Practice session results – By Joe Murphy
In a result not many predicted, Oscar Piastri led the way after a heavily rain disrupted FP2 session saw very little running at the Japanese Grand Prix. Both Red Bull cars and even Russell’s Mercedes were among the drivers not to get a clear run throughout the hour.
The Suzuka circuit was empty for most of the second practice session before some drivers decided to tiptoe around the track towards the end of the hour for the purpose of getting track time and running their cars for the mere sake of it.
Of those few, it was Lewis Hamilton who continued an impressive recovery from a poor start to the season, placing inside the top four for a second consecutive session in Japan after impressing during a rather less compromised first Practice session.
Despite a purple sector from the seven-time World Champion, he failed to beat Oscar Piastri by nearly half a second as he ended up in second place. However, this is positive for Toto Wolff and his team on a weekend the Tema Principal wasn’t even scheduled to attend. Finishing in the top two is better than Mercedes have been since the opening weekend of the season and this is the first time in a considerable while they have come close to showing any signs of challenging.
The lack of dry weather frustrated the pit-lane for the majority of the day, with conditions never dry enough for anything less than intermediate tyres. As a result, tomorrow’s session has become even more important for both drivers and teams to see where they are in terms of relative pace.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 