Formula One drivers' championship leader George Russell admitted Mercedes were surprised by the pace shown by McLaren in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri topped the second practice timesheet at Suzuka on Friday, posting a lap time 0.092 seconds quicker than Kimi Antonelli and 0.205secs faster than Russell.

The Silver Arrows had things all their own way in the opening two weeks of the season, with Russell and Antonelli piecing together back-to-back one-twos and earning a win apiece.

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were the only real challengers to Mercedes in Australia or China, but last year's constructors' champions look to be back in the mix in Japan, with Lando Norris posting the fourth-fastest time on Friday. 

"McLaren were pretty fast," Russell said afterwards, as quoted by Sky Sports. "It was a little bit of a surprise, to be honest. 

"There are still some improvements we need to do, so some work to do overnight. Lando had a disrupted day, but Oscar was on it from the first lap out of the box. 

"We have got some more to give, and things were not quite optimised, especially on my side with the energy management."

A solid Friday at Suzuka  An exciting weekend ahead  pic.twitter.com/Acc2wI0rO9

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 27, 2026

Hamilton, meanwhile, said he is still adapting to Ferrari's new SF-26 car, having proclaimed earlier this week that F1's new rule changes had made racing more fun. 

"Interestingly, it's something in how this car is set up. There are some similarities to what I felt last year, so we are working on that," Hamilton said.

"I'm confident overnight we can find something and get it into a better place. It's an awesome circuit, but you need to be able to sit in the rear and be comfortable that it will stay with you, and today I had the snaps. I just can't seem to match the other guys.

"We will do a deeper dive tonight, get some interesting readings from the simulator. I feel I've got a bit of a north star, it's just how we get there, so I'm going to try to figure that out."