Japanese GP: Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2-3-4

Lewis Hamilton fastest Friday afternoon

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2-3-4 in a crash-strewn second Formula 1 practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on Friday afternoon.

The Mercedes driver outpaced teammate and 2014 F1 title rival Nico Rosberg by 0.240 seconds.

Williams driver with Mercedes power Valtteri Bottas, who was 1.201s slower than Hamilton, with McLaren driver and 2011 Japanese GP winner Jenson Button fourth quickest also with Mercedes power.

Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of the rest with inferior engines, just under 1.4s slower than Hamilton.

Ricciardo before crashing

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo was down in 10th after a crash at the final right-hand kink led to him hitting the wall head-on. His Red Bull suffered significant front-left damage.

"I made a mistake," said Ricciardo, whose incident led to a red flag period.

"I did a quick lap and then I was trying to get a good exit to start the next one. We were trying to cool the tires and there was a yellow flag so I was trying to go slow enough to miss it at the start of the lap, but I think the tires cooled too much and I was too hard on the throttle for the situation.

"It's of course not what I wanted in the first 10 minutes of FP2, but I'll learn from it."

"We missed running, but Sebastian did a full session so we will see his data," he said. "The Mercs were really quick; we think we're there but then they pull a gap. I think we should be able to be third on the grid."

Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen was the faster of the Ferrari drivers, less than a tenth quicker than Fernando Alonso in seventh place.

Rosberg expressed confidence over his and Mercedes' pace after Friday's pair of practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Rosberg topped the morning session at the Suzuka circuit, before dropping behind teammate and title leader Lewis Hamilton in FP2.

Rosberg wound up 0.240s adrift of Hamilton, although both drivers were left feeling that more was possible after their Medium tire attempts.

"That was a very, very good day for us," the German commented.

"We are very quick on one lap and also on high fuel levels. My long run was very good this afternoon, so I'm quite confident for a good race here.

"There is still work to do tonight to find the perfect balance, but it was a real pleasure to drive this fantastic track."

Rosberg trails team-mate Hamilton by three points in the title battle ahead of this weekend's race.

Lewis Hamilton
The gap changes from track to track between us and other cars but it looks pretty good so far this weekend. To come here at one of the most demanding tracks for downforce and to be that competitive is fantastic. It's amazing what this team has done. The pace looks good but it's a track that's very hard on tires, especially the rears; one minute you have the one lap pace and one minute you have the long run pace, so it's a very fine line. Qualifying is going to be very important as it's quite difficult to overtake here. We don't know what's going to happen with the weather this weekend; it's such a challenging circuit but we always come to the weekend prepared for everything. I just want to race.

Nico Rosberg
That was a very, very good day for us. Thank you to the team for this great car, we are very quick on one lap and also on high fuel levels. My long run was very good this afternoon, so I'm quite confident for a good race here. There is still a lot of work to do tonight to find the perfect balance for this great old school track. It was a real pleasure to drive this fantastic track here today. Also the atmosphere is great, lots of fans are here already and they are very enthusiastic.

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