SUZUKA, Japan — McLaren’s Oscar Piastri turned the fastest lap during a crash-plagued second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix Friday at Suzuka Circuit.
Piastri ran a lap of one minute and 28.114 seconds to take the top spot ahead of teammate Lando Norris, who was a mere .049 seconds slower. Norris was quickest in the first session.
The McLaren drivers won the first two races of the season.
“It’s been a bit of an up-and-down day but there’s definitely been positives in there,” Piastri said. “We’ve got a few things to tidy up for tomorrow. FP2 was a pretty stop-start session, which made it tricky to go through everything but there were still some good learnings. A couple of tweaks and we’ll be good to go.”
Racing Bulls teammates Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson claimed the third and fifth spots on the board, while seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari.
Jack Doohan brought out the red flag during the session when he crashed his Alpine in turn one.
