Japanese GP: Kvyat tops wet 2nd practice for Red Bull

Danill Kvyat in the rain at Suzuka

Second fastest in practice 1, Daniil Kvyat turned the fastest lap in second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix in another wet session at Suzuka.

The rain had stopped at the start of the afternoon session, but despite a damp track the majority of the field went out Pirelli's intermediate rubber.

Red Bull driver Kvyat put down a lap of 1m48.277s, finishing just 0.023 seconds clear of Rosberg, with Lewis Hamilton over half a second back in third.

Daniel Ricciardo was 4th 0.820s back, followed by Ferrari pair Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.

Both Ferrari drivers were two seconds off the pace, but the times are meaningless as Saturday should be dry.

About 40 minutes in the rain returned, forcing drivers back to the pits for full wets and stopping any chance of fast lap times so the drivers who did laps early ended up on top of the charts when it was all over.

QUOTES

DANIIL KVYAT
The conditions today were tricky. The track was slippery the more it drizzled and Suzuka is a narrow circuit and there are a few corners where the car had a tendency to aquaplane. We have work to do for tomorrow but I think we are ready. The chassis is handling well, cornering in the wet has always been strong for us but we don’t know what the weather will be like tomorrow. For us it would be good if the rain continued, but we will see what happens.

Nico Rosberg sends up a big rooster tail of water

Nico Rosberg
The car felt good in the wet today, we were able to do some laps and find some good settings for wet conditions. But it's impossible to judge about the real performance level of the field in those conditions. We have to learn a lot in FP3 tomorrow morning because it should be dry Saturday and Sunday, but you never know in Japan.

Lewis Hamilton
Today hasn't been a good day for us in the paddock and for the fans that were sitting there all day in the rain waiting to see the cars. There is nothing we really learned today so everything needs to be done tomorrow. It is slippery, wet and there was also aquaplaning; not the most exciting conditions. We didn't want to take too many risks today, as there is no point in damaging the car or the gearbox. It wasn't a very productive day overall. I hope it is dry tomorrow, but we are prepared for all conditions.

DANIEL RICCIARDO
It was a little difficult to get temperature in the brakes, with the weather and the short runs, but not much else happened today. In the few laps we did, I think we got an understanding of the track conditions and if they remain the same for tomorrow, we know which direction we should take with the set-up. But it doesn’t look like the weather will remain the same! In that case, we will have to work efficiently tomorrow to get the car set up and we won’t have much time to change the balance once we get going but we will see how we go.

Results

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Behind	Laps
1	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	1m48.277s	0.000s	6
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes/Mercedes	1m48.300s	0.023s	8
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes/Mercedes	1m48.853s	0.576s	8
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m49.097s	0.820s	10
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari/Ferrari	1m50.268s	1.991s	19
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari/Ferrari	1m50.319s	2.042s	16
7	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m50.418s	2.141s	6
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m50.542s	2.265s	5
9	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1m50.968s	2.691s	10
10	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	1m51.557s	3.280s	7
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m51.674s	3.397s	11
12	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1m51.861s	3.584s	9
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m51.934s	3.657s	12
14	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m52.070s	3.793s	8
15	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Mercedes	1m52.534s	4.257s	6
16	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m52.765s	4.488s	6
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m55.239s	6.962s	10
18	Will Stevens	Marussia/Ferrari	1m58.059s	9.782s	6
19	Alexander Rossi	Marussia/Ferrari	1m59.419s	11.142s	7