Bottas, Hamilton set early pace in typhoon-hit Japanese GP practice

Valtteri Bottas went quickest in first practice for the typhoon-hit Japanese Grand Prix on Friday, a whisker ahead of Mercedes teammate and world championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes pair, benefitting in Japan from an upgrade package to their W10 cars, were almost a second quicker than the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, who were third and fourth on the timing sheets.

The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon came next on a condensed racing weekend.

Just before the session began race organisers announced that the entire Saturday track programme, including qualifying, had been scrapped for safety reasons as a "violent" Typhoon Hagibis bears down on the Suzuka circuit.

Qualifying will be rescheduled to 10am (0100 GMT) Sunday, with the race taking place at 2:10pm (0510 GMT) as originally planned, providing the weather improves. I
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