Formula One: Japan Grand Prix – live | Formula One

Lap 10/53: The top twelve has thus-far avoided pit lane, with Verstappen still leading.

Perez has been assessed a five second penalty for a safety car infringement after he overtook a number of cars coming out of the pits.

Lap 9/53: Verstappen continues to set the pace out front, almost three seconds clear of second-placed Norris. Piastri in third, Leclerc in fourth, and Sainz in fifth.

Bottas is forced to retire and is out of the race.

Lap 8/53: Stewards say that the incident at turn one is no longer being looked at but is Perez still under investigation for a safety car infringement. Bottas and Sargent’s collision also under scrutiny.

Lap 7/53: Perez finds himself all the way down in 16th after all the excitement of the opening laps. Will have a lot of work to do to find a way back up the places.

Lap 6/53: Bit of a battle between Mercedes teammates Hamilton and Russell; the latter pinching seventh off the Brit only for Hamilton to promptly take it back.

Lap 5/53: Back racking. Verstappen leads, followed by Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Lawson, and Tsunoda.

Bottas is having a mare of a day, spinning off during that lap.

Lap 4/53: Safety car exits and perhaps we can get some racing in now. One wonders how this will have already affected team’s strategies. Stewards are examining Perez’s exit from pit lane for an infringement.

Lap 3/53: A number of cars have been forced to pit already. Bottas, Sargent, Perez, Albon, Guanyu, and Ocon.

Lap 2/53: Safety car still out as we try to figure out what’s all going on.

Lap 1/53: Lando Norris has jumped Oscar Piastri into second from the start and slotted in behind Max Verstappen already. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are into fourth and fifth and Fernando Alonso has jumped up from tenth to fifth. A safety car is already out, though, because it looks like Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas have had a coming together. Zhou Guanyu perhaps has some damage too. Lewis Hamilton also collided with Sergio Perez per his radio. Bit happening.

Lights out! We are away at Suzuka!

Formation lap is underway, and Max Verstappen set a good pace – so quick he had to be told to slow down!

Tyre watch: The medium’s are preferred by most to start the race. Bucking the trend is Yuki Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso, Liam Lawson, who will all start on softs in positions ninth through eleventh on the grid, as will Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu at the back. Both cohorts are hoping to make good time on the rest early at the expense of pitting sooner.

A lot of home support for Yuki Tsunoda

George Russell is briefly grabbed on Sky. “It will definitely be a two-stop,” he says. “I think the other strategies are off the cards.”

Japanese anthem is performed as lights out approaches at Suzuka.

Zak Brown on Sky again: “Realistically Max is still in another league this weekend,” he said. “All we can do is run our own race. We feel like we have a really good race pace. Maybe we can cause some problems for Max if we get the opportunity.”

Ferrari’s team principal Frédéric Vasseur thinks it’s going to be tight behind Verstappen. “It’s so tight between P2 and P7 or P8 it’s very difficult to make a forecast or to think about something,” he told Sky. “We just have to be focused on ourselves to do a proper management of the situation and strategy and we will get what we have to get.”

It’s looking like it’s going to be a hot one at Suzuka – Mercedes are doing a lot of work to keep their cars cool on the grid – and combined with the smoother surface increasing degradation that’s going to open up a new dimension of tyre management and strategy – a two-stopper with hard tyres looks like the best strategy.

Two sets of hards, however, are a luxury that few on the grid actually have: Lewis Hamilton and George Russell of Mercedes, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, and Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen the only ones to have two sets of hard tyres to play with during the race, potentially giving them an advantage over their rivals.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is on Sky. “Tyre strategy is going to play a big role today,” he said. “It’s pretty warm, there’ll be multiple stops. There’s a couple of different tyre compounds people can choose from. So it should be an exciting show.”

Yuki Tsunoda was asked by Sky Sports if points are a realistic target today. “I think it’s possible,” he said. “It’s a realistic target. So far this season our car seems quite good in race pace so I’m looking forward to it.”

Oscar Piastri also locked in his future this week, a multi-year contract extension that will tie him to McLaren through at least 2025 announced on Wednesday. It’s a significant show of confidence in the 22-year-old Aussie just 15 races into his rookie season, one he responded to by becoming the first rookie to secure a start on the front row since Lance Stroll at Monza in 2017. He’s keeping a lid on things, though, telling Sky during the build-up that “Realistically, we’re going to need something pretty special to win the race.”

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is on hand at Suzuka, unveiling a set of specially-created ‘insect hotels’ at turn two on Thursday to bring awareness to biodiversity in the ecosystem. How old is Vettel? He’s obviously beekeeping age.

Yuki Tsunoda sent a bit of a thrill through his home crowd when he qualified in ninth for today’s race, adding another positive to a week in which the Japanese driver’s 2024 future was confirmed.

The 23-year-old will join veteran Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo in AlphaTauri’s lineup next season, with Liam Lawson, who has impressed while filling in for the injured Ricciardo across the last three races and secured his first career points in Singapore, tapped to serve as a reserve driver across AlphaTauri and Red Bull.

That announcement left the seat alongside Alex Albon at Williams as the only one still undetermined for 2024: Logan Sargeant battling to retain his place. The American’s efforts in that pursuit won’t be made any easier this afternoon, assessed a ten second penalty for breaking ‘third car’ rules when he was already starting from pit lane after a crash in Q1.

Of course, while Max Verstappen has looked ascendant heading into this one it is Carlos Sainz and his Ferrari that took out the last race in Singapore. The Sky Sports commentariat, though, has talked about how that race is looking like it might be an outlier and noting that the Spaniard has been a few tenths of a second behind teammate Charles Leclerc in Japan. Combined with their discussion about the team’s struggle with tyre degradation in the past, the general tone from the broadcast is not to expect back-to-back wins.

And speaking of regulations, Lando Norris is having a whale of a time driving his newly resurgent McLaren – Singapore the team’s best race since the Jenson Button days – but he’s much less impressed with the current regulations governing the sport, which he sees as unduly limiting what drivers are capable of.

Giles Richards again:

It’s not often you’ll hear an F1 driver tell people to go and “suck on an egg,” but that was the… gastronomical, let’s call it, advice from Verstappen following his blistering qualifying performance; responding to the pontifications surrounding Red Bull’s disappointing time in Singapore possibly being down to new technical directives that were imposed.

That and more can be found in Giles Richards’ report on qualifying.

The grid after qualifying

Preamble