Oscar Piastri was the quickest in FP2 at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Australian driver's fastest lap time was a 1:28.114. Lando Norris finished in second place in Friday's second session, while Isack Hadjar rounded off the Top 3.
The session was hardly representative of where things stand in Suzuka, as the red flag was waved four times. Lewis Hamilton finished in P4, while Max Verstappen set the eighth quickest time.
As it happened
Immediately after the session began, Sainz mentioned issues with bouncing, and asked his team to check his car's rear. Williams had to look at the rear suspension afterwards.
Seven and a half minutes into the session, Jack Doohan caused a red flag. The Australian driver lost control of his rear end entering Turn 1, as he did not manually close DRS. As a result, he spun off the track, and damaged his car heavily.
After it took the marshals 20 minutes to repair the barriers, the session could resume, however, five minutes after the lights turned green once again, the red flag had to be waved once again.
This time, it was Fernando Alonso who lost control of his car, and got stuck in the gravel trap in Turn 8.
After the session could resume, Russell and Verstappen had bit of a battle exiting the pit lane, as the British driver was eager to get past the Red Bull car.
Minutes later, the third red flag also happened, as the grass caught fire, possibly thanks to the sparks coming off the cars and the windy conditions. The session then concluded with another red flag for the same reason.
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