Tsunoda stuns in Red Bull debut as Norris dominates chaotic Suzuka session riddled with drama.

Yuki Tsunoda sent shockwaves through the paddock at Suzuka on Friday as he outpaced his world champion team-mate Max Verstappen during a frantic first practice for the Japanese Grand Prix—his first session since being dramatically promoted to Red Bull’s senior team.

The 23-year-old local hero, elevated from the Racing Bulls in a swift swap with Liam Lawson, delivered an electrifying sixth-place finish, clocking just 0.107 seconds slower than Verstappen. Yet both Red Bulls looked out of sorts—more than half a second adrift of a blistering Lando Norris, who topped the timesheets for McLaren.

With the cherry blossoms fluttering above Suzuka, the home crowd watched in awe as Tsunoda wrestled with the notoriously edgy Red Bull RB20. He ran wide at Degner One, flirted with the gravel at the hairpin, and survived a big twitch out of the final chicane—but crucially, he kept it pointing the right way.

His radio exchanges revealed a focused, unfazed driver. When told he was three-tenths behind George Russell, Tsunoda calmly replied, “Let’s focus on ourselves. I don’t need much reference time.” At session’s end, his assessment was cool and casual: “I found the car interesting on track. Good ‘sesh’.”

Up front, Norris endured a rough start. A messy first flyer on medium tyres followed by a hairy moment on his initial soft tyre run—his McLaren bounced hard over the chicane, throwing him sideways into the gravel. But after a reset lap, he stormed back to post a benchmark time that nobody could touch. George Russell’s impressive Mercedes fell 0.163 seconds short, with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton rounding out the top four.

Verstappen’s session was riddled with complaints. “Super-weird,” he called the car early on. “Just flexing a lot.” His discomfort showed in the times—0.516 seconds off Norris and trailing Tsunoda. Fernando Alonso, just 0.05 seconds slower than the Japanese driver, slotted into seventh in a tightly contested mid-pack.

Rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, subbing in for Mercedes, managed ninth despite a heart-stopping moment at the hairpin, where he locked up and ploughed briefly into the gravel—mirrored almost identically by Alex Albon in the Williams. Carlos Sainz, making a rare appearance in the Williams for this session, was also in the top 10.

Meanwhile, it was a tough return for Liam Lawson. Recently demoted after Red Bull judged his confidence shattered, he ended up 13th in the Racing Bulls car—0.311 seconds behind team-mate Isack Hadjar and far from reasserting himself.

Hadjar, though, impressed—just three thousandths of a second behind Alonso, and in the mix with much more experienced names.

Oscar Piastri, Norris’s McLaren team-mate, struggled to deliver a proper soft tyre lap and ended the session buried in 15th. His difficulties stood in stark contrast to Norris’s authority at the top.

Ferrari’s pace, though, was another question mark. Leclerc was nearly half a second adrift of Norris, while Hamilton trailed his Mercedes team-mate Russell by just 0.086 seconds—showing promise, but still lacking that extra punch.

With the sun setting behind the grandstands and cherry blossoms drifting across the Suzuka tarmac, the headlines were already being written. Lando Norris had drawn first blood—but Yuki Tsunoda, in front of his home fans and thrust into Red Bull’s unforgiving spotlight, had matched Verstappen and then some.

A “good sesh”? It might turn out to be a career-defining one.