Rosberg leads first practice at Suzuka

F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Circuit Suzuka

Mercedes were again by far the fastest team in the first session of the weekend, with the two Mercedes at least a second ahead of the competition, with Vettel being the closest at 1.094s off of Rosberg's best. Lewwis Hamilton sat in between, two tenths down on his team mate.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest, with the Red Bull duo next on the timing sheet, even though they opted not to use the yellow marked soft tyres.

Force India were 7th and 8th, followed by Fernando Alonso who is set to please the Japanese Honda fans this weekend. Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10 for Williams.

Alonso however did only manage to complete 10 laps before ending up in the barriers at Spoon Curve. The Spaniard oversteered into the left hand corner, and subsequently went backwards into the tyre barriers, causing a reasonable impact on the right rear suspension. Romain Grosjean similarly had a troubled session as he went off head on into the tyres at Degner following a big lockup.

Others had less trouble, apart from the usual early issues. Max Verstappen for instance reported sluggish upshifts while Lewis Hamilton reported low power. Overall, most drivers appeared to struggle with low grip, a situation that should improve as more running goes on later in the weekend.