Friday's proceedings at the Japanese Grand Prix showed that Mercedes may have some competition from McLaren during qualifying on Saturday.

George Russell led the way in FP1 ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris, but it was Oscar Piastri who flipped the script and finished FP2 in P1, proving that the British team have some fight about them at Suzuka.

However, despite some rejuvenation from McLaren after a double-DNF at the Chinese Grand Prix, Mercedes' race pace still looks to be the dominating factor compared to the rest of the grid.

Max Verstappen could only finish down in P10 come the end of FP2, continuing his and Red Bull's poor start to the season.

Now, Verstappen's father, Jos Verstappen, has stated that the four-time World Champion may be losing some motivation for Formula 1.

"He used to think racing a Formula 1 car was the most beautiful thing there was. But now I have a rather bleak outlook. I wish I could say it wasn’t so, but with an eye on his future, I do see this becoming a problem," the former Benetton driver told De Telegraaf.

The issues of super-clipping have become apparent once again after telemetry was released at the end of Friday's running at Suzuka.

Hamilton and Russell had some reservations about these problems by the end of FP2, and from that session, an average of 53.4 KPH was lost between the entry of 130R and the final chicane.

Nico Hulkenberg was the only driver who didn't lose 50 KPH or over, losing 46 KPH after 130R, while Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, and Franco Colapinto were all losing over 60 KPH through that stretch, with Colapinto losing over 70 KPH of speed.