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Formula 1 Japanese GP

F1 Japanese GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2

All of Friday's F1 action from Suzuka ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Suzuka Circuit logo

A week after Singapore, Suzuka also returns to the calendar following a three-year absence, where Max Verstappen can claim a second F1 world title if he is 112 points clear of second place in the standings at the chequered flag.

Sergio Perez won last time out at Singapore, after a faultless drive helped him stave off the intermittent threats of Charles Leclerc.

Suzuka's last race was held in 2019, and was won by Valtteri Bottas - who beat Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to victory.

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"How's the track?" Norris is asked over team radio. "Wet," is the reply. Succinct.
13-time grand prix starter and current Super GT competitor Roberto Merhi pops up in the Aston Martin garage. That's a blast from the past.
Sainz is still on top but his advantage has been trimmed to 0.8s by former team-mate Norris, who leads a McLaren 2-3.
Five-time Japanese GP winner Hamilton nips out for his opening run in FP2. It is still very wet and raining but with the cars lifting the water from the track conditions are improving.
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"It's almost inters," Hamilton reports, to prove our point. Thanks Lewis.
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes quickest with his first timed lap, a 1m49.489s, as team-mate Russell heads out on the intermediate tyres.
Stopwatch
Russell, on said inters, pops up to the top with a 1m46.891s to go 2.5s quicker than Hamilton's earlier leading effort. So that'll mean inters all around.
Stopwatch
Hamilton duly switches to inters, as Russell goes even quicker next time around with a 1m45.738s. Over 30 minutes gone in the session and still no sign of seven drivers including Leclerc, Perez and Verstappen.
Stopwatch
Hamilton takes over top spot with a 1m44.298s, while in the pitlane Tsunoda gets stuck waiting for intermediate tyres as AlphaTauri mix up the tyre formation.
Tsunoda, on his delayed inters, runs off track at the Degners and skips through the gravel. He keeps it out of the wall and returns to the track.
Yellow flag
Leclerc, on his first out-lap of the session, goes off at the Hairpin and comes to a halt just before the barrier. It looked like a combination of cold tyres and too much water on the outside of the corner which sent him off.
Both Red Bulls have also joined the action now, as Perez goes third 1.2s off Hamilton.
Verstappen, in his customary fashion, goes quickest with his first lap of the session. His 1m43.571s puts him 0.7s quicker than anyone else. That guy is fast.
Stopwatch
Russell pushes Verstappen off top spot with a 1m42.968s, while the Dutch driver has a small moment coming through Degner 2.
Still no sign of first practice headline-grabber Alonso, who is the only driver yet to go out on track in FP2. Aside from Schumacher, of course, who is sidelined by a chassis change.
And right on cue Alonso heads out with 43 minutes of FP2 to go.
Stopwatch
A flurry of fastest lap times are traded between Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell, which ends up with the young Brit on top due to his 1m41.935s.
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"Front tyres are getting way too hot through the lap," Verstappen reports on team radio. He's losing most of his lap time to the Merc pair in the final sector so that would tally up.
Mercedes really struggled to fire up the inter tyres in Singapore, but at Suzuka both Russell and Hamilton are the class of the field. Circuit specific or have they found a breakthrough?
Good work by the helmet camera on Alonso, you can see everything inside his Alpine cockpit. If he ordered a latte, we'd know about it.
Perez pops up to fourth on the times with a 1m42.834s, within a tenth of team-mate Verstappen.
If this was a normal FP2, it would be coming to a close right now. Instead we've got an extra helping of 30 minutes of track running. What fun.
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Leclerc heads back out on track after his earlier off and brake issue with his Ferrari. "The feeling is still really bad for some reason. I will try to make it better," he says over team radio.
Yellow flag
Perez has a near-identical moment to Leclerc's earlier off at the Hairpin. He avoids the barrier as his car crawls through the gravel trap.
Leclerc improves on his personal best lap with a 1m44.709s but remains down in 10th place on the times, 2.7s off the leaders.
This final 20 minutes of the extended FP2 could somewhat tail off as teams reach the completion of their run plans. That appears to have happened at McLaren, who are packing up for the day, with plenty of other drivers keeping dry in the garage.
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"Degradation front and rears now," Sainz reports on Ferrari team radio. He's completed 21 laps in this session, not all on the same tyres, but he's top of the lap tally charts so that degradation is to be expected.
There's no lap time improvements popping up any longer, so it looks like today will end with a Mercedes 1-2, Red Bull 3-4 unless the track dries up considerably in the next 12 minutes.
Ricciardo's day is definitely done. He is already on his media duties at the back of the McLaren garage. Has he got a Friday night engagement he doesn't want to be late for?
The end of FP2 feels a bit like the conclusion of a test session. Which it is, really, but without the 2023 Pirelli tyres the F1 teams were set to test due to the wet conditions.
Stopwatch
Magnussen makes a late play to shake up the order and delivers a 1m43.187s to go fifth fastest. That's exactly where he ended FP1, so marks a good day for the Dane.
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"All the tyres are ****, no grip," Verstappen says over team radio. Which is the less technical way to say he's used up the optimum performance of his inter tyre allocation for today.
Checkered flag
That's your lot, as the chequered flag comes out to call time on this bumper FP2. Russell and Mercedes make the headlines.
Obviously this session has finished later than usual with the extended running, but due to the heavy clouds overhead it is getting dark already at Suzuka. Good thing there weren't any delays, the F1 cars would be needing the headlights.
Breaking news
Here's the full report on FP2 at the Japanese GP:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-japanese-gp-russell-leads-mercedes-1-2-in-wet-fp2/10380672/
That was Friday from Suzuka. Given the conditions, it provided an unexpected amount of laps notched up by almost everyone (Schumacher the exception given he missed FP2) with Mercedes on top in the wet. But with the dry weather set to return tomorrow, how will that shake up the order?

By: autosport.com

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