Japanese GP: Hamilton leads dominant Mercedes one-two in FP1

Hamilton toppled teammate Valtteri Bottas to set a session-best 1m28.691s, putting the team seven-tenths clear of Red Bull and a full second clear of Ferrari.

Daniel Ricciardo ended FP1 third, with Kimi Raikkonen beating Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel to fourth.

Ricciardo was the session’s early pacesetter as he and teammate Max Verstappen ran quickly on soft tyres in the opening half an hour.

A 1m29.842s from Bottas put Mercedes ahead before the halfway mark on softs.

Bottas headed Sebastian Vettel by a tenth at that point but the Ferrari was running supersoft tyres and barely outpaced Hamilton, who was only on mediums.

When Bottas switched to fresh medium tyres he improved to a 1m29.137s, which Hamilton comfortably eclipsed on his first soft-tyre flying lap by almost half a second.

The Ferraris were no match despite using a second set of new supersofts, having brought an aggressive tyre allocation to Suzuka.

Ricciardo set a 1m29.373s to lap three tenths clear of Ferrari, though Raikkonen was able to steal ahead of his teammate because Vettel lost time in the final corner behind Pierre Gasly.

Toro Rosso driver Gasly, who also had a trip over the grass out of Turn 2 during the morning, had already been involved in an earlier, more dramatic incident with Hamilton.

Gasly was slowing ahead of the chicane before the start of a flying lap but despite checking his mirrors he remained on the racing line and Hamilton, approaching on a fast lap, had to swerve aggressively at the last minute in avoidance.

Hamilton, who is edging closer to a fifth F1 title, locked up and took to the escape road before gesturing his displeasure at Gasly.

The incident will be investigated after the session.

Behind the big three teams, Esteban Ocon claimed best-of-the-rest honours.

The Point Racing Force India man lapped 1.9s off the pace but impressively outpaced his midfield rivals on soft tyres as they all ran supersofts.

Romain Grosjean was eight-quickest, just over two tenths behind Ocon, while Sauber completed the top 10 with Charles Leclerc a tenth quicker than Marcus Ericsson.

Gasly missed out on a top 10 place despite matching Ericsson’s best time to the thousandth.

The classic Suzuka circuit caught out a few drivers, with Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso suffering the biggest moments.

Perez had a half-spin at the final corner after dropping a wheel onto the dirt on the outside entering the chicane.

Alonso made the same mistake at the first Degner corner, which sent his McLaren skating across the gravel and ended with the Spaniard facing the wrong way.

He was able to rejoin the track and eventually set the 18th-fastest time, 3.3s off the pace and backed up by 2019 McLaren driver Lando Norris in 20th.

Norris was slowest of all, 3.9s off the pace, as he stood in for Stoffel Vandoorne for his latest FP1 outing of the season.

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'28.691
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'29.137	0.446
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'29.373	0.682
4	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'29.627	0.936
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'29.685	0.994
6	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'29.841	1.150
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	1'30.591	1.900
8	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'30.814	2.123
9	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	Ferrari	1'30.929	2.238
10	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1'31.073	2.382
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Honda	1'31.073	2.382
12	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	Renault	1'31.100	2.409
13	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'31.272	2.581
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	1'31.274	2.583
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	1'31.418	2.727
16	18	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	1'31.508	2.817
17	28	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Honda	1'31.908	3.217
18	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Renault	1'32.034	3.343
19	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	Mercedes	1'32.513	3.822
20	47	Lando Norris	McLaren	Renault	1'32.683	3.992