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F1 Japanese GP: Piastri tops disrupted FP2 after Doohan, Alonso crashes and grass fires

Oscar Piastri was fastest in a McLaren 1-2 in second practice at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, as four red flags led to a truncated session.

After Lando Norris led the way in the morning session, McLaren team-mate Piastri had the upper hand later in the day as his time of 1m28.114s, that was 0.049s faster than Norris.

Four red flags led to plenty of running being lost, the first of which occurred following a huge accident for Alpine’s Jack Doohan.

With all the talk about the Red Bull stable swapping Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, it was Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar who got closest to the McLaren duo in third place, although a number of runners did not get to set a competitive time on the soft tyre.

After the session resumed following Doohan’s shunt at Turn 1, a spin for Fernando Alonso also brought out the red flag, and it would return twice more before the end of the hour as scorched areas of grass at the side of the track needed extinguishing.

Carlos Sainz reported an early issue in his Williams but things were much worse for Doohan moments later.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing crash (Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Motorsport Images)

Having sat out FP1 in place of Alpine reserve driver Ryu Hirakawa, Doohan completed just four laps before a big shunt into the barriers at the first turn – the Australian walking away having climbed out of his wrecked car.

The session resumed with just half of the time remaining but another red flag was caused by Alonso spinning off into the gravel.

When two more red flags were required late on due to separate instances of burning grass, it was Piastri who had set the benchmark time.

Tsunoda had impressed on his Red Bull debut, getting to within a tenth of a second of new team-mate Max Verstappen in FP1, but the delays meant the Japanese driver did not set a representative FP2 time on the soft rubber and so he dropped to 18th place at the end of the session.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Lawson, while George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Sainz rounded out the top 10.

F1 Japanese GP - FP2 results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval Tyres km/h
1 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 McLaren Mercedes 13

1'28.114

  S 237.251
2 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 McLaren Mercedes 12

+0.049

1'28.163

0.049 S 237.119
3 France I. Hadjar RB 6 RB Honda 12

+0.404

1'28.518

0.355 S 236.168
4 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Ferrari 44 Ferrari Ferrari 14

+0.430

1'28.544

0.026 S 236.099
5 New Zealand L. Lawson RB 30 RB Honda 13

+0.445

1'28.559

0.015 S 236.059
6 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 Mercedes Mercedes 13

+0.453

1'28.567

0.008 S 236.038
7 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 Ferrari Ferrari 14

+0.472

1'28.586

0.019 S 235.987
8 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 Red Bull Red Bull 9

+0.556

1'28.670

0.084 S 235.764
9 France P. Gasly Alpine 10 Alpine Renault 13

+0.643

1'28.757

0.087 S 235.532
10 Spain C. Sainz Williams 55 Williams Mercedes 9

+0.718

1'28.832

0.075 S 235.334
11 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 Williams Mercedes 11

+0.909

1'29.023

0.191 S 234.829
12 Germany N. Hulkenberg Sauber 27 Sauber Ferrari 12

+0.948

1'29.062

0.039 S 234.726
13 Brazil G. Bortoleto Sauber 5 Sauber Ferrari 13

+1.221

1'29.335

0.273 S 234.009
14 France E. Ocon Haas F1 Team 31 Haas Ferrari 13

+1.393

1'29.507

0.172 S 233.559
15 United Kingdom O. Bearman Haas F1 Team 87 Haas Ferrari 10

+1.540

1'29.654

0.147 M 233.176
16 Italy A. Antonelli Mercedes 12 Mercedes Mercedes 13

+1.619

1'29.733

0.079 S 232.971
17 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 Aston Martin Mercedes 5

+1.864

1'29.978

0.245 M 232.336
18 Japan Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing 22 Red Bull Red Bull 12

+2.511

1'30.625

0.647 M 230.678
19 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 Aston Martin Mercedes 12

+2.731

1'30.845

0.220 M 230.119
20 Australia J. Doohan Alpine 7 Alpine Renault 4

+3.545

1'31.659

0.814 H 228.075
In this article
Mark Mann-Bryans
Formula 1
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