George Russell fastest in Japanese GP practice on Friday

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was fastest in FP1 before Russell beat his time in FP2, both sessions running in wet weather conditions.

Japanese Grand Prix FP1 results: Alonso fastest from Sainz

What happened in Japanese GP Free Practice 1?

Heavy rain made the circuit treacherous, with Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) the brave souls who tried the track on wet tyres in the early stages.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the first flying lap of the session at 1m49.952s after 20 minutes, with teammate Charles Leclerc even suggesting intermediate tyres for his next run as the rain eased off. Leclerc lowered the P1 time to 1m48.104s, before Sainz hit back with 1m47.758s.

Verstappen reset the bar with 25 minutes to go on intermediate tyres, unleashing 1m44.059s on his first flying lap – 3.699s faster than the fastest wet-tyred time. He followed that up with 1m43.362s before Esteban Ocon’s Alpine leapt to the top of the timesheet on 1m43.022s.

Leclerc (1m42.634s) and Sainz (1m42.563s) then took turns at the top before Alonso lapped in 1m42.248s as the rain intensified again – effectively ending the session 12 minutes early.

Sainz and Leclerc were next up, ahead of Ocon, Magnussen and Verstappen.

Leclerc suffered a gravelly off at Degner 1, while Sainz ran wide at Spoon. Nicholas Latifi suffered an off at the hairpin in his Williams but escaped the gravel trap.

After the practice starts, Mick Schumacher crashed his Haas on the in-lap – cracking the chassis and ending his day.

Japanese Grand Prix FP2 results: Russell fastest from Hamilton

What happened in Japanese GP Free Practice 2?

The original plan for this extended 90-minute session was to test 2023-specification tyres, but more heavy rain cancelled that idea – if not the extra 30 minutes.

Sainz set the early pace at 1m49.615s on wet tyres before running wide at Degner 1, which he just got away with. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who was only 13^th in FP1, then went fastest on 1m49.489s and reckoned the track was almost ready for intermediates.

This was quickly proved by teammate George Russell, who lapped in 1m46.891s on inters. Hamilton then switched to them too and produced 1m44.298s to take back P1.

Conditions remained tricky, however, proved by Leclerc going off at the hairpin – although he blamed a brake problem for that. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez had no such excuse later on for repeating the excursion.

Verstappen briefly grabbed P1…