Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice

Nico Rosberg had the edge on Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in both practice sessions at the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.

After his disappointing retirement in Malaysia last time out, Hamilton would have been looking for a strong start to the weekend at Suzuka. However, the Briton was second behind Rosberg—who holds a 23-point advantage in the race for the world championship—in first and second practice.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in the morning, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was best of the rest in the afternoon.

Here’s a recap of a fascinating practice session in Japan, including the full results.

FP2 Recap

Here is a look at the standings from second practice, as Rosberg rounded off a brilliant first day of the Japanese Grand Prix, per the F1 Twitter feed:

Rosberg’s advantage was chopped down by Hamilton on Friday afternoon, although the German will be content with his day’s work in Suzuka.

After complaining of a lack of drive in the morning, Hamilton was a lot closer to his best in FP2, finding a lot more grip around this perilous circuit. However, his team-mate’s mark of one minute, 32.250 seconds proved too quick as the curtain came down on Day 1 of the Grand Prix weekend.

As noted by F1 journalist James Allen, what will be encouraging to the world championship leader is his pace on different compounds:

Raikkonen was looking particularly sharp in the afternoon, with his Ferrari just 0.323 seconds behind Rosberg. After a mixed morning, the Scuderia look a lot more equipped to challenge for a podium following a positive second practice.

Despite his quick lap time, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Finn, as we can see here:

We’re yet to fully see the potential of the Red Bulls, though. Max Verstappen was able to split Raikkonen and Vettel to take fourth place on the timesheet, with Daniel Ricciardo only able to go 12th quickest. However, both showed pace on the hard tyre, which must be used in Suzuka.

Verstappen posted the following on social media, saying he was happy with the results of the first two practice sessions:

After a pretty quiet morning, there were a few more incidents on track to speak of in the afternoon. Daniil Kvyat had one especially hairy moment in the Toro Rosso:

In addition, Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Nasr had to negotiate spins, while Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez parked his car off the track after a loss of turbo, triggering a virtual safety car.

FP1 Recap

Here’s a look at how things finished on Friday morning, as the drivers sought to get to grips with the testing Suzuka circuit:

After so much frustration in Malaysia last time out, all eyes were on Hamilton as he took to the track for the first time in Japan this week, with onlookers wondering whether he’d be capable of wresting some initiative from his team-mate.

However, the world champion struggled to find the same groove as Rosberg and wasn’t enjoying the performance of the car, per Autosport Live:

Per Andrew Benson of BBC Sport, Mercedes have confirmed they are running a revised engine after Hamilton’s blowout in Malaysia. Rosberg coped with the reduced performance better than his team-mate, eventually posting a lap time of 1:32.431, 0.215 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Despite the tweaks made to the engine setup, Mercedes were still a long way ahead of the rest of the field, with Vettel, third quickest, over a second back on Rosberg’s fastest lap time.

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen was fourth quickest ahead of the Red Bulls. However, with Verstappen and Ricciardo only using medium tyres in the morning, a true indicator of their performance levels was still to be fully revealed.

Given the notoriety of this track, the session was surprisingly short of incidents. Romain Grosjean clipping the barriers in his Haas after a lock up at the difficult Degner 2 corner was the most trouble endured by any of the drivers.