Oscar Piastri headed the times in the second practice session at the 2025 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix during an interrupted hour that comprised four stoppages.
Having sat on the sidelines in FP1 as Ryo Hirakawa took his place at Alpine, Doohan was getting acquainted with Suzuka when he crashed four laps into his run plan.
The Australian carried too much speed going into the opening turn with the slot gap in his rear wing still open and was pitched into a high-speed spin into the barriers.
Doohan’s shunt caused sizeable damage to his Alpine A525 and caused a prolonged stoppage which lasted until there was 30 minutes to run in the one-hour session.
But while the teams were keen to make up the lost time once proceedings resumed, Fernando Alonso prompted another red flag five minutes later as he got beached.
The Spaniard’s Aston Martin became unsettled when he dipped a wheel into the grass approaching Degner 1 and that sent him tumbling into the gravel at high speed.
Once the session continued again, Lando Norris posted the benchmark time as he registered a 1:28.163s to usurp Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who split the McLarens.
Norris managed to post that lap before the third red flag stoppage, this one the most bizarre as sparks from one car appeared to have ignited burning grass trackside.
Piastri beat Norris when the action got going again with a 1:28.114s to go 0.049 seconds faster than his team-mate as the session concluded with another stoppage.
Like at the Chinese Grand Prix in 2024, there was another blaze brewing along the extremities of the track that denied the drivers a chance to undergo practice starts.
McLaren ended up 1-2 on the timesheets with Piastri leading Norris, while Racing Bulls sustained a productive outing with both cars situated inside the top five spots.
Lewis Hamilton in the leading Ferrari separated Hadjar and new team-mate Liam Lawson, with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull languishing a low eighth on the timesheets.
George Russell was sixth in his Mercedes, with Charles Leclerc, who voiced his irritation at the disruptions that limited his track time, two hundredths back in seventh.
Pierre Gasly gave Alpine something to smile about as he ended up in ninth position, while Carlos Sainz pipped Williams team-mate Alex Albon to round out the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg was next up as less than a second covered the leading 12 drivers, the German almost three-tenths quicker than Sauber team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto.
The Haas duo were next as Esteban Ocon led his less experienced team-mate Oliver Bearman, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes was down in 15th.
Yuki Tsunoda was unable to replicate his encouraging showing in FP1 on his maiden Red Bull weekend as he languished in 18th place, above Lance Stroll and Doohan.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Japanese Grand Prix – FP2 Results
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