Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell says he was surprised by the pace of McLaren during Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri ended Mercedes’ early dominance of the 2026 season as McLaren set the fastest time in second practice at Suzuka.
The Australian, who is yet to complete a racing lap in a grand prix this season, pipped Kimi Antonelli by just 0.092 seconds, while Russell was third fastest and 0.205s off the pace set by Piastri.
“McLaren were pretty fast so [that was] a little bit of a surprise to be honest,” Russell admitted after FP2. “There’s still some improvements we need to do so a bit of work to do tonight.”
World champion Lando Norris ended up fourth fastest in the second McLaren despite missing nearly half the session with a hydraulic leak.
The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were well off the pace in fifth and sixth as the Maranello outfit lagged behind its F1 rivals.
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be genuine to be honest. I think Lando’s had a disruptive day but Oscar has been pretty on it from the first lap out of the box this morning,” Russell added.
“We’ll find out come Qualifying. I think we’ve got some more to give and things weren’t quite optimised, especially on my side with the energy management, so hopefully a little bit more to come tomorrow.
“I think there’s some quite big differences in the deployment between teams and what’s been optimised over the course of the lap. I think we didn’t quite have that right and it should be a relatively easy fix.”
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin also noted McLaren’s impressive pace but feels Mercedes is in a “reasonable place” after Friday’s running.
“We’ve had a fairly straightforward first day here in Suzuka. The car ran reliably and we’ve been able to get through our planned work,” Shovlin said.
“This track is quite challenging from an energy point of view, especially on the single lap; we were losing some time out of the final chicane and that is something we will be looking to improve for tomorrow.
“In terms of pace, it looks like we are in a reasonable place although both McLaren and Ferrari have posted impressive times during the day so we’re not taking anything for granted.
“We’ve managed to long run all three tyre compounds during the day and that gives us useful information for Sunday. There are a few things we can chase overnight to try and improve the speed and balance of the car but overall we have got off to a decent start.”
