After a week of rest, Formula 1 drivers are back in action, starting with the first free practice session. As usual, the seventeen-turn Suzuka circuit will be the setting for the Japanese Grand Prix. At 04:30 Dutch time, Max Verstappen will enter the asphalt for the first time.

Unlike in previous years, the Japanese Grand Prix is already the fourth weekend of the season. In 2020 and 2021, the Japanese GP was missing from the Formula 1 calendar, but in 2022 and 2023, the F1 circus'just' landed at Circuit Suzuka again. This always happened in the final phase of the season, but the race has now been brought forward quite a bit.

Daniel Ricciardo is absent during the first practice session of the weekend. This has nothing to do with the Australian veteran's mediocre performance, but rather with the fact that Visa Cash App RB is keen to give a Japanese junior on home soil a chance in an F1 car with Ayumu Iwasa. Every team must also have a rookie driving the car at least twice during the first free practice in 2024. Red Bull Racing's sister team thus chooses to do so even before the fourth Grand Prix of the season. This makes Red Bull the first team to let a rookie drive in a first free practice session in 2024.

Max Verstappen will at least be hoping for a good start after he crashed out in Australia because a part around the brakes was not fixed properly. In the past two years, the three-time world champion was the strongest in Japan.

(The liveblog of VT1 is provided by GPblog UK and so updates will be in English)

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