McLaren’s Oscar Piastri topped the timesheets in an eventful FP2 for the Japanese Grand Prix, disrupted by four red-flag stoppages, the first brought out after Alpine’s Jack Doohan suffered a high-speed crash in Suzuka on Friday.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the fastest time to end up just 0.049s ahead of teammate Lando Norris and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, crossing the finish line in third, four-tenths off the papaya challengers.
Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari and Liam Lawson back at the wheel of the Racing Bulls’ car completed the top five.
The Woking-based outfit seems to have found the right setup for the challenges posed by the Suzuka track, toppling both free practice sessions on Friday for the Japanese Prix under dry conditions.
However, a heavily disrupted second free practice session, marked by four red flags, dismantled the team’s strategies, cutting short race simulation runs.
Formula One rookie Jack Doohan with Alpine caused the first red flag stoppage as the Australian driver suffered a high-speed crash at Turn 1 early into the session.
Fortunately, the driver walked away from the car by his own means, uninjured.
First impressions suggest the DRS was open when he entered Turn 1, hitting the barriers.
In a press release issued by the team, Oliver Oakes, Team Principal, outlined: “We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks. It was a misjudgment of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from, and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage.”
For his part, the 22-year-old driver commented: “First of all, I am OK after the incident. It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it.
“I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. My focus is on tomorrow, where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.”
Due to the significant debris left on the track and the damage caused to the barriers, the marshals took the time to clean the track properly.
Once action resumed and with 30 minutes remaining, the drivers hit the track, looking to make the most of their running.
But then, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin went wide at Turn 8 and got stuck in the gravel, leading to the second red flag.
“The new surface is better. It’s very smooth in the first sector’s high-speed corners,” the Spaniard said.
“In FP2, I lost the car into Turn 8 and ended up in the gravel. We’ll have a look at what happened, and let’s see what we can do tomorrow in Qualifying.”
With 20 minutes remaining on the clock, the teams shifted focus to qualifying runs on soft tires.
Two small fires trackside halted the session on two more occasions. At the time, the windy conditions seemed to have contributed to blowing sparks from the cars into a dry grass path that caught fire.
The crew at the circuit, equipped with fire extinguishers, quickly put the fire out twice. The session came to an end shortly after.
McLaren has been solid ahead of the final practice session on Saturday and Qualifying on a circuit where starting in front can make the difference on Sunday’s race.
Norris went fastest earlier in FP1 leading George Russell Mercedes’ and Scuderia Ferrari Charles Leclerc, who finished third quickest.
Also, FP1 saw Yuki Tsunoda making his maiden official outing for Red Bull Racing.
Meanwhile, fellow compatriot Alpine Test and Reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa completed his first appearance at the wheel of the A525, taking over Doohan’s car on home soil.
