Hamilton quickest after Ricciardo and Kobayashi crash

2014 Japanese Grand Prix second practice

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It was Mercedes one-two again in the second practice session but this time it was Lewis Hamilton who led the way.

The world championship leader had a lurid moment at Degner two after switching to the softer medium compound tyres. The W05 snapped sideways when Hamilton ran too far onto the kerb at the exit, but he kept them car out of the barriers and went on to set the fastest time of the session on his next run.

Nico Rosberg, who was quickest in the first practice session, fell short by less than a quarter of a second after locking a wheel at the chicane.

The closest driver to the Mercedes pair in the championship was one of several drivers to hit trouble during the session. Daniel Ricciardo lost control of his car at the exit of the chicane and skidded through the gravel trap into a barrier.

Although the marshals were quickly on the scene to recover the car they weren’t able to put it in a safe place and the session was briefly red-flagged so it could be moved.

Two other drivers had already run into problems by this point. Kamui Kobayashi, who hadn’t run in the first session for his home grand prix as Roberto Merhi was in his car, spun into the turn three barrier on his third lap.

Jean-Eric Vergne came to a stop on two occasions in the car which had failed at the end of first practice in Max Verstappen’s hands. The second time the Toro Rosso ground to a halt at the exit of Spoon Curve it forced another red flag which spelled an early end to the session.

Joining the drivers at the side of the track was Esteban Gutierrez, who spun his Sauber.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’35.07828
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.3180.24027
377Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’36.2791.20124
422Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.4091.33128
51Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’36.4361.35824
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’36.5291.45119
714Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’36.6371.55926
820Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.7141.63631
926Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’36.9431.86527
103Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’37.1862.1083
1125Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’37.2192.14119
1227Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’37.5042.42616
138Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’37.5632.48531
1419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’37.7002.62218
1511Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’37.7862.7088
1613Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’37.7982.72027
1799Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’38.0102.93225
1821Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’38.3653.2879
199Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’39.0693.99122
2017Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’39.3064.22820
214Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’39.3334.25524
2210Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’42.7607.6823

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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29 comments on “Hamilton quickest after Ricciardo and Kobayashi crash”

  1. If Hamilton gets pole do you think i should keep my streak going, i have missed around 20 mins of the last 2 race’s lol and he as won them both.

    1. Formula-I (@)
      3rd October 2014, 7:40

      Everything can change in F1 ;-)

      1. Haha i know i doubt i will intentionaly miss f1, even though i feel i am going into cardiac arrest every F1 start with Ham and Ros on front row. It is not a healthy feeling.

        1. Lol I know your pain. I have resorted to switching of the TV at crucial times like the final runs in Q3.

    2. Shame Kamui crashed. He could’ve been with the Saubers with trend of being around 1s faster than Ericsson

    3. I think I’m not far off your record Dan. Every race I’ve not watched live Hamilton has won. I cancelled Sky before the Italian GP….

  2. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    3rd October 2014, 7:47

    I know it’s only FP2, but I am really glad to see HAM, RAI & VET ahead of their teammates.

    1. Hmmmm did you notice ROS long run pace was a bit stronger though? Slightly faster and held pace for more laps. Hamilton said after that he knew he had to decide how much to setup the car towards either qualifying or the race. Also RIC only did run on hard tyres before his off.

    2. I doubt that Kimi and Vettel will stay ahead of their teammates for the rest of the weekend.
      Alonso was 0.6 sec slower in FP2 than he was in FP1 and Ricciardo couldn’t complete a flying lap on the option tyre.

    3. Formula-I (@)
      3rd October 2014, 8:36

      Hamilton and Rosberg will be very close at Qualy and race, expecting another Bahrain

      1. @f1indofans Im hoping for the same thing too. And I mean the whole race. Everything about that Bahrain race this year was perfect to me and its the only race from this year that I still watch over and over again

  3. If ‘reliability’ is solved I don’t see Rosberg winning anymore races. You can say all you want but if neither Hamilton or Rosberg had issues this title would’ve been very dull. In the end I never believed in Rosberg as a real challenger.

    1. …and no profession fouls

    2. Formula-I (@)
      3rd October 2014, 9:23

      to be honest Nico is really undeperforming if we set 2013 as the benchmark, he was very matching Hamilton last year and tipped for 2014 chamipoin, but in my opinion as his fans, he was fail to deliver, Hamilton schooled him unlike 2013 where they really close

      1. I’d say the opposite, in 2013 Rosberg was beaten by Lewis in his first season at Mercedes, Lewis was in completely unfamiliar surroundings, he’d only ever been at McLaren before, yet Lewis still out performed Rosberg.

        1. i think they were completely balanced, i remembered in Abu Dhabi 2013, where Lewis said he should push more

        2. I agree, Lewis was in a new team and a car built for M Schumacher. Despite that he out performed Nico on points over the season 189 to 171.

    3. thts entirely real

    4. I agree with this, I really don’t understand people who have the view that Rosberg has the raw talent to beat Hamilton, he really doesn’t. He has got to where he is in this championship through better luck with reliability and some (in my opinion) Dirty moves in Monaco and Spa.

      It is VERY rare to see Rosberg have any sort of raw pace advantage over Hamilton in a race and he is no match for Lewis in wheel to wheel racing either. The only way Rosberg will win the title is through Lewis’s bad luck or more dirty tactics, in a fair fight he’s nowhere. He will keep second purely on the cars performance, if the car wasn’t so good I think Ricciardo could take second.

      I’m not a Rosberg hater I quite like the guy but he is nothing more than a solid driver rather than a superstar, I’d love to see someone back up any counter-argument to what I have just said with hard evidence because there is plenty of evidence out there to support me on this.

      1. I have come to the point where I somewhat agree with you, but would be more kind and gentle toward NR than you, not that you are being unkind.

        It does seem to me amongst the millions, like LH has the upper hand on pace, but I continue to hope for NR to surprise us in these last races. My whole thing all along has been that this is the first time NR has been in the position to fight for a WDC, and what a time it is being for him. Dominant team, teammate being the only other WDC potential driver, teammate being a friend from their youth, teammate who has bigger numbers and a WDC from always being in a top level car.

        This position NR is in is what he has dreamed of all along, as have all racers who have aspired for F1 since their childhood, and so this is his best opportunity and highest pressure season by a long shot. It’s now where we see what he can bring to the table, with it in mind that whatever happens this year, it is another year in his story, and I’m sure he’ll have more opportunities in the future. He has shown enough talent and pace that we should reasonably expect him to build on everything he has experienced so far and going forward.

        For now, it’s going to be some exciting action, no question. Here’s hoping for reliability all around and a finish that wouldn’t have been different without double points. Especially if NR wins. I would really not want to see NR steal it from LH because of points, with the majority sentiment favouring LH as it is. Depending on the next 5 outcomes, if NR wins from double points, he’ll be booed off the stage at the race, and verbally on this site.

  4. This is what Max Verstappen had to say after his FP1 outing:

    “[Jumping from karting to F3 was] bigger, because you have to learn everything – braking shapes, getting a feel of a racing car, because at the end of the day a racing car is a racing car,”
    “When you jump into an F1 car things are basically the same [as F3], it just happens quicker and in a different way in engine driveability, but in general it was closer to an F3 car than jumping from karts to F3.”

    So does this mean F1 has become to easy or is it just the junior categories have become really good? I would like to think its the latter. So does this mean, in a a couple years, F1 and GP2 will essentially be the same in terms of the driving challenge?

    1. I guess it’s the simple* fact that all open-wheel race cars are inherently similar, apart from differences in power delivery and overall downforce. After all, they’re all the same basic chassis shape because of safety and build regulations.

      Max is also another driver, like Jann Mardenborough, to basically say that his experience with computer games has mentally prepared him for handling more buttons at his finger tips without having to think about it.

      * – disclaimer: I’ve never driven an open-wheel car, so myself calling it ‘easy’ is likely wrong.

    2. Maybe, and I’m hoping this isnt the case, Max is getting too cocky and over-confident. Nothing worse in F1 than a freshie or newbie for his expectations to be much higher than what he or she (I’m not giving up hope on a Female racer in F1) is capable of. But after his little demonstration crash in an older Toro Rosso (2012 car I believe), I’m surprised he’s saying that already

      1. @mattypf1

        Isn’t this a problem for many drivers, when they are overpraised and get overly cocky, which drives the fans away from them… This is what I really like about Kvyat, he is quite humble and quite open about hitting obstacles. And his driving style is awesome.

        Anyways, all the luck to Max, he seems to be genuinly fast and if he doesn’t get overconfident about it, his fanbase will only grow.

    3. It sounds cocky when you read it but hearing it live, it didn’t sound that way at all. To me at least.

      1. Yeah even reading his quotes I find nothing cocky at all. Sounds matter of fact. I’m trusting that there is something special about this guy given how uniquely he has been presented to us, so for kicks I chose to assume for now this guy is in fact special. I think I would be less willing to do that if he wasn’t the DNA of an F1 racer, not that Ayrton was. So if at times he sounds bigger than his britches, I’m going to keep looking for that ‘genius’ level personality, ala Senna, that simply makes him unique, special, strong-minded, and therefore compelling, exciting, enthralling. I would love another Senna in F1.

  5. It looks like force india is a way off or they try for an wett setup the difference is so great.

    1. Force India have never really been suited to Suzuka. But hopefully Hulkenberg does what he does best: become that silent achiever inside the points

  6. If it doesn’t rain at Suzuka then I wont even bother watching this GP, it’s really getting monotonous to see that in every GP it’s either Hamilton or Rosberg on poll or 1st or 2nd. F1 and motogp are getting beyond watching with one team dominating and the outcome is well known before the race starts because of the domination of one team. The FIA have really let the die hard fans down in the last few years by letting one team dominate and rule which is making F1 racing uninteresting and downright boring. Very sad, but
    throughout the years it’s always been the same so we as fans probably shouldn’t expect anything different from the FIA as they don’t know any different themselves.

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