2014 Japanese Grand Prix Friday - Practice
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Rosberg is poised to raise the bar again. He's just done a new best time in sector one. Hamilton is on a flyer too, but is slower so far.
Magnussen's first flying lap puts him seventh, 1.6s behind pacesetter Rosberg.
Ricciardo was set to improve until that error, but it costs him enough time to keep him 10th.
Ricciardo is the latest driver to slip up at Degner 2, picking up some green paint on his tyres as Hamilton did earlier.
FR3.5, Paul Ricard
Merhi has arrived in Japan this weekend fresh from the penultimate round of the Formula Renault 3.5 championship last weekend at Paul Ricard.
While the Spaniard kept his title chances alive in France, points leader Carlos Sainz Jr - an overlooked Red Bull junior (in terms of an F1 promotion for 2015) dominated the weekend and only needs a handful of points in the finale at Jerez to seal the title.
If Sainz does land the crown, he will be the first Red Bull-backed driver to do so.
Raikkonen immediately knocks Vettel down to sixth. The Ferraris are now just a tenth apart again, Alonso the man slightly ahead.
Another jump from Vettel, who now goes fifth, 1.4s off the pace.
Merhi improves to a 1m41.5s and takes 19th place from Bianchi.
Magnussen is among the next drivers out. He's still to do a time today.
Raikkonen is also back out to join Vettel and Merhi.
Vettel's flying lap moves him up to eighth, now two places ahead of team-mate Ricciardo. He's 1.8s off the lead pace.
EDD STRAW reports from the esses that the McLaren "is not changing direction well here - especially for Magnussen".
Vettel's Red Bull has aero paint on the front-right corner (including the tyre), and judging by the speed he wasn't carrying down the backstraight into 130R, he was performing a quick aero run before moving onto a flying lap.
Merhi is 1.9s down on team-mate Ericsson. Though an F1 rookie, Ericsson knows the track from Japanese Formula 3, which he won in 2009.
Merhi is also going back out in the Caterham. He's currently slowest of those to set a time, 6s off Rosberg's pace.
Alonso was given those grapes by a Japanese guest in the Ferrari garage.
Vettel leaves the pitlane and gets the session going again as we near the halfway point.
Alonso watch: He's eating grapes, and handing them around the garage.
How was Verstappen looking on track during those first runs? EDD STRAW tells us from Turns 3 and 4:
"Verstappen was experimenting, easing back from more aggressive attempts to feed in the throttle hard and carry more speed through the corners. Definitely learning every lap and getting smoother."
"Verstappen was experimenting, easing back from more aggressive attempts to feed in the throttle hard and carry more speed through the corners. Definitely learning every lap and getting smoother."
Two drivers managed to get their lap counts into double figures over those first runs: Button and Ricciardo did 10 laps each.
Despite all of the attention on him this weekend regarding his future, we have a very relaxed Fernando Alonso sat in the Ferrari garage, chatting away with some crew members.
This is the usual lull after teams hand back the bonus set of tyres they get for the first half hour. All are back in the pits for now.
"In the tricky to drive Caterham, Merhi struggling a little with savage power delivery," EDD STRAW tells us from the start of the esses. "Erratic so far, as you would expect, but not daunted."
Mercedes reports that its drivers are saying "grip is poor" on track. Standard Friday morning procedure, really.
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@RenaultSportF1: 62% of the lap is taken at full throttle. Top speed is +330kph, one of the highest speeds of the 2nd part of the year
World champion Vettel is the main driver out of position at the moment, down in 11th. He's half a second and two spots behind Ricciardo.
Magnussen and Chilton didn't set lap times during that first period. The McLaren did six shakedown laps, the Marussia just one.
Verstappen currently sits in 13th place, 2.8s off the pace and 1.2s from team-mate Kvyat.
EDD STRAW from trackside: "From above Turns 3 and 4, the start of the eases, you get a great view. You can really hear the turbos whistling hard here, perhaps because of the effort being put in by the engine when on the throttle in this uphill section, combined with the need to keep the turbo spun up when off throttle so the engine is responsive."
Lead order after 30 minutes: 1 Rosberg; 2 Hamilton; 3 Bottas; 4 Alonso; 5 Kvyat; 6 Button; 7 Raikkonen; 8 Massa; 9 Ricciardo; 10 Hulkenberg.
Button reports that his seat is moving when he hits the brakes.
Kvyat moves his Toro Rosso up to fifth place between Alonso and Button.
Hamilton is the next driver to have a moment at the Degner corners. He runs wide at the second part, picking up some green paint as he runs the wrong side of the exit kerb but keeps the car out of the gravel.
Hamilton backs off and pits rather than completing that lap.
We have our first car running through one of Suzuka's gravel traps - Gutierrez runs wide at Degner 1. He won't be the last today - that's a traditional place for drivers to get caught out all weekend.
Stopwatch
Rosberg improves the benchmark time to 1m36.244s.
Magnussen and Chilton are the only drivers yet to do flying laps.
Hamilton sets a new best time in sector one - will he challenge Rosberg's first place with this one?
Bottas comes back out, so all 22 drivers are looking for space on the circuit.
Chilton now comes out. The whole field is running bar Bottas, who has just pitted.
By: AUTOSPORT staff, Glenn Freeman, Matt Beer, Ben Anderson
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