Oscar Piastri was fastest in second practice ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. The McLaren driver set a 30.133 to put his McLaren just under a tenth faster than the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli. This will be a huge boost to the Australian who has failed to start the first two races of the season.
Both Piastri and Antonelli set their fastest times on the soft tyre on their first attempt; the McLaren driver was also a second faster than his fastest time on the medium tyres. Antonelli’s fastest time also came with his first lap on the soft; the window of qualifying-sim runs was quite short in FP2 as drivers returned to mediums towards the end.
Throughout both sessions on Friday, McLaren looked more competitive than in the opening two weekends and topped the times for the first time this season. George Russell, leading the championship after the first two races, was third fastest, two tenths off Piastri’s pace and just over a tenth slower than his team-mate.
Up until Friday, either Russell or Antonelli had also occupied the top spot in every practice session so far. However, Piastri’s speed later in the day will offer encouragement for constructors’ champions McLaren and Lando Norris, who have endured an underwhelming start to his title defence.
Mercedes’ pace in the session’s later race simulations also pointed more clearly to an expected edge over McLaren and the rest of the field, although the single-lap speed of their papaya rivals had nonetheless caught their eye. Piastri’s race simulation was on average half a second slower than Mercedes, but he was caught in traffic.
Mercedes believed the qualifying fight would be close, but senior figures at McLaren said they believed the competitive picture was the same as in the first two races, with Mercedes out in front. Both Ferrari drivers seemed to be struggling for grip, and not on the level of McLaren, let alone Mercedes.
Russell said, “McLaren were pretty fast. So, a little bit of a surprise, to be honest. Still some improvements to do, so a bit of work to do tonight.” However, Russell looked to compromise himself by the way he was driving through Spoon Curve (thirteen-fourteen), which was affecting how much battery level he had left at the end of the lap.
Deputy team principal Bradley Lord explaining “The driving style through Spoon meant George was hitting the harvesting limit earlier in the lap than Kimi and that was costing him out of the final corner, but that’s something that will be looked at overnight.”
Norris put his McLaren fourth; the world champion was nearly two tenths faster than the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, was over a tenth further behind. However, the seven-time champion missed the first half of FP2 with a hydraulic leak before a couple of off-track moments.
Hamilton was rarely a threat in second practice as he struggled to get near the top of the times, the seven-time world champion finishing the session eight and a half tenths behind Piastri. But said over team radio at the end of the race simulations: “I am very slow because I have no confidence in the car.”
Nico Hulkenberg was the best of the rest. He put his Audi seventh as he went half a tenth faster than Alex Albon, the Williams driver, who edged out Ollie Bearman by two thousandths of a second. Max Verstappen completed the top ten a hundredth behind the Haas, but he again struggled with his RB22, reporting “my understeer is unreal”.
After the session, he said, “We just struggled a lot more with the balance of the car and grip, not similar to China but we are still off, not really understanding why we are that far off in sector one, in medium to high speed a lot. It is something we need to work on, there are a few things not going right at the moment.”
Verstappen split the Haas drivers as he went just under a quarter of a second faster than Esteban Ocon, but the four-time champion was over a second off the pace set by Piastri. Verstappen’s teammate, Isack Hadjar, had similar struggles, going fifteenth, half a second further behind.
Liam Lawson put his Racing Bull a hundred and a half faster than Carlos Sainz, with Pierre Gasly a quarter of a tenth faster than Hadjar. Gabriel Bortoletto was sixteenth, an issue restricted him to ten laps; he was half a second faster than Franco Colapinto’s Alpine.
Valtteri Bottas was nearly a second ahead of Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard skipped FP1 after arriving late in Japan following the birth of his first child. Alonso split the Cadillac’s as went nearly a tenth faster than Sergio Perez, with Lance Stroll a quarter of a tenth further behind.
Arvid Lindblad only did one lap due to a gearshift problem
