Mercedes on alert over two ‘impressive’ rivals after Suzuka Friday running

A resurgent McLaren topped FP2, with Piastri putting nearly a tenth on Antonelli and two tenths on Russell, underlining the MCL40’s upward trend and how well it appears to suit the Suzuka circuit.

"We've had a fairly straightforward first day here in Suzuka," Shovlin said. "The car ran reliably and we've been able to get through our planned work. This track is quite challenging from an energy point of view, especially on the single lap; we were losing some time out of the final chicane and that is something we will be looking to improve for tomorrow."

Shovlin struck a cautious tone when assessing the competition, refusing to take victory for granted and highlighting the strong Friday shown by Ferrari and especially McLaren.

Speaking after the session, Russell pointed to a significant super clipping problem through the final sector, particularly from 130R to the last chicane, admitting it was costing him meaningful lap time.

He explained that the loss of deployment out of the final corner alone was worth a couple of tenths, though he expects it to be a straightforward fix ahead of the next session. More broadly, he backed the move to reduce energy from 9 to 8 MJ, calling it the right step, but suggested an even bigger cut could have helped further.

In his view, that would reduce the extreme contrast between peak straight-line speed and heavy clipping into braking zones, even if it came at the expense of slightly slower overall lap times.