Friday Report - Piastri breaks Mercedes run in FP2

Oscar Piastri
© McLaren

Oscar Piastri stopped Mercedes from sweeping Friday at Suzuka by setting the fastest lap in second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, a 1m30.133 that kept McLaren narrowly ahead of Kimi Antonelli’s 1m30.225 and George Russell’s 1m30.338. Mercedes had led the way in FP1 i, but FP2 swung toward Piastri once the field moved onto soft tyres, and his benchmark from that phase of the session proved untouchable.

Piastri had shown speed from the opening minutes and then tightened his grip on the session when qualifying-style runs began. Antonelli again looked immediately competitive for Mercedes and finished just 0.092s away, while Russell remained firmly in the mix in third at 0.205s off the pace.

Lando Norris recovered from an early hydraulics issue that kept him in the garage for much of the first half of the session to take fourth with a 1m30.649, giving McLaren an encouraging run on Friday after its difficult start to the season.

Ferrari again sat close behind, Charles Leclerc fifth (1m30.846) and Lewis Hamilton sixth (1m30.980).

Behind the leading six, Nico Hulkenberg placed Audi seventh (1m31.441), followed by Alex Albon for Williams (1m31.496) and Oliver Bearman for Haas (1m31.498).

Max Verstappen (1m31.509) was 10th after another difficult session for Red Bull, with Esteban Ocon 11th (1m31.532), Liam Lawson 12th (1m31.590), Carlos Sainz 13th (1m31.608) and Pierre Gasly 14th (1m31.734).

Isack Hadjar was 15th (1m31.759), followed by Gabriel Bortoleto 16th (1m31.933), Franco Colapinto 17th (1m32.438) and Valtteri Bottas 18th (1m32.615). Fernando Alonso, back in the Aston Martin after Jak Crawford handled FP1 duties, ended 19th (1m33.596), with Sergio Perez 20th (1m33.689) and Lance Stroll 21st (1m33.951). Arvid Lindblad failed to set a time after an early gearbox problem on the Racing Bulls car.

The session was largely clean apart from a brief yellow-flag interruption after Albon stopped on track before getting going again, while Norris’s delayed start and Lindblad’s retirement were the main disruptions.

But the most significant takeaway from Friday afternoon was that Mercedes no longer had Suzuka to itself: Piastri and McLaren finished the day with the fastest lap and fresh momentum heading into Saturday.