What the teams said – Friday at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix

McLaren

Norris had a tardy start to FP1, after running one lap with aero rakes. Removing those cost him some running, but once out on track the World Champion looked fast. His team mate was quick too. Norris again missed some running in the second session, this time due to a hydraulic leak. As such he ran out of sequence with the rest when he did take to the track and wound up fourth in the end, half a second shy of his team mate’s time with Piastri topping the session and looking pretty happy with his running at Suzuka.

Lando Norris – FP1: 1:31.798, P3; FP2: 1:30.649, P4

“Tricky day, we didn’t get the laps we needed. Early in FP2 we couldn’t do much more than one lap at a time, and a lot of the morning was aero work, so the running we did manage wasn’t really representative. Around a track like this, you just want laps to build confidence and refine the setup, and right now we’re two or three steps behind with no long runs and very limited consecutive running.

“With that said, we pulled a few things together at the end and learned a bit, even if it wasn’t as much as we’d have liked. We’ll use the night to reset, go through the data we have, and try to fix some things so we can get meaningful laps on the board and get back on track tomorrow.”

Oscar Piastri – FP1: 1:31.865, P4; FP2: 1:30.133, P1

“Overall, it was a decent day for us. We felt like we made some good progress, particularly in the second Practice session, which was encouraging. The feeling is positive, and we’ve gathered some valuable data that puts us in a solid position.

“We know there’s still work to do, and it’s clear that some of our competitors, especially Mercedes, are very strong. However, the focus is on our own performance. We hope to build on the progress from today and carry that momentum forward to be even more competitive.”

Randy Singh, Senior Director, Racing

“We made the most of our opportunities today despite a challenging start. After FP1, the team did a fantastic job to manage a hydraulic issue on Lando’s car and ensure we still gathered valuable data from the session. Seeing Oscar finish P1 is always encouraging, and it shows we are working hard to extract the maximum from the package, but we remain realistic. We don’t believe the fundamental pecking order has changed since the last race.

“Our focus for this weekend is clear: maximise every session, harvest as many points as we can, and continue to learn what we need to develop the car further. The season has presented its challenges, but every race is an opportunity to improve. We are focused on our own programme and executing a clean weekend to secure the best possible result.”