Piastri on top as grass fires, crashes disrupt practice at Suzuka

Oscar Piastri went fastest Friday for a McLaren one-two in a chaotic second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix that was red-flagged four times and saw Jack Doohan crash heavily.

Two of the red flags were for trackside grass fires during a badly disrupted afternoon session in which Australia’s Piastri clocked a best lap of 1min 28.114sec.

He pipped teammate and championship leader Lando Norris by 0.049sec in dry but blustery conditions at Suzuka, where home hero Yuki Tsunoda showed promise on his Red Bull debut.

Piastri and Norris — who went quickest in first practice —have won one grand prix each in a dominant start to the season from McLaren.

Piastri, who won last time out in Shanghai, called it “a bit of an up-and-down day” after being 15th in first practice.

“But there’s definitely been positives in there,” he added.

“We’ve got a few things to tidy up for tomorrow.”

Australian rookie Doohan was lucky to walk away unhurt after badly damaging his Alpine in a heavy smash into the barriers.

Oscar Piastri

There was further drama when Spaniard Fernando Alonso beached his Aston Martin in the gravel and two fires broke out on the grass around the track.

RB’s Isack Hadjar was third fastest, 0.404sec behind Piastri, followed by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and RB’s Liam Lawson.

Mercedes’ George Russell was sixth, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen.

His new teammate Tsunoda was a lowly 18th, 2.511sec behind Piastri, but without completing a representative lap on soft tyres. He was a promising sixth in the morning.

The Japanese driver said his closely watched first day in the Red Bull was “OK, but it could have been better”.

“We didn’t set a lap time in FP2 due to the number of stops in the session, you could maybe call the session a shambles for everyone,” said Tsunoda.

“Overall it is OK and I’m happy to have confidence in the car.”

A highly eventful second practice was red-flagged about 10 minutes in when the 22-year-old Doohan spun off the track and smashed into the barriers at high speed.

The car was badly damaged, with one wheel flying off upon impact.

Doohan quickly confirmed he was unhurt and climbed out of the cockpit unaided before being helped back to the pits.

“Following precautionary medical checks, we can confirm that Jack is ok. Now we’re working hard to get the car ready for tomorrow,” Alpine said on social media.

The session was halted for around 20 minutes and it restarted for only a matter of minutes before it was stopped again.

Alonso barrelled off the track and came to a halt deep into the gravel.

The Spaniard radioed to say that he was stuck and his car had to be lifted away before practice could continue.

The red flag came out a third time when sparks from the cars started a small fire on the grass surrounding the track.