George Russell has admitted to being surprised by McLaren’s pace during the first free practice sessions for the Japanese GP. At Suzuka, Oscar Piastri managed to set the fastest time in FP2, breaking Mercedes’ early dominance this season. The Australian was slightly faster than Kimi Antonelli, while Russell himself had to settle for the third fastest time. Technical director Andrew Shovlin also emphasized that Mercedes is by no means certain of another victory.
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“McLaren was quite fast,” Russell reacted after Friday’s sessions. “To be honest, that came as a bit of a surprise,” he admitted. “Some improvements are still needed, so we still have work to do.” According to the Mercedes driver, the papaya team’s pace is no coincidence. “I think Lando (Norris, ed.) had a difficult day, but Oscar (Piastri, ed.) was right there from the first lap this morning.” Norris set the fourth fastest time on Friday, despite missing almost half the session due to a hydraulic leak.
Russell expects, however, that Mercedes can still make steps towards qualifying, particularly in terms of setup and energy management. “We will see during qualifying. I think we have more in store. From my side, the energy management was not optimal, so hopefully that will improve tomorrow. I think there are big differences between teams in how they deploy the engines during a lap. We didn’t get that quite right, but that should be relatively easy to fix.”
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Technical director Andrew Shovlin also acknowledged McLaren’s strong impression, but remains positive about Mercedes’ starting position. “We had a fairly trouble-free first day here in Suzuka,” he said. “The car ran reliably and we were able to complete our planned program. This circuit is quite challenging in terms of energy management, especially over one lap. For instance, we lost some time in the final sector, but we want to work on that further tomorrow.”
According to Shovlin, Mercedes is still in a good position for the rest of the weekend despite everything. “In terms of speed, it looks like we are in a reasonable position, although both McLaren and Ferrari have set impressive lap times,” he continued. “Nothing is a given. There are a few points we can work on to improve the speed and balance of the car, but overall we have made a good start.”
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