On the Suzuka weekend, the second free practice session of the Japanese GP does not count: a light drizzle, which made the track too dry for the intermediate tires and in any case too slippery for the slicks, advised the drivers not to take risks until five minutes from the checkered flag, when Oscar Piastri broke the deadlock with McLaren. The Australian with the soft tires pushed himself to 1'34″725 by putting together 5 laps and managing to get the tires up to temperature.
Oscar preceded Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes by half a second. Lewis had tried to take the track at the start of the session with the yellows, but he did not complete a lap, preferring to return to the pit lane because the tires were not igniting. He returned to action at the end on slicks and the seven-time world champion preceded Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque took no risks and paid for over four seconds.
Credit goes to Racing Bulls: Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo put on a bit of a show with the intermediate tires, showing respect to the Japanese public who packed the stands despite the cold (13 degrees of air) and the rain. Nine conductors appear on the time list, while 13 have lapped, but four have not completed a lap.
Lando Norris (McLaren), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) also have a lap time. It went well for Logan Sargeant who, however, would not have lapped after the bang in the first round: the American had to miss the second session while the mechanics were repairing his Williams which had damaged the front wing in the morning (he will have to race with an old specification), the suspension and the gearbox which has been replaced. The chassis was not damaged, so Sargeant will have the opportunity to drive tomorrow, as the Grove team does not have a spare chassis.
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