Carlos Sainz Jnr led the practice times after a very wet 90 first minutes of running at Suzuka.
With rain varying in intensity throughout first practice over half the session had passed before anyone set a time – Sainz’s team mate Max Verstappen being the first driver to do so.
The conditions improved enough for a few drivers to attempt laps on intermediate tyres, including Sainz’s session-topping effort. Daniil Kvyat, second, and Sebastian Vettel, fourth, also ran the shallower-grooved rubber – the latter also being warned about an overheating clutch during his brief spell on track.
The Mercedes drivers stuck to full wet weather tyres, and Lewis Hamilton only appeared in the final few minutes for a single timed run which left him fifth.
The Williams drivers were the first to try intermediate tyres but Felipe Massa went off in the Degner curves during his run.
Eight drivers decided not to set times at all including both Lotus, Force India and Manor drivers.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’49.434 | 10 | |
2 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull-Renault | 1’49.938 | 0.504 | 6 |
3 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’50.077 | 0.643 | 14 |
4 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’50.519 | 1.085 | 12 |
5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’50.722 | 1.288 | 6 |
6 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’50.940 | 1.506 | 10 |
7 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’51.212 | 1.778 | 15 |
8 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’52.288 | 2.854 | 12 |
9 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’53.820 | 4.386 | 12 |
10 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’53.964 | 4.530 | 14 |
11 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’54.013 | 4.579 | 9 |
12 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’55.678 | 6.244 | 6 |
13 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1 | ||
14 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 4 | ||
15 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 3 | ||
16 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 5 | ||
17 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Mercedes | 1 | ||
18 | 13 | Jolyon Palmer | Lotus-Mercedes | 1 | ||
19 | 28 | Will Stevens | Manor-Ferrari | 3 | ||
20 | 53 | Alexander Rossi | Manor-Ferrari | 4 |
First practice visual gaps
Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’49.434
+0.504 Daniil Kvyat – 1’49.938
+0.643 Nico Rosberg – 1’50.077
+1.085 Sebastian Vettel – 1’50.519
+1.288 Lewis Hamilton – 1’50.722
+1.506 Max Verstappen – 1’50.940
+1.778 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’51.212
+2.854 Felipe Massa – 1’52.288
+4.386 Marcus Ericsson – 1’53.820
+4.530 Valtteri Bottas – 1’53.964
+4.579 Felipe Nasr – 1’54.013
2015 Japanese Grand Prix
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- Sponsor watch: 2015 Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix
- Second-best Singapore GP but lowest score for Suzuka
- 2015 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix
Hey_Yo
25th September 2015, 4:10
So…what would Mercedes will show us in Suzuka this weekend? ;)
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
25th September 2015, 4:28
Decent running for a wet practice. What a moment from Bottas. Strange to see so much camber on his car early on, I guess Williams were just going through all set-up possibilities for wet conditions. I know it shouldn’t be more rain for the weekend but rain would certainly show who’s confident with themselves and the car. This is contract time. The resilient lady with the Manor banner was a nice touch.
@HoHum (@hohum)
25th September 2015, 4:40
I guess you can’t blame teams/drivers for saving their engines.
anon
25th September 2015, 5:48
@HoHum, this is about more than just saving engines, because even in the past when engine use was unlimited, teams would rarely send drivers out onto a wet track if they expected the race itself to be dry.
The drivers and teams are not going to be learning anything useful from this session if the conditions are going to be completely different in the race – so, from their point of view, what is the point in going out? At best they earn information of very limited use, and at worst they run the risk of the driver crashing and damaging the car – so why take unnecessary risks for very little reward?
Park
25th September 2015, 9:00
(Wet/Inter)Tyres are toooo limited!