Max Verstappen and Red Bull returned to their pace-setting form in the opening hour of running in Japan, as the Dutch racer set the early pace in the first practice session to comfortably lead rivals Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.

Just five days on from an action-packed evening in Singapore the drivers made their way to Japan for the second race of the double header. But as opposed to Singapore, where it was hot and humid, they were greeted by slightly cooler conditions in Suzuka.

As the lights turned green to kick off the weekend’s action, it was Verstappen who led the drivers out, as Red Bull looked to hit the ground running in a bid to return to winning ways after their difficult outing in Singapore.

And following the first 20 minutes of running it was Verstappen who led the way, as his time of a 1m 32.442s on the prototype tyre was 0.724s faster than second-placed Fernando Alonso.

We then saw a flurry of laps come in on the soft tyre with Verstappen once again setting the time to beat. His lap of a 1m 31.647s saw him top the timesheets in first practice, with his nearest challenger, Sainz, 0.626s off the pace.