Japan Report: Day 1

Rain impacts the first day of practice

Published

05 APR 2024

Est. reading time

2 min

Day 1 in Suzuka is officially complete as Alex took to the track for FP1 and FP2 earlier today. Let’s recap how Albono got on during two heavily disrupted practice sessions here in Japan.

The first session was a stop-start affair, as Alex rolled out with aero rakes on the sidepods of his FW46 and boxed multiple times during his opening few laps to try a variety of setups.

Albono managed just seven laps before the red flag was waved, with teammate Logan Sargeant spinning out and hitting the wall at Turn 7.

As the session eventually resumed with 19 minutes remaining, we saw Alex head out with fresh soft tyres to complete his quickest lap of the practice - recording a 1:31.943. That time was quick enough to end FP1 in P12, completing the morning with a total of 18 laps of the Suzuka International Circuit.

Fast forward to 3pm local time and the weather began to impact proceedings in Japan. Rain fell ahead of the second practice session of the day and this continued intermittently for the duration of FP2. As a result, any running across the grid was heavily curtailed due to the unpredictable conditions.

We eventually saw Alex roll onto the track sporting a set of intermediates on his FW46, but he quickly dived back into the pits after confirming on the team radio that the track was “potentially too dry”.

After another stint of waiting, Albono returned back onto the Suzuka International Circuit with the same set of inters, before boxing and once again returning for a final lap in the closing minute of the session.

Fingers crossed tomorrow morning brings some dry weather again, as we turn our attention to Alex’s final practice in Japan before qualifying - FP3 incoming…