F1’s Japanese GP has storylines that may be as fleeting as the country’s cherry blossoms

SUZUKA Japan AP The Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday is only the third Formula race of the season and several plots are evolving that promise a scarce twists in the early season But the fresh storylines could be as fleeting as the cherry blossoms seen all over Japan at this time of the year There s McLaren which has been the early force after winning the first two races Are Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri about to run away with the season just as Red Bull and Max Verstappen have in winning the last four drivers titles How about seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton who moved this season from Mercedes and is looking for his first mastery for Ferrari He won the sprint two weekends ago in Shanghai In Sunday s main race in China he and teammate Charles Leclerc were disqualifed for technical infringements And back to the cherry blossoms in Japan the season typically lasts for only about two weeks from the initial blooms to its splendorous peak A sellout crowd of about on Sunday at Suzuka the Honda-operated track in central Japan will be following every lap of Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda Tsunoda was promoted to Red Bull last week from Racing Bulls its feeder squad A Japanese driver has never won an F race For the purists it s McLaren McLaren has been much better than everyone else in the first two races Norris won in Australia and Piastri in China Norris has points to lead the driver standings followed Verstappen with George Russell of Mercedes with and Piastri on We know realistically the McLarens are exceptionally strong and I think it s going to be challenging for anybody else to compete with them Russell mentioned But you know we saw last year how dominant Red Bull were and suddenly they weren t at the end of the season Ditto Charles Leclerc at Ferrari Our performance compared to McLaren is just not good enough Leclerc disclosed Could Hamilton break through Seven-time world champion Hamilton has won five times in Japan but not since Foremost on Ferrari s mind is having Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified in China for those technical infringments It s been a very intricate first part of the season Hamilton s teammate Leclerc noted on Thursday The first two races were hard the pace was not where we expected it to be and to lose even more points than we already did with that it hurts the unit a lot I m confident because whenever you make mistakes you learn from them especially when they cost that much he added Hamilton has nine points He was th in Australia after his win in the Shanghai sprint Tsunoda Gambare The phrase roughly translated from Japanese into English means Tsunoda go for it Expect almost all of the sellout crowd on Sunday to be wildly supporing Tsunoda Having Tsunoda promoted from Racing Bulls to Red Bull the feeder organization to the No organization gives Japanese fans hope Almost Japanese drivers have particiaped in F and none has won a race Three have reached the podium with third-place finishes Aguri Suzuki in and Kamui Kobayahi in both at the Japanese GP and Takuma Sato in in the United States GP Sato also won two Indianapolis s Tsunoda may have the best chance of a achievement of any Japanese driver He s driving one of F s best cars and he s known for his speed I think he Tsunoda inevitably had the raw speed mentioned Pierre Gasly the Frenchman who drives for Alpine and is a former Red Bull driver He was a little bit too hectic behind the wheel at times on the radio I think in that sense he s matured enough in minimizing the mistakes The wild card on Sunday could be Verstappen the Dutchman has won the last three races in Japan Rain is in the forecast for Sunday and Verstappen is F s best driver in the rain If that eventuates look for No to be among the leaders in the wet Norris leads Friday s st practice Norris was quickest in Friday s first practice for Sunday s race He was followed by Russell and the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton Norris s best lap time was minute seconds just ahead of Russell ahead of Leclerc and in front of Hamilton Teammates Verstappen and Tsunoda were next The first session was run in bright sunshine on a perfectly dry track The second session was scheduled for later Friday with the third set for Saturday before qualifying AP Formula https apnews com hub formula-one Source