Ayumu Iwasa was all smiles Friday after putting in his first couple dozen laps in a Formula One car at Suzuka Circuit during the first free practice session of the Japanese Grand Prix.
“That was so fun,” Iwasa told reporters. “I was able to have a good feeling from the car straight away so I was able to build up the pace quite quickly and I think I could do quite good progress with the team through the session.”
The Osaka Prefecture native logged a fastest lap of 1:32.103 for RB, putting him 16th among the 20 drivers in the session. That was about nine-tenths of a second behind the best of teammate Yuki Tsunoda in a rare instance of two Japanese drivers participating in the same F1 session.