All eyes were on home hero and newly-promoted Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda in the opening Formula 1 practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka - and he didn't disappoint.
Tsunoda finished the session just one place and 0.107 seconds behind Max Verstappen in his first run in his new car as the Red Bulls filled fifth and sixth places.
Having moved in the other direction to Racing Bulls, Verstappen's previous team-mate Liam Lawson was 13th - five places and 0.3s off his team-mate Isack Hadjar.
Championship leader Lando Norris led the session for McLaren.
Leading positions
1 Norris
2 Russell
3 Leclerc
Full results at bottom of page
Edd Straw's take on Tsunoda's session
Tsunoda made an assured start to his Red Bull Racing career, setting a best time just 0.107s off team-mate Verstappen. He was on target to improve on that on the final lap of his second run only to go deep at the chicane and ruin his lap.
He took a sensible approach to the session, feeling his way in but always looking confident and in control. Initially, he pushed harder in the slow corners - suffering from some wheelspin at the exits - but then gradually became more attacking in the quicker corners.
His communication was also clear and concise as he and the team worked through various settings experiments with diff and brake-balance settings.
Like his team-mate, he used two sets of softs with a similar runplan - although Verstappen split his first run. That meant a mini long-run for his final stint, on which he struggled for rear grip and had a bigger deficit to Verstappen.
But it was a good start for Tsunoda, who looked confident and in control even though there were moments when the car caught him out, and reported "I found the car quite interesting on the track".
Edd's full analysis of Tsunoda's first proper day at Red Bull will be published later today.
Scott Mitchell-Malm's trackside view
Watching from the start of the high-speed Esses, looking back from the outside if Turn 4, you could see Tsunoda lean on the car more as the qualifying runs progressed and he seemed to lack little compared to Verstappen.
What initially looked like a bit of caution was clearly him building up rather than being contained. So the confidence seems to be there early on and while it is impossible to be more definitive at this stage it looked like an encouraging start from trackside.
A full trackside analysis of Tsunoda's first day at Red Bull will be published later today.
What else happened in FP1?
Despite a visit to the gravel at the chicane and some pushback on the radio when McLaren told him the front tyre graining he was reporting wasn't visible, Norris set the pace on a 1m28.549s set during his soft tyre running.
That was 0.163 seconds faster than George Russell's Mercedes, with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton next up ahead of the Red Bulls.
The second McLaren of Chinese GP winner Oscar Piastri was only 15th.
Both Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli and Williams driver Alex Albon explored the grass and gravel at the hairpin, while Albon's team-mate Carlos Sainz could only laugh and apologies over team radio as he drove straight past the Williams pit thinking it was at the end of the pitlane not the start.
Alpine put reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa in Jack Doohan's car for the first session and the Toyota World Endurance Championship racer was an impressive 12th fastest, two places and a tenth and a half ahead of regular Alpine driver Pierre Gasly.
Full results
1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m28.549s
2 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.163s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.416s
4 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.502s
5 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.516s
6 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.623s
7 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.673s
8 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.676s
9 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.735s
10 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.784s
11 Alex Albon (Williams) +0.843s
12 Ryo Hirakawa (Alpine) +0.845s
13 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.987s
14 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.998s
15 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +1.159s
16 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1.209s
17 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.474s
18 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.528s
19 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.574s
20 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.598s
