F1 Japanese GP live commentary and updates - FP2
All of the updates from the Japanese GP's second free practice session
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Report: Piastri on top as Doohan suffers huge FP2 crash
And here's your session report kindly provided by Mark Mann-Bryans in Japan.
That's the sign for us to wrap it up for today, but not for our team at the track. Make sure to keep your eyes on the website and your favourite social media channels as reactions and news from today trickle in.
As far as this live blog goes, we shall rendezvous again tomorrow, same time as today for FP3. I make that 2:00am GMT. That is 3:00 BST or 4:00am CEST. Make sure your coffee machine is working!
Here's a look at that mammoth crash for Jack Doohan earlier. He has been checked and cleared at the medical centre.
We found a little hole in the wall which I really think shows the elevation of the Dunlop Curve off. The Esses have some wonderful variation with elevation; the cars come out of Turn 5, there's a compression, and then they immediately rise again through Turn 6 towards the Degners. Here's Oscar Piastri demonstrating the Suzuka topography.
In between all that, Jake still managed to have a good time surveying the Mie Prefecture's topography.
A quick recap of a fiery FP2. We lost huge chunks of track time due to four (!) red flags.
Jack Doohan suffered a huge crash into Turn 1 early on, Fernando Alonso got stuck in the gravel at Degner, and then the grass ignited on two occasions.
Nothing that seems to bother McLaren, the papaya squad remains dominant thus far.
That was far from a representative session, but if anything - another strong showing by Racing Bulls in third and fifth. They actually look better than Red Bull itself so far, even if the main team's car has more intrinsic speed.
Mercedes and Ferrari look close again behind McLaren, while Alpine and Williams are up next in the midfield.
Piastri heads Norris in FP2
And that's the end of that, what a bizarre session. Oscar Piastri leads the way ahead of Mclaren's team-mate Lando Norris.
Red flag
There's a fourth red flag for more grass that's ablaze along the edge of the track.
And now we see why Max was slow. A huge slide coming out of the chicane, which prompts a radio message from the Dutchman.
"It's like I have to front end at all, understeering everywhere."
Amazingly Hadjar's time is still good for third, narrowly so. Hamilton is fourth aheads of Lawson, Russell and Leclerc. Max Verstappen is only eighth.
Piastri ahead of Norris
Oscar Piastri has vaulted over Norris and Hadjar to P1. Norris went quicker still over the first two sectors, but a weaker third sector left the world championship leader a tenth in arrears.
Leclerc and Russell are literally racing each other for track position to get a clear lap in.
Green flag
Off we go again, with another mob of cars lining the pit exit.
The marshal quickly extinguish the minor flare-up, but that's another setback for those who were just starting to get a lap together.
Some suggest sparks coming from a car's floor ignited the dry grass.
Happy to report nobody has gone off the road, but the grass on the run down to Degner is ... errr... on fire.
Red flag
Isack Hadjar then goes top with a 1m28.518s, very impressive, before being demoted by Norris. But there's another red flag!
Russell leads from Leclerc, Verstappen and Gasly.
Because of the two red flags, all 18 remaining cars are immediately on track to make the most of the time left. They're all on soft tyres too, so here we go.
There's a little traffic jam at the pit exit, with Mercedes man George Russell in a hurry to beat the rush hour traffic. He dipped a wheel in the grass to avoid Verstappen as the joined the track.
Green flag
Drivers are afforded 19 more minutes of green flag running, unless someone else has other ideas.
While Alonso's car is towed out of the away, a quick look at the timesheets shows that the Spaniard's off is especially annoying for Red Bull. Max Verstappen has only managed three laps thus far as a result of those two stoppages.
Alonso had just been on a flyer in the Aston, setting the fastest time in sector one.
On the entry into the quick right-hand Degner 1, it looks like the Spaniard just dipped his left-hand tyres onto the grass, causing a snap of oversteer. Alonso corrected it well but couldn't avoid going off the road.
Red flag
A second red flag of the day. It's for Fernando Alonso, who has gone off the road at Degner and is stuck in the gravel.
Green flag
We're back on track for the second half of FP2. McLaren and Mercedes are out with both cars.
The session will resume at 30 past, race control says.
"Doohan binned it, he's done. Colapinto will be behind the wheel soon," says commenter 'MGH'.
That's a bit harsh, I feel, but this certainly isn't helping. He's on the back foot for the remainder of the Japan weekend now. I thought Jack had been settling in quite well over the first two race weekends, especially in terms of raw pace.
But yes, the spectre of Franco Colapinto is certainly looming. What do you think?
That is going to be a spare chassis, isn't it? That gearbox is certainly ready for the scrap heap.
Meanwhile the clean-up is still ongoing so we are staying red.
Photo by: Jake Boxall-Legge
We're just seeing a replay. That is a monster crash. It looks like Doohan's DRS device was still open as he turned into Turn 1 flat out.
The lack of rear downforce from his open rear wing sent his Alpine into a tailspin as soon as he turned in, smashing into the barriers at high speed.
The DRS automatically closes once you hit the brakes, but the approach to Turn 1 is flat. He may have had to push the button manually there before committing to the corner.
Doohan has thankfully climbed out, looking a bit winded. Further shots of the Alpine show it is an absolute mess, that is going to be some repair job.
That's a big old hit for Doohan into Turn 1, an odd place to go off the road like that. Both ends of the cars have been properly smashed up.
Doohan has said on the radio he is fine, but he's still in the car to be checked by the FIA's medical team.
Red flag
Jack Doohan has crashed in the Alpine. The session has been stopped.
We've got some early laps in, with Russell leading from Hamilton, Alonso, Hadjar and Tsunoda.
McLaren have applied plenty of flow-vis paint to their cars to getting picture of the airflow coming from the front wing and wheels.
Carlos Sainz reports "a problem with the car".
The Spaniard is still finding his feet with Williams, saying yesterday he needs to unlearn four years of muscle memory driving a vastly different Ferrari. He has a new chassis this weekend to perhaps provide further answers.
FP2 starts
And off we go for another hour of practice. There's Jack Doohan for his first laps of the weekend after ceding his Alpine to reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa this morning.
The Japanese fans - creative hats and all - are in position again to cheer on home hero Tsunoda and the rest of the grid.
Having stood trackside at the Esses two years ago, I have to say they must be the nicest fans on the calendar, respectfully applauding every single driver on their outlaps. You don't really get that anywhere else.
Mercedes engineering chief Andrew Shovlin also gave us an appraisal of the team's new car after a solid start with back to back podiums for George Russell.
"Well, it's been a lot calmer than the last few years, mainly because the car is what we intended it to be. It hasn't really got the vices that we've had in a couple of previous years. We haven't seen many circuits, but it's worked well over the ones that we have and through rain conditions.
"There's clearly a gap to McLaren that we need to chip away at, but that looks more like just a normal development race that we need to get stuck into rather than trying to get on top of any of these handling vices that we've had."
In case you just woke up and wisely snoozed through FP1, here is what happened in the early session at Suzuka, which was headlined by Lando Norris.
Over the break we have heard from Racing Bulls team boss Laurent Mekies, who was asked about his perspective on the switch, and in particular Liam Lawson returning to the squad this weekend.
“Liam is in a good place. I'm not going to tell you that he was happy about the news last week, because certainly it was difficult to digest,” the Frenchman said.
“But honestly, the next day he was with us in Faenza for the seat fit the day after, he was back in the sim. He knows he has an important role to play with us. He knows he has a point to prove out there. So, we are all very conscious that his talent is there and it's about finding the right conditions to extract it back out of him."
Laurent Mekies, Racing Bulls; Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes; Ayao Komatsu, Haas
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Welcome back for FP2
We're back in the saddle for Friday's second free practice session from Suzuka!
Will McLaren remain on top? Can Yuki Tsunoda continue his strong start alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull? We'll find out soon enough, with action getting underway at the top of the hour.
By: Filip Cleeren
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