Credits: IMAGO / Motorsport Images and IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

Ferrari’s scintillating form and Carlos Sainz’s victory in Melbourne is still fresh in Red Bull’s mind as they arrived in Japan to take back control of the season. Max Verstappen, who’s looking to carry forward his dominance in Suzuka from last year, topped FP1, with his teammate Sergio Perez following him in P2. Despite this, Helmut Marko is worried about Ferrari’s pace, and especially that of Charles Leclerc‘s.

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“Charles Leclerc’s run was a bit annoying. Or actually not annoying, but he was really fast,” said Marko as per Racing News 365. “In that regard, we have to see how much fuel he had on board for that run.”

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Coming into the Free Practice 1 of the 2024 Japanese GP, Verstappen started with his usual dominance as he clocked 1:30.056 on the timesheet. Compared to him, Perez and Sainz were one-tenth and two-tenths slower, respectively.

Leclerc, interestingly, was five-tenths slower than the Dutchman, but as Marko already pointed out, his onboard fuel could be a reason for the slower speed since Ferrari might have sandbagged the Monegasque. None of the teams went out on track a lot for FP2 due to rain, leaving Marko’s doubt stranded.

Nonetheless, the Prancing Horse showed incredible progress coming into 2024, and the points in the championship do the talking for them. As Leclerc’s team has kept gaining on the defending champions, Verstappen began to worry, to say the least.

Max Verstappen worried about the grid closing up

Max Verstappen enjoyed a thorough dominance in the last two years with Red Bull ripping apart its opposition. However, in 2024, the situation doesn’t look the same, as Verstappen shared his concern despite a good start to the Japanese GP.

“I think in general, already the whole year over one lap it seems like people definitely got closer,” said the three-time world champion as per F1. “Of course, the long-run pace, again I have no clue how that will look, but I don’t expect gaps to be like they were last year here at this track.”

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The defending champion’s concerns are true as the qualifying simulation pace of the top five teams binds them within five-tenths. Red Bull leads the pack with Ferrari only one-tenth behind. Then there is McLaren, Mercedes, and Aston Martin, all within four and five-tenths respectively.

Therefore, the upcoming race on Sunday indeed provides a fair chance for all teams if they can extract good positions on Saturday. On top of that, the weather forecast has predicted rain during the race, which makes the situation more interesting and leaves the window wide open for anybody to claim the victory.