Japanese GP Friday practice
By: Geoff Creighton
Summary
Bottas fastest in FP2 for Mercedes, having also dominated FP1 | |
Hamilton second, Verstappen third for Red Bull | |
Leclerc the faster Ferrari in fourth ahead of Vettel | |
Typhoon Hagibis results in cancellation of Saturday running | |
FIA announces FP2 results could be used to determine grid if Sunday qualifying cancelled |
Status: Stopped
That's your lot for today's running! Bottas is the man of the day, topping both sessions. How about that?
Leclerc goes fourth fastest, jumping above Vettel on the timing boards. Gasly, meanwhile, has risen to ninth.
It looks like we might have a late flurry of hot laps, but Russell's still circulating on hard tyres and slathered in flow-vis paint.
To be clear, a 'moral injury' isn't to be confused with vandalism to an elaborately-painted wall - that's a mural injury.
As our own SCOTT MITCHELL confirms, Steiner has a €7500 fine for causing a "moral injury".
We're at that point of FP2 where there's very little in the way of time-swapping to talk about! The timing boards are awash with yellow sectors - indicating no improvement on the best time.
"Your target is 35.0, 35.0," says Leclerc's engineer. He's on his race runs, and it looks like everyone else is too.
1. Bottas, 2. Hamilton, 3. Verstappen, 4. Vettel, 5. Albon, 6. Leclerc, 7. Sainz, 8. Perez, 9. Norris, 10. Kvyat, 11. Grosjean, 12. Stroll, 13. Giovinazzi, 14. Magnussen, 15. Raikkonen, 16. Ricciardo, 17. Gasly, 18. Hulkenberg, 19. Kubica, 20. Russell.
If you'll excuse me, I'm making a sign to ask for world peace and a million pounds...hopefully this will work. I'll keep you posted.
If you were paying attention to yesterday's Live news feed, we posted a picture of someone holding a sign emblazoned with "I want to meet Mr. Toto". It appears from the TV coverage that they've made their way into the Mercedes garage!
But Bottas surprises both of them, snatching top spot with a 1m27.785s! Those final two sectors were muy rapido.
News from the stewards' room: Gunther Steiner has been fined €7500 for his outburst over Magnussen's penalty at Sochi. More to come soon.
The skies are looking very grey, and there's a non-zero chance that the session could be interrupted by the threat of rain.
Bottas has a spin out of the final chicane! He brings out a yellow flag, but he's been able to keep the car going - albeit ruining Hamilton's lap somewhat.
Verstappen sets a 1m28.457s to get close to Vettel, as the floor tray sparks all the way through 130R.
Vettel decides that the session was getting a bit dull, and posts a 1m28.392s. That's just over three tenths quicker than Bottas's lap this morning...earlier this morning.
Leclerc finally pops onto the circuit for his first set of laps, and Verstappen joins him while the circuit is rather quiet.
Hamilton doesn't take Albon's intrusion lightly, relegating the Thai driver to third once more. Easy come, easy go.
Albon goes second fastest, grabbing the fastest sector time to wedge himself between the two Mercedes drivers.
Albon briefly goes top, before Sainz dips under the 1m30s - and as I type this, Bottas does a 1m29.469s to go quicker.
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