In a late move Marussia has opted to run British youngster Will Stevens in the opening practice session in Japan.

Just hours after sending out its preview for the race weekend the Banbury-based outfit announced that Stevens, currently 6th in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, would replace Max Chilton in FP1.

Stevens previously tested for Caterham at the mid-season test at Silverstone in 2013 but subsequently parted way with the Leafield based team.

With the announcement coming so late, and just a few hours after the team had issued its official Japanese GP weekend preview, it is sure to raise concern over Chilton's future, the Briton having been dropped for the opening day in Belgium as a result of a ‘financial dispute’.

However, Chilton denies there is an issue."I know Will very well, he's a good friend of mine, and I'm more than happy to do so," Chilton told reporters. "I started karting against him at the age of nine and we are close friends and we play golf together once a month.

"Suzuka is one of those tracks where it is important to be in the car all weekend because it's quite a challenging circuit," he admitted. "But I got on quite well here last year and I qualified ahead of Jules and got ahead of both Caterhams.

"We've got to let people get experience because it's hard for them to get the superlicence mileage done and this is the best way to do that. It makes it easier that he's a friend, but I think it should be pushed through the grid so that every team should do it regularly in FP1 to get the drivers' mileage up."

Other than Stevens' F1 race weekend debut, FP1 at Suzuka will also mark the debut of Max Verstappen who will become the youngest ever driver to participate in an official practice session.

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