s
6 Toro Rosso (Pierre Gasly) 1m29.354s + 1.569s
7 Alfa Romeo (Kimi Raikkonen) 1m29.477s + 1.692s
8 Haas (Romain Grosjean) 1m29.553s + 1.768s
9 Renault (Daniel Ricciardo) 1m29.859s + 2.074s
10 Williams (Robert Kubica) 1m31.071s + 3.286s
Since the second training session could also be considered a qualification at the end of Friday, the racers drove their fastest laps with less fuel than usual, and at Mercedes it was a shade faster Valtteri Bottas, also thanks to the wind on the back plane, which, according to Hamilton, should bring him half a second. Considering Friday's events, everything except the silver first starting line would be a big surprise. Are they just track characteristics that require excellent aerodynamics and a balanced race car in all types of turns, or have some also contributed improvements to the Mercedes race car, for now we can only guess, but it is probably a combination of both.
As usual, they used half of the second training of the team to simulate the conditions in the race, ie with a larger amount of fuel, and even here, after analyzing the times, the picture is similar or even more frightening for Mercedes competition. Mercedes is supposed to have what 6 tenths per round of advantage before Ferrari and 9 before Red Bullom. If the last two teams didn't hide anything, then Mercedes will leave soon after the start on Sunday. double victory and towards the constructors' title. Of the others, McLaren has shown the best form so far, followed by Racing Point, a rather poor show to Renault, followed by Toro Rosso, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams.
Although for now it shows the complete dominance of Mercedes, it is necessary to add another unknown to the equation - in what condition the track will be after Saturday's storm. If nothing else, heavy rain will completely wash away the tire the racers applied on Friday and the grip will be much worse again. Last but not least, the question is whether the track will be dry at all on Sunday, as there will still be the possibility of individual storms even after the typhoon recedes. This, in turn, could then shuffle the cards completely anew. The race on the legendary track, with its many fast and attractive turns, rarely disappoints.
