Lap times 2nd practice 2018 Japanese F1 Grand Prix
Esteban Ocon Force India F1 Team fans.
Japanese Grand Prix, Thursday 4th October 2018. Suzuka, Japan.
Event: Japanese F1 Grand Prix
Track: Suzuka Circuit
Weather: Clouded, 24ºC
Tarmac: Dry, 30ºC
Wind speed: 2.8 km/h
Humidity: 69%
Both McLaren drivers were the first cars on the circuit this second practice for the Japanese GP session. Stoffel Vandoorne didn't drive in FP1, because Lando Norris was driving his car in the first practice session.
In the first half an hour of the session Lewis Hamilton was again quickest and drove a time of 1:28.911 min on the Soft tyre.
Half an hour into the session Sebastian Vettel tried out the Supersofts but still wasn't able to be quicker than Hamilton. Vettel drove a 1:29.050.
After 45 minutes Hamilton also drove a lap with the Supersoft tyres. He improved his lap time to 1:28.217 min. After him Valtteri Bottas also went out on Supersofts and was second quickest with a 1:28.678.
Pierre Gasly's only could drive for 15 minutes in FP2. His Toro Rosso STR13 had a fuel-system problem. His teammate Hartley was 10th quickest at the time he drove out the garage.
We saw a lot of drivers having difficulty coming out of turn 9 and going wide scrubbing the floor of the car over the curbs.
All teams were running long runs to check-out how long the Supersoft tyres will last around Suzuka. Mercedes is by far the quickest until now. The Ferrari's and Red Bull's look to be very close for the race. Sebastian Vettel drove 19 laps on the Supersoft tyres.
The lap record on Suzuka is 1:31.540 min driven in 2005 by Raikkonen in a McLaren. The quickest lap time in FP2 last year was 1:48.719 by Lewis Hamilton and was driven on full wets.
Here you can find all 2018 Used F1 Power Unit Elements by each driver.
Read our race preview in: What to expect from the 2018 Japanese F1 GP.
FP2 Lap Times 2018 Japanese GP
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Lap Time | 1st Gap | Laps | Tyres |
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:28.217 | 31 | Super | |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:28.678 | +0.461s | 30 | Super |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:29.050 | +0.833s | 36 | Super |
| 4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:29.257 | +1.040s | 32 | Super |
| 5 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:29.498 | +1.281s | 33 | Super |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:29.513 | +1.296s | 27 | Super |
| 7 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:30.035 | +1.818s | 32 | Super |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:30.440 | +2.223s | 32 | Super |
| 9 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:30.478 | +2.261s | 33 | Super |
| 10 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:30.502 | +2.285s | 27 | Super |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:30.510 | +2.293s | 28 | Super |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:30.644 | +2.427s | 36 | Super |
| 13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:30.795 | +2.578s | 10 | Super |
| 14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:30.904 | +2.687s | 31 | Super |
| 15 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:30.906 | +2.689s | 26 | Super |
| 16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:30.956 | +2.739s | 25 | Super |
| 17 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:30.988 | +2.771s | 34 | Soft |
| 18 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:31.087 | +2.870s | 39 | Super |
| 19 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:31.215 | +2.998s | 32 | Super |
| 20 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:31.981 | +3.764s | 32 | Super |
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Why does Vettel keep getting away with touting the rules e.g.. moving twice under breaking. Dangerous. Is he Charlie Whitings best mate.
Personally I think it was two moves in the same direction split by a fraction of a second and given the speed involved was tough driving rather than anything else but depending which camera angle you looked from gave you a slightly different impression. From one angle it did seem like a single movement. Given that, it was probably a fair decision not to penalise Seb and particularly so given the fact that Hamilton got past him at the next corner.
The other thing I'd say is that it's good to see wheel to wheel action and this was the most exciting thing that happened at Sochi, so I think the decision was fair. I've certainly seen far, far worse examples of it so even if he'd been penalised I'd guess it would have been a five second penalty, rather than a longer one or a drive through, which would have had no difference on the outcome.