--- title: "Allison anticipates ‘slugging match’ with Ferrari in Japan" canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/10/06/allison-anticipates-slugging-match-ferrari-japan/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Kyran Gibbons" section: "F1 News" published: "2017-10-06T11:03:19Z" modified: "2017-10-06T11:03:19Z" --- # Allison anticipates ‘slugging match’ with Ferrari in Japan Mercedes Formula 1 technical chief James Allison has suggested that the battle for victory at the Japanese Grand Prix will be a ‘slugging match’ contested between Mercedes and Ferrari. Friday practice programmes were heavily truncated by heavy rain which effectively wrote-off the entire second practice session. With teams aware of the prospect of an FP2 wash-out, the FP1 times served to provide a greater indication than usual as to the relative pecking order for the weekend. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheet, while championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished a slender two tenths adrift for Mercedes. Allison indicated the likelihood that this weekend will be a hotly contested battle between Mercedes and Ferrari – a typical feature of the 2017 season to date. “If you look at the season as a whole, it has been divided into three types of experience,” he said. “There has been a few races where we have just come out and crushed everything in front of us. There has been a few where we have had the other end of that deal, where we have definitely come off second best and a whole lot in the middle where it has been a 50/50 slugging match. “The last two \[races\] were in the category where we got beaten for pace. We are hopeful from what we have seen so far this weekend, that this one will not fall into that category and that we will put up a decent fight. “I imagine this one will fall into that slugging match category, for which most of this season has been thrilling to be a part of” Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas has been handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and will, therefore, start no-higher than sixth.