Oscar Piastri fastest from Lewis Hamilton in rain-hit second Japanese GP practice
Oscar Piastri leads the way in a rain-hit second practice with a distinct lack of running.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended up fastest in a rain-hit practice session that featured very little running at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Piastri set the pace with a late flurry of soft tyre laps once the track had dried enough to switch to slicks for the closing minutes of second practice, with the Australian heading Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes by 0.501 seconds.
Charles Leclerc was third-fastest but with a time that was over four seconds down on Piastri’s benchmark.
After dry running in FP1, a downpour prior to second practice left the track damp but not initially wet enough to use intermediate or wet tyres.
A combination of teams not wanting to take risks on one of the most challenging circuits of the calendar, and being unwilling to burn through sets of tyres which may be needed later in the weekend, was behind the lack of track action.
With 30 minutes of the session gone, drivers finally stated to emerge on intermediate tyres, with the RB pair of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo initially setting the pace.
Tsunoda and Ricciardo would go on to finish fourth and fifth, ahead of Lando Norris, who had a wobble at Turn 1 as he took sixth, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was the only other driver to have a registered lap time.
The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Aston Martin pair Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and Mercedes’ George Russell were among the seven drivers who did not go out at all.
Logan Sargeant had been ruled out of the session after suffering damage to his Williams during a heavy FP1 shunt.
Ricciardo completed nine laps - the most of anyone - but has started the weekend on the backfoot after missing first practice so that Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa could run.
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