It was a solid opening to life at Red Bull Racing for the Japanese

Yuki Tsunoda made a solid start to life at Red Bull Racing in his first free practice sessions for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

The home-crowd favourite was promoted to the seat at Tilbrook last week just two races into the new season, replacing his former Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson alongside world champion Max Verstappen in a move which has drawn criticism from up and down the grid.

Tsunoda, stepping up to the senior team, was sixth in his first session this morning, a little over a tenth of a second slower than team-mate Verstappen, completing 25 laps in his first outing in the RB21.

But four red flags stunted any sort of consistent running in the second session. A huge shunt from Alpine’s Jack Doohan caused the first stoppage, before Fernando Alonso beached his Aston Martin in the gravel at the Degner corners, and then two fires broke out in the dry grass alongside the circuit after the cars kicked up sparks, prompting two more red flags.

It meant Tsunoda was limited to just 12 laps and was 19th come the end of the session, while Verstappen was eighth, totally just nine laps during the session.

Lawson meanwhile finished the session in fifth as he returned to Racing Bulls, while Isaac Hadjar in the other RB was third.