2018 Japanese GP second practice report: Sebastian P3, Kimi P5

Lewis Hamilton maintained a substantial buffer over his Formula 1 opponents during the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix. Hamilton headed a Mercedes 1-2 during first practice and those positions were replicated during the afternoon running, as he posted a 1:28.217 on Supersoft tyres.

Valtteri Bottas again finished second to his team-mate though this time their laps came on the same compound, having diverged in FP1, with his quickest effort 0.461s down on Hamilton’s benchmark.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the only driver to finish within a second of Hamilton, though he was 0.833s adrift of his title rival, as he bids to overturn the Briton’s sizeable 50-point advantage. Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, in front of Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull). Esteban Ocon again led the midfield contingent, 1.8s behind Hamilton but four0tenths ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

Marcus Ericsson and Brendon Hartley both showed an impressive turn of pace as they rounded out the top 10 for Sauber and Toro Rosso respectively. Force India’s Sergio Perez and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg were left up, while Pierre Gasly was side-lined for most of the session by a fuel pump problem, before joining the action and placing 13th.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was 14th for Renault, while neither Charles Leclerc nor Kevin Magnussen were able to match the efforts of their respective team-mates. McLaren and Williams continued their difficult form as the two teams rounded out the runners. Fernando Alonso was 17th, though used the slower Soft tyre for his best time, with Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll 18th and 19th respectively. Stoffel Vandoorne, having sat out the first session while Lando Norris ran, was seven-tenths off the pace at the rear of the 20-car field as his miserable run continued.

Saturday’s one-hour third practice session will begin at 11:00 local time.

Japan – Practice 2

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:28.217		31
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:28.678	0.461	30
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:29.050	0.833	36
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:29.457	1.240	32
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:29.498	1.281	33
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:29.513	1.296	27
7	Esteban Ocon	RP Force India	1:30.035	1.818	32
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:30.440	2.223	32
9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:30.478	2.261	33
10	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:30.502	2.285	27
11	Sergio Perez	RP Force India	1:05.10_	23.207	28
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:30.644	2.427	36
13	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:30.795	2.578	10
14	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:30.904	2.687	31
15	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:30.906	2.689	26
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:30.956	2.739	25
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:30.988	2.771	34
18	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:31.087	2.870	39
19	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:31.215	2.998	32
20	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:31.981	3.764	32