Sebastian Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton in the first free practice ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver improved his lap time to 1m29.166s around the Suzuka track as it began to drizzle. The rain quickly grew heavier, making it impossible for Hamilton to reply.
Hamilton was fastest early in the session but it became clear Mercedes would have to worry about Ferrari pace when Vettel took second, half a tenth of a second slower than Hamilton on a harder compound of tyres. The Mercedes driver eventually finished the session two tenths of a second slower than Vettel.
Daniel Ricciardo managed third quickest ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas, and Max Verstappen.
Kevin Magnussen was the first driver to run into trouble at Suzuka. He spent the majority of the session in the pits with a water pressure issue. Though he was able to get out to set 15 laps over the course of the practice, it was only enough to put him 11th and the problem returned later in the session. His time was two tenths of a second slower than Romain Grosjean, who finished ninth fastest.
Running was interrupted an hour into the session when a heavy crash for Carlos Sainz left him stranded on track. The Toro Rosso had spun as he exited the hair pin, hitting the barriers before bouncing back across the track and bringing out the red flag. Sainz was able to get out of the car unaided, but there was severe damage to the front of the machine and debris strewn across the track.
Sainz was already on the backfoot heading into the Japanese GP, with a 20 place grid penalty due to an engine change.
He was 17th fastest by the end of the session, ahead of only his team-mate Pierre Gasly and the Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson.
Esteban Ocon was “best of the rest”, taking seventh quickest for Force India whilst Sergio Perez could only manage 13th. Nico Hulkenberg was also significantly quicker than his team-mate. He took eighth quickest whilst Palmer, more than eight tenths of a second slower, finished down the order in 15th.
Stoffel Vandoorne rounded out the top 10 whilst Fernando Alonso finished 12th. His running early in the session was truncated as he tested new brakes, but got out to set 19 laps by the end of the session.
Lance Stroll beat Felipe Massa, the Williams duo finishing 14th and 16th.
