PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Why Ferrari and Mercedes can take positives as they look to close in on Red Bull in Japan

Light but persistent rain coated Suzuka’s high-speed figure-of-eight circuit on Friday afternoon, preventing Formula 1 teams from gathering long run data for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix and limiting the learnings from a slew of upgrades introduced this weekend. From what we did see, Red Bull lived up to their favourites tag, but they do not appear to have the commanding advantage they enjoyed last year...

Red Bull appear to have retained Suzuka edge

Red Bull and Max Verstappen were mighty in Japan last year, the reigning world champion taking pole position by a staggering 0.581s before cruising to victory, 19.387s clear of the pack with the fastest lap to boot.