The times are coming down quickly now as Lewis Hamilton goes quickest before being knocked down into P2 by his former Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who goes three tenths quicker with a time of 1:29.666.

Image source, Getty Images

Alice Powell
British racing driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

The Williams of Carlos Sainz does not look comfortable at all.

Liam Lawson, in the Racing Bulls after being demoted at Red Bull, is top of the timesheet for a moment but is then toppled by the man who replaced him - Yuki Tsunoda - who goes quickest with 1:30.625.

Some concern for Carlos Sainz. He heads out in the Williams but is back in after just one lap.

"Something is wrong with the car," he reports. "It is bouncing like crazy."

Jack Doohan is back in the Alpine for second practice and he's straight out on to the track, eager to get as much time out there as possible.

The green light is on at the end of the pit lane so out go the first few cars for one hour of second practice.

Alice Powell
British racing driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

A very positive start for Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull and he will be looking to build on that.

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The sun is out and the colourful fans in Suzuka are settling down ready to watch the action.

The wind looks to have picked up a bit so that will be something to factor in during this session.

Have a listen to the latest Chequered Flag podcast as Eleanor Oldroyd, BBC F1’s Jennie Gow and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley look ahead to the Japanese Grand Prix.

The team discuss Red Bull’s latest driver swap, where Yuki Tsunoda replaces Liam Lawson just two races into the season. Harry Benjamin sits down with Tsunoda before his home race, and we also hear from former Haas boss Guenther Steiner and former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari on the situation.

One hour of second practice gets under way at 07:00 BST and you can listen to live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds, smart speakers and via this very page.

Someone else who had a "good 'sesh'" was George Russell. He was second quickest, 0.163s down on Lando Norris' time of 1:28.549.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

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Yuki Tsunoda had a few edgy moments as he familiarised himself with his new car. He ran on to the kerb at Degner One, twice had an oversteer moment at the hairpin, and then a big wobble out of the final chicane.

But he kept the car on track and displayed a mature approach in the cockpit to getting to grips with a car that is renowned for its tricky behaviour.

When his engineer told him at one point that he was about 0.3secs behind Russell, Tsunoda replied: "Let's focus on ourselves. I don't need much reference time."

At the end of the session, he told his engineer: "I found the car interesting on track. Good 'sesh'."

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It was an encouraging first day in the RB21 for Yuki Tsunoda as he finished sixth fastest, just a tenth slower than Max Verstappen.

He said afterwards that he had plenty of feedback and there's been plenty of tinkering going on in the Red Bull garage.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

Lando Norris made a couple of mistakes on his first run on the medium tyre, and his opening lap on the soft tyre was ruined by an error at the chicane.

The car bounced over the kerb at the second apex of the chicane, which flicked the car into an oversteer and Norris slid into the gravel.

But after a lap to cool down his tyres and recharge his hybrid battery, Norris laid down the benchmark time, displacing the impressive George Russell from the top of the times.

Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri did not manage a representative time on the soft tyre and ended up 15th fastest.

Image source, Getty Images

Hello!

It has been McLaren's season so far after winning the opening two races, and they made a good start to this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix as Lando Norris finished fastest.

It wasn't all plain sailing, however, so what will second practice show us?

Right, we are going to wrap things up here for now but we will be back with coverage of second practice from 06:45 BST.

Go grab a nap if it is still early where you are and join us again later.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

Yuki Tsunoda made a promising start to his Red Bull career in first practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Japanese, promoted to the senior team in a swap with Liam Lawson after just two races of the season, was sixth fastest, 0.107 seconds slower than his four-time world champion team-mate Max Verstappen.

The Red Bulls were lagging more than 0.5 seconds behind the pace-setting McLaren of Lando Norris, who headed the times by 0.163secs from George Russell's Mercedes.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth, followed by Verstappen and Tsunoda and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.

Read the full report here.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, speaking to Sky Sports: "A good start for Yuki, settling into the car pretty well. He settled in and gave very good feedback and now both drivers are working away to improve the car for the next session.

"I think in hindsight we just asked too much too soon of Liam. We have a lot of work to do with the car and sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

"Making use of Yuki's experience will hopefully help the engineers make faster progress with the car."

On whether he was running in a different mode to Verstappen: "They were both identical engine modes."

Another driver who will be pretty happy with that session will be Fernando Alonso as he finished seventh quickest.

The former world champion is looking to finish a race for the first time this season.

A promising start for Yuki Tsunoda as he finished within a tenth of Max Verstappen.

His initial feedback to Red Bull is that the car was "interesting".