Russell leads Mercedes one-two in rainy, extended second practice

George Russell was the fastest driver ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton in a wet second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

The Mercedes pair went quickest in the 90-minute afternoon session, ahead of the two Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

After opening practice had been run entirely in wet conditions, the circuit was still fully wet for the second of the two Friday sessions. Unusually, half an hour was added to its duration as F1 originally planned to use the additional 30 minutes to conduct testing of Pirelli’s 2023 prototype tyres. Due to the wet weather, those plans were abandoned, although the session remained an extended 90 minutes.

Having crashed after the chequered flag in the opening session, Mick Schumacher was unable to participate in second practice as damage left him in need of a chassis change with his Haas team unsure whether it had been cracked in the accident.

When the session began, Nicholas Latifi was the first driver out on the track. He was soon joined by Carlos Sainz Jnr, who showed how tricky the track was when he ran off onto the gravel at the Degner corners, before setting the early fastest time with a 1’49.615 on wet tyres.

Latifi made a bizarre error when he appeared to turn off the track approaching the chicane and onto a road linking the west side of the circuit, rather than taking the chicane itself. The Williams driver had to awkwardly spin his car around to return to the actual race track.

After the first half hour was completed with drivers all on wet tyres, the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell headed out on the intermediate tyres. Hamilton jumped to the top of the times with a 1’44.298, while Russell went into second almost a quarter of a second slower than his team mate.

The rest of the field started to switch over onto the intermediates, but grip was still at a premium around the wet circuit. Yuki Tsunoda ran off track at the Degners, bouncing lightly over the gravel, while Charles Leclerc raised heart rates at Ferrari when he slipped off the track at the hairpin and into the gravel. Luckily for Leclerc, he safely reversed out of the gravel trap and rejoined the circuit.

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Verstappen moved to the top of the times with a 1’43.571 to go ahead of the Mercedes, before Russell and Hamilton both improved to go over half a second quicker than the Red Bull and retake the top two positions. Sergio Perez moved into fourth, just under half a tenth slower than his team mate, but ran off the circuit at the hairpin before rejoining in almost identical fashion to Leclerc before him.

With around half an hour of the session remaining, some drivers began to report the rain was increasing in intensity. However, unlike the first practice session, the conditions remained relatively consistent and a healthy number of cars continued to circulate as the light levels began to fade into the evening.

There were no notable improvements at the top of the times for the final phase of the session, however, leaving Russell as the fastest driver at the end of a wet first day of practice. Hamilton was second in the session, almost a quarter of a second behind his team mate, with Verstappen third for Red Bull another six tenths further back.

Perez ended the day fourth, ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the sole Haas and Carlos Sainz Jnr. Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu completed the top ten.

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2022 Japanese Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W13	1’41.935		23
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W13	1’42.170	0.235	22
3	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB18	1’42.786	0.851	24
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB18	1’42.834	0.899	26
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’43.187	1.252	17
6	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	F1-75	1’43.204	1.269	23
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’43.533	1.598	14
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’43.733	1.798	20
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’43.884	1.949	13
10	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’44.525	2.590	17
11	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	F1-75	1’44.709	2.774	10
12	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’44.962	3.027	16
13	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’45.039	3.104	15
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’45.257	3.322	26
15	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’45.261	3.326	23
16	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’45.885	3.950	11
17	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’46.030	4.095	9
18	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’46.776	4.841	21
19	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’47.109	5.174	13
20	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	No time		0

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