Formula 1 News: Superior McLaren’s 1-2 on Japanese GP FP2

Oscar Piastri (pictured above) and Lando Norris set almost identical times in their superior McLarens to top 2nd practice for the 2025 Japanese GP at Suzuka after four red flags disrupted the second hour of running.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Related Article:  Formula 1 News: Norris tops practice 1 for the 2025 Japanese GP

The first stoppage was caused by an enormous crash for Jack Doohan at turn one. He forgot to close his DRS and his Alpine snapped around as he turned into the 265kph right-hander, then made heavy contact with the barrier on the outside. Because drivers do not press the brake going into Turn 1, the driver must close the DRS manually.

Doohan climbed out of his car and walked away gingerly. His Alpine was heavily damaged, however, as was the barrier, and the session was interrupted for over 20 minutes while the mess was cleaned up.

A sizeable crash for Jack Doohan in FP2 😱

He is OK and out of the car#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/uCDCUcGKcy

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 4, 2025

When the session resumed, it was only for a few minutes, as Fernando Alonso soon skidded off at Degner One and got stuck in the gravel trap. That red-flag ruined Yuki Tsunoda’s quali sim rum.

Soon afterwards more red flags put a stop to the session, this time due to a grass fire near the approach to Degner One. It appeared a shower of sparks from a passing car had ignited the dry patch of turf.

Following the third restart Piastri beat his team mate’s time by less than five hundredths of a second to complete a McLaren one-two. However Liam Lawson backed his team mate up in fifth place, the Racing Bulls duo split by Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.

Max Verstappen was the quickest of the two Red Bull drivers in eighth place, over half a second off the pace, with George Russell and Charles Leclerc separating him from the top five. “It’s like I have no front end at all,” he told race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. “Understeering everywhere.” The Red Bull RB21 is truly a slow ‘sled.’

As the final seconds of the session ticked down the red flags appeared for a fourth time. This was again due to a trackside fire caused by sparks of cars bottoming out.

2025 Japanese GP Practice 2 Results