Round 3 of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at Suzuka Circuit as teams prepared for Sunday's 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix.

TGR Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon kicked off FP1 at the legendary 5.807-kilometer (3.608-mile), 18-turn circuit on the Pirelli P Zero White hard tire. Their baseline runs on the compound were followed up by faster quali sim laps utilizing the Red soft rubber. Ocon led the way with a 1:32.601 to hold P9 on the timing screens, with Bearman placing P14 on a best lap of 1:32.900. Both drivers finished the 60-minute session on high-fuel runs - Ocon back on the hard tire with Bearman sticking to the softs.

FP2 later in the afternoon continued the team's solid form exploring the limits with the VF-26. Bearman claimed P9 thanks to a quick lap of 1:31.498 on fresh softs. Ocon landed close behind his teammate in P11 with his fastest lap a 1:31.532 - also on brand new softs. Earlier in the session both drivers trialed the Yellow medium compound before returning to the sets for distance running through to the checkered flag.

TGR Haas F1 Team ran a total of 108 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 55 by Bearman, with 53 from Ocon.

Ollie Bearman: "It's been a good day. The gap out there is very close, and this midfield battle is always the same, with VCARB looking good, even Williams and Audi. That's our standard battle, so we're looking to find some lap time overnight ready for tomorrow. It was very tough to overtake around here last year and it was maybe one of the races with the fewest overtakes. With these new regulations, however, there's always going to be more opportunity, but qualifying will still be priority number one."

Esteban Ocon: "Today has been positive overall. It was a strong start as we were able to test everything that we wanted to in FP1 and FP2. There's some margin to improve further tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do. It's still a pure pleasure to be driving around this track and driving a Formula 1 car."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "We've done all the work we wanted to do today and now we have a few scans to do to understand parts of the car. The energy deployment is challenging, as we expected, but I think we generated lots of good data to improve our understanding. In terms of car performance in the corners, it looks decent and both drivers are reasonably happy. I think it's just fine-tuning now, but it was a good foundation today."

Check out our Friday gallery from Suzuka here.