F1 Japanese Grand Prix LIVE: Practice updates and times at Suzuka

We’re underway with FP2 in Japan – except we’re sort of not!

The session begins but there’s no cars out on track as it’s raining in Suzuka – and none of the drivers fancy driving in the wet at the moment!

Seven-time world champion Hamilton is moving to Ferrari from next season, leaving big shoes to fill at a team where he has lifted all-but one of his drivers’ titles. Vettel, meanwhile, has hinted at a return to the F1 grid next year having left in 2022.

The German won four titles back to back between 2010 and 2013 with Red Bull and has recently had a test with Porsche that could see him race at Le Mans later this year.

Since 2000, three of the six world champions to leave the sport later returned to the grid. Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen all had time away from F1 before being enticed back and Vettel admitted in a Sky Sports interview on Wednesday that “it does cross my mind” when it comes to securing a new drive and has spoken to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

Three-time F1 world champion Verstappen, the firm favourite to win this year’s championship too, has a contract with Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season, signed two years ago.

However, the recent turmoil within the Red Bull camp as a result of the never-ending saga involving team boss Christian Horner and a female colleague has placed Verstappen’s future at the team into doubt, despite being in the quickest car on the grid.

5. Aston Martin – 25 points

9. Kick Sauber – 0 points

Exclusive interview by Kieran Jackson

From university in Belfast and the circus of the Formula 1 paddock to the television screen and the world of the media, Bernie Collins’s path to her current role has been unorthodox to say the least. And in some respects, groundbreaking. Regularly the sole woman in a man’s world, the Northern Irish F1 expert has consistently broken the mould, first as an engineer for McLaren and a strategist for Aston Martin to now: a key cog in Sky Sports’ coverage of F1.

This weekend, Collins will be in the Osterley-based studio as part of Sky’s coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix. As she acknowledges, she is a rare breed of pundit: that is, someone from a data-driven background. And in a sport as technical as Formula 1 – perhaps the most statistical-based sport in the British mainstream – her unique perspective has positively tapped into a market previously untouched.

“It’s a story which hasn’t been sold,” says Collins, 38, of her role with Sky. “Even now when I watch other sports, football for example, most pundits are ex-footballers or managers. But teams have a data team and fitness coaches. I think it’s beginning to open up this realisation that all sports have technical areas and people are more interested in the technical side of sports than ever before.”

1. Max Verstappen – 51 points

2. Charles Leclerc – 47 points

3. Sergio Perez – 46 points

4. Carlos Sainz – 40 points

5. Oscar Piastri – 28 points

6. Lando Norris – 27 points

7. George Russell – 18 points

8. Fernando Alonso – 16 points

9. Lance Stroll – 9 points

10. Lewis Hamilton – 8 points

11. Yuki Tsunoda – 6 points

12. Oliver Bearman – 6 points

13. Nico Hulkenberg – 3 points

14. Kevin Magnussen – 1 point

15. Alex Albon – 0 points

16. Zhou Guanyu – 0 points

17. Daniel Ricciardo – 0 points

18. Esteban Ocon – 0 points

19. Pierre Gasly – 0 points

20. Valtteri Bottas – 0 points

21. Logan Sargeant – 0 points

• Free practice 3: 3:30am
• Qualifying: 7am

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend!

Lando Norris finished third to pick up McLaren’s first podium of the season, while Mercedes endured their first double DNF in five years after George Russell’s late crash, which resulted in Fernando Alonso’s post-race penalty.

With Red Bull’s F1 win-streak broken, Verstappen now only has a four-point lead at the top of the drivers’ championship to Leclerc – but will normal service resume this weekend at one of the sport’s most iconic and popular tracks?