Japan – Free Practice 2: Hamilton Leads Rosberg and Rain at Suzuka

As during the first session, the sky is rather clear before the lights turn from red to green.

The session is underway and Max Chilton is the first on track. He sets the first time of these FP2 with 1:49.287. A few minutes after the start of the session, Kamui Kobayashi, driving for the first time this weekend, makes a mistake and crashes in the Senna S, ending up in the gravel and into the tire wall, severely damaging the rear of his Caterham. Kevin Magnussen takes the lead with 1:37.328.

After less than a quarter of an hour, Jean-Eric Vergne stops on track, victim of an engine problem. The Frenchman could not set a time after giving up his seat to Max Verstappen in FP1. His former teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, takes the lead of the standings with a 1:37.186 but crashes in the last corner a few minutes later. The RB10 is damaged and will not return today. Vettel immediately worries about his teammate’s health, who is fine and managed to get out of the RB10 on his own. The red flag is not immediately waved, but given the difficulty of removing the car, the session is interrupted to clear the Red Bull.

After half an hour, the Toro Rosso mechanics set to work repairing Vergne’s car while Lewis Hamilton clocks the fastest time of the session in 1:35.432. But once again, an accident: it’s Esteban Gutierrez who goes off at Spoon. He exits his car without any issues, but the session is obviously over for him. Mid-session approaches and the sky is clouding over Suzuka, likely due to Typhoon Phanfone. Vergne manages to get back on track with his Toro Rosso.

After fitting the medium tires, Hamilton scares himself at Degner. The two Mercedes secure the top two positions, with the Briton ahead of Rosberg by more than two tenths, at 1:35.078.

Half an hour before the end of the session, the sky becomes heavily overcast, and rain threatens. It eventually starts to drizzle on the track fifteen minutes before the end of the session. Vettel gets caught out, albeit without any serious incident at Spoon. A few minutes later, Vergne’s Toro Rosso is stopped again! The French driver suddenly lost all data on his steering wheel. Red flag, and the session will not resume. Hamilton finishes ahead of Rosberg and Bottas.