Friday, 22 September 2023
-    Free Practice 1: P2, 1:32.273, 24 laps
-    Free Practice 2: P4, 1:31.237, 22 laps

• Carlos Sainz and Ferrari started the Japanese GP with a productive day as Friday practice proved that the top teams are very close.
• The Spaniard used the three tyre compounds available for the weekend. He even clocked 15 laps on the experimental tyre, which is a C2 compound with a 2024 construction.
• Carlos tested different set-ups across Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2, combining short runs with longer stints in a racetrack that is demanding in regards to the degradation of the tyres.

QUOTES:
“This weekend the gaps to our closest rivals seem very close and back to where we were in previous races, and with a Red Bull very strong again. On my side, we’re still fine tuning the car a lot and today we tested many different set-ups to try to find the best compromise for this track".

"We have a lot of data to look into and tonight we'll need to decide what settings to run tomorrow, trying to put the car in the right performance window. We have a couple of interesting days ahead of us".

COMING UP:
Saturday, 23 September 2023
-    Free Practice 3: 11:30 local time (04:30 CEST)
-    Qualifying: 15:00 local time (08:00 CEST)