Oscar Piastri topped an all but meaningless rain-affected second practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix in which only five drivers set representative times.
Rain doused the track in the lead-up to the final hour of practice on Friday, leaving the Suzuka Circuit damp and slippery when pit lane opened. It took 12 minutes for the first car to sample the conditions, with Lewis Hamilton taking to the circuit on a set of medium tires.
The track was drying slowly in the chilly sub-60-degree F temperatures, but rain re-appeared on the radar just as Hamilton prepared to set his first flying lap, and he was recalled to pit lane with only two slow tours completed.
The return of light precipitation kept the track too wet for slicks for the bulk of the session, but a flurry of laps at the half-hour mark suggested it was also awkwardly too dry for intermediate tires too, sending most of the drivers back to their garages without a time.
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The RB teammates were the only exceptions, with Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo setting five and six laps respectively. The track time was particularly valuable for Ricciardo, who sat out FP1 to give Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa his first F1 weekend appearance.
It took until the final 10 minutes of the hour for drivers to sample the slicks a second time. Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg both reported that conditions remained too wet and returned to their garages.
Piastri, however, had the confidence to push, reeling off a series of push laps on fresh soft tires to set the benchmark at 1m34.725, fully 4.669s slower than Max Verstappen’s leading dry time in FP1.
Hamilton subsequently set one flying lap on softs as the checkered flag flew, and he slotted in 0.501s behind Piastri, with Charles Leclerc completing the top three for slick runners.
Tsunoda and Ricciardo ended the session fourth and fifth respectively with times set on intermediate tires.
Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen set late but unrepresentative times to partake in practice starts on the grid after the flag.
Verstappen, Sergio Perez, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly didn’t leave their garages throughout the session.
Logan Sargeant was ironically the big winner from the damp hour, having been forced to skip the session anyway owing to damage picked up during FP1 earlier in the day.
Sargeant’s Williams sustained heavy damage that would take the rest of the day to rectify, though the team said his chassis — freshly repaired after Albon’s crash in Australia — was undamaged.
RESULTS:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:34.725 | 7 | ||
| 2 | 1:35.226 | +0.501s | 6 | |
| 3 | 1:38.760 | +4.035s | 4 | |
| 4 | 1:40.946 | +6.221s | 8 | |
| 5 | 1:41.913 | +7.188s | 9 | |
| 6 | 7 | |||
| 7 | 7 | |||
| 8 | 5 | |||
| 9 | 4 | |||
| 10 | 5 | |||
| 11 | 3 | |||
| 12 | 3 | |||
| 13 | 3 |