Oscar Piastri halted Mercedes dominance by pipping Kimi Antonelli to top second practice for the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
The McLaren driver set a 1m30.133s which was 0.092s quicker than Antonelli, whose Mercedes team-mate George Russell completed the top three after dominating opening practice.
FP1 saw the championship leader top a Silver Arrows 1-2, but Mercedes struggled to gain a foothold in Friday’s second session as Piastri impressed aboard his MCL40.
That occurred right from his opening lap as he displaced erstwhile leader Russell within the opening 10 minutes, setting a 1m31.495s that was 0.073s quicker than the Mercedes on mediums.
Although it didn’t exactly stick – with Piastri, Antonelli and Charles Leclerc trading fastest times during the early runs – the Australian asserted his control when the soft-tyre laps began.
It was with Piastri’s first tour on the red-stripped rubber that he set the fastest lap of the session, a 1m30.133s after 23 minutes which put him a second quicker than his times on the medium.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
But Antonelli’s fastest time also came with his first lap on the soft; the window of qualifying-sim runs was quite short in FP2 as drivers returned to mediums towards the end.
The Italian, who scored his maiden grand prix win last time out in China, set a 1m30.225s that put him 0.113s faster than Russell, who is the only other race winner in 2026.
Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris then took fourth in what was a rather troublesome session for the reigning world champion, who skipped the opening 23 minutes.
That was due to a hydraulics leak on the McLaren, and although he completed a sighting lap before halfway, Norris didn’t actually set a true time until the latter half of the session.
His first time put him sixth on the mediums before he fitted softs towards the end, while everybody else was on yellow rubber, and set a 1m30.649s in what was a strong FP2 for McLaren.
That was very much needed after a slow start to its title defence, which included a double DNS in Shanghai, adding to Piastri also failing to start the Melbourne opener where Norris came fifth.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
Norris finished FP2 0.516s off his team-mate, while Leclerc completed the top five for Ferrari, which was the closest challenger to Mercedes across the opening two rounds of the new regulation era.
Leclerc set a 1m30,846s, seven tenths behind Piastri, with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton claiming sixth after he took his maiden podium for Ferrari last time out.
Hamilton was rarely a threat in second practice as he struggled to get near the top of the times, the seven-time world champion finishing the session 0.847s behind Piastri.
The top 10 was respectively completed by Alex Albon, Oliver Bearman and Max Verstappen, who again struggled with his RB22, reporting “my understeer is unreal”.
His team-mate Isack Hadjar also struggled by finishing 15th, in what was generally a trouble-free session with the only yellow flag occurring briefly due to Albon.
That happened early on when he stopped his Williams just past the Turn 1 apex with throttle trouble, though he quickly got going again with green-flag running remaining until the end.
Arvid Lindblad was the only driver who failed to set a lap, as the Racing Bulls rookie left his garage early on but then a gearbox issue quickly emerged, causing an early retirement.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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