Scuderia Ferrari HP got through its planned Friday free practice programme at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The work centred on fine tuning the SF-26 for on a Suzuka track where grip levels evolved continuously during the day, partly because much of the circuit had been resurfaced since last year. Both sessions ran smoothly, with plenty of data gathered both over a single flying lap, as well as in race trim, with the aim of optimising the package for the rest of the weekend. In terms of qualifying performance, there seems to be room for improvement and this evening the teams will focus on analysing all the data, with the aim of making a further step forward prior to qualifying which gets underway at 15 local (7 CET). There is still work to do in all areas to put everything together and extract all the potential from the car.

In the morning, Charles and Lewis started off on Hard tyres, prior to the track rubbering-in. Leclerc posted a 1'32"260, while Hamilton set a time of 1'33"343, before they both switched to Softs. While Lewis managed a 1'32"040, Charles encountered traffic, but on his third flying lap set a time of 1'31"955. Towards the end, both drivers did long runs on the Soft tyres. Lewis completed a total of 25 laps, two more than his team-mate, making a team total of 48.

The SF-26s were shod with Medium tyres for the start of the second hour. Hamilton lapped in 1'31"543 and Leclerc in 1'31"019. Halfway through the session, both drivers switched to Softs on which they set their best times: Leclerc stopping the clocks in 1'30"846 and Hamilton in 1'30"980. For the final third, they went back to the Mediums from the start of the hour, to do long runs. Charles completed 28 laps, Lewis did 27, a team total of 55.

Charles Leclerc: It was a more tricky day for us as a team, compared to the last two races, but it's only the first day of the weekend. Our race pace seems to be good so far, although there is still quite a gap to the front runners. Our focus going forward will be on working on the qualifying performance for tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton: It's been a slightly tricky day for us. The car doesn't feel bad overall, but at the moment we're just lacking a bit of pace and the balance is not quite where we want it to be. We'll work hard overnight to improve the set-up and try to make a step forward for tomorrow. There are areas where we can do better, including deployment, and if we can put everything together we should be able to extract more performance.

Check out our Friday gallery from Suzuka here.