F1: McLaren Remains Red Hot In Suzuka P1

Formula 1

F1: McLaren Remains Red Hot In Suzuka P1

McLaren teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton showed the way in P1 for the Japanese GP...

Jared Turner | Posted October 04, 2012 Suzuka (JPN)

McLaren has been the fastest team in Formula One over the last several events.

Based on Friday's opening practice at Suzuka Circuit, the trend appears likely to continue this weekend.

McLaren, winners of three of the last four Grands Prix, topped the P1 time sheet as Jenson Button (1:34:507) led the way over teammate Lewis Hamilton (1:34:740) in second.

Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher completed the top five.

Sixth through 10th in time were Kamui Kobayashi, Felipe Massa, Paul Di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado.

Points leader Fernando Alonso was 11th in his Ferrari, but less than a full second behind Button's leading McLaren.

Reigning World Champion and second-place points man Sebastian Vettel clocked in only 17th out of 24 drivers. Also well down the running order was 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, coming in at No. 13 in time.

Schumacher, who on Thursday announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the season, will drop 10 grid spots due to a penalty for his collision with Jean-Eric Vergne in Singapore two weeks ago.

Button, meanwhile, will drop five places down the grid for a gearbox change.

Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix marks the 15th of 20 events on the 2012 Formula One calendar, which concludes in late November with the Brazilian GP.

Coming into the weekend, Alonso leads the drivers' standings by 29 points over Vettel, 45 over Raikkonen and 52 over Hamilton. Webber (-61) completes the top five.

Alonso and Hamilton both have a season-high three victories, while Webber, Vettel and Button, each with two victories, are the season's other repeat winners.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.