SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — The Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday is only the third Formula 1 race of the season, and several plots are developing that promise a few twists.
But the fresh storylines could be as fleeting as the cherry blossoms seen all over Japan at this time of the year.
There's McLaren, which has been the early force after winning the first two races. Are Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri about to run away with the season just as Red Bull and Max Verstappen have in winning the last four drivers' titles?
How about seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who moved this season from Mercedes and is looking for his first victory for Ferrari. He won the sprint two weekends ago in Shanghai. In Sunday's main race in China, he and teammate Charles Leclerc were disqualified for technical infringements.
And back to the cherry blossoms in Japan — the season typically lasts for only about two weeks, from the initial blooms to its splendorous peak. A sellout crowd of about 115,000 on Sunday at Suzuka — the Honda-operated track in central Japan — will be following every lap of Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda was promoted to Red Bull last week from Racing Bulls, its feeder team.
A Japanese driver has never won an F1 race.
“For him, for a Japanese driver to drive for one of the top teams — it's never happened before,” said Japanese Ayao Komatsu, the team principal of Haas. “That a huge story.”
For the purists, it's McLaren
McLaren has been much better than everyone else in the first two races. Norris won in Australia and Piastri in China. Norris has 44 points to lead the driver standings followed Verstappen with 36, George Russell of Mercedes with 35, and Piastri on 34.
“We know realistically the McLarens are exceptionally strong, and I think it’s going to be challenging for anybody else to compete with them,” Russell said. “But you know, we saw last year how dominant Red Bull were, and suddenly they weren’t at the end of the season.”
Ditto Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.
“Our performance compared to McLaren is just not good enough,” Leclerc said.
Could Hamilton break through?
Seven-time world champion Hamilton has won five times in Japan, but not since 2018. Foremost on Ferrari's mind is having Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified in China for those technical infringements.
“It’s been a very difficult first part of the season,” Hamilton's teammate Leclerc said on Thursday. “The first two races were difficult, the pace was not where we expected it to be, and to lose even more points than we already did with that, it hurts the team a lot."
'I’m confident because whenever you make mistakes, you learn from them, especially when they cost that much," he added.
Hamilton has nine points. He was 10th in Australia after his win in the Shanghai sprint.
Tsunoda — Gambare!
The phrase, roughly translated from Japanese into English, means “Tsunoda, go for it!"
Expect almost all of the 115,000 sellout crowd on Sunday to be wildly supporting Tsunoda. Having Tsunoda promoted from Racing Bulls to Red Bull — the feeder team to the No. 1 team — gives Japanese fans hope.
Almost 20 Japanese drivers have participated in F1 and none has won a race. Three have reached the podium with third-place finishes — Aguri Suzuki in 1990 and Kamui Kobayahi in 2012, both at the Japanese GP, and Takuma Sato in 2004 in the United States GP.
Sato also won two Indianapolis 500s.
Tsunoda may have the best chance of a victory of any Japanese driver. He's driving one of F1's best cars, and he's known for his speed.
“I think he (Tsunoda) always had the raw speed,” said Pierre Gasly, the Frenchman who drives for Alpine and is a former Red Bull driver. “He was a little bit too hectic behind the wheel at times, on the radio. I think in that sense he’s matured enough in minimizing the mistakes.”
The wild card on Sunday could be Verstappen — the Dutchman has won the last three races in Japan. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday, and Verstappen is F1's best driver in the rain. If that eventuates, look for No. 4 to be among the leaders in the wet.
Norris, Piastri lead Friday practice sessions
McLaren produced the top times in Friday’s two practice sessions. Both were run under clear skies and sunshine ahead of the forecast rain for race day Sunday.
Norris was quickest in the first session, clocking 1 minute, 28.549 seconds. Teammate Piastri was fastest in the second in 1:28.114 with Norris just 0.049 behind. Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar had the third quickest time in the second session, just 0.404 behind Piastri.
Tsunoda had an encouraging performance, too, with the sixth best time — just one-tenth of a second slower than his teammate Verstappen.
The second session was stopped several times with cars going off the track. The frequent disruptions made it difficult to draw conclusions from the session — except that McLaren still appears to be the team to beat.
Australian driver Jack Doohan spun off the track just seven minutes into the second practice. The car shattered into pieces after hitting a tire wall. He walked away from the crash and told his Alpine team by radio: “I’m OK.”
___
AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one
Stephen Wade, The Associated Press
