This morning we saw Mercedes setting the pace in opening practice at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg fastest ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
But all eyes were on Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen made history as F1’s youngest driver to take part in a Grand Prix weekend. The Dutch youngster, who only turned 17 at the start of the week, was standing in for Jean-Eric Vergne, who he replaces at Toro Rosso next season.
Verstappen appeared set to make a low-key debut and wound up 12th fastest overall. However, with less than six minutes to go, he pulled off the track with smoke trailling from the back off his car. His radio comments suggested an engine failure. Even so, Verstappen was all smiles as the chequered flag fell and his team (not to mention Red Bull themselves) will surely take satisfaction from the fact their latest find was only about 0.4s slower than team-mate Daniil Kvyat, who ended the session tenth.
But Rosberg, who is looking to bounce back this weekend after Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton regained the World Championship lead in Singapore, ended the session 0.151s faster than his team mate ahead of Fernando Alonso in third place 0.576s behind them who suffered right rear brake problems during the session.
Valtteri Bottas finished the session in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place and Kevin Magnussen who ended the session in sixth place after running off at Spoon corner due to bad understeer from the MP4-29 but was able to continue running in the session.
Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in seventh place ahead of Jenson Button in eighth place, Sebastian Vettel in ninth place and Daniil Kvyat who finished the top 10 runners of the session.
Felipe Massa ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Toro Rosso rookie Verstappen who did very well on his debut to finish in twelfth place despite suffering an engine failure in the latter part of the session and Sergio Perez finished the session in thirteenth place.
Perez’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg finished the session in fourteenth place ahead of Romain Grosjean in fifteenth place, Adrian Sutil in sixteenth place, Pastor Maldonado in seventeenth place and Esteban Guiterrez in eighteenth place who ran off the circuit at the Degna corner.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Marcus Ericsson finished the session in nineteenth place ahead of his team mate Roberto Merhi in twentieth and the two Marussia drivers of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton in twenty-first and twenty-second places. It should be pointed out that Merhi just like Magnussen had a moment at Spoon Corner while trying to get back onto the track and was very lucky that Bottas was able to apply the brakes and take avoiding action.
It is also worthy to point out that Marussia have signed former Caterham development driver Will Stevens this weekend as their Test and Reserve driver and he was expected to run during FP1. However, issues with paperwork and also industrial action in Germany sadly allowed him not to run in today’s session.
The classification of FP1 at the Japanese Grand Prix is as follows below:-
| Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1.35.461 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 0.151s |
| Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 0.576s |
| Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1.115s |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1.726s |
| Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1.866s |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 2.005s |
| Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 2.188s |
| Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 2.225s |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 2.233s |
| Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 2.551s |
| Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 2.696s |
| Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 2.863s |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 3.121s |
| Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 3.390s |
| Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 3.585s |
| Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 3.656s |
| Esteban Guiterrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 3.857s |
| Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 4.820s |
| Roberto Merhi | Caterham-Renault | 6.011s |
| Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 6.119s |
| Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 6.296s |
