Charles Leclerc P2, Carlos Sainz P4 in Suzuka second practice session – Ferrari FP2 report | 2023 Japanese GP. Ferrari FP2 report at Suzuka.

Here is our full text transcript from the second free practice session for the 2023 F1 Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit:

Good morning or welcome back to those of you who were with us for Practice One – big round of applause to you guys by the way. Red Bull are unfortunately back it seems as Max Verstappen blitzed the field by six tenths of a second. We will get a better indication of the pecking order in Practice Two though to see if Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes can close in on the championship leader. Mercedes were one of two teams (the other being Alfa Romeo) not to run the quickest soft tyre compound in the opening 60 minutes of running. Expect them to bolt on the red-marked tyres quite early on in this session to get a read on a little more W14 performance.

Lance Stroll was back out on track in opening practice for the first time since his big accident last Saturday in Singapore. The Aston Martin driver finished inside the top 10 too, inside three tenths of team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Away we go for Practice Two at Suzuka! Zhou Guanyu, George Russell and Logan Sargeant at the first cars out there. We know you don’t want to be reading about tyres at this time of the morning, but to make you aware each driver has an extra two sets of tyres, which will be unmarked, as Pirelli trial a new C2 compound (the C2 is the medium tyre this weekend). Most drivers are on that tyre now to get some data on it before moving onto the normal race weekend compounds.

55 mins to go: It’s Valtteri Bottas with the time to beat right now on a 1:33.163. That’s 1.5 seconds slower than Max Verstappen’s fastest time from earlier this morning. Sergio Perez and Alex Albon are three tenths of a second behind in second and third. Oscar Piastri, who signed a new contract this week to stay with McLaren until the end of 2026, moves into second. But here comes Max Verstappen on the soft tyres already interestingly. And the Dutchman sets the fastest time today. It’s a 1:31.377. That will take some stopping.

Lewis Hamilton is on track in the Mercedes and has asked the team to check his floor after running a little wide over the kerb at Degner 2. He’s 10th fastest at the moment on the development tyre.

48 mins to go: Lando Norris puts in a good lap as he goes 0.747s slower than Verstappen, but is on the medium tyres. Charles Leclerc was briefly third, until Oscar Piastri comes across the line and dispatches him. Kevin Magnussen was starting to come through Turns One and Two when he encountered a trundling Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and had to back off.

40 mins to go: It’s third place for George Russell on the soft tyres but he’s 0.677s down on Verstappen. He lost half a second in the first sector alone, suggesting Mercedes are struggling in the high-speed corners and change of direction. Not much better for Lewis Hamilton, who is 0.868 adrift of Verstappen’s time on his qualy sim. Mercedes simply don’t have the pace at the moment and appear to be behind Ferrari and McLaren, as well as Red Bull of course.

35 mins to go: Hello Lando Norris and McLaren! Norris goes onto the soft tyres and pops in a 1:31.152 to go two tenths faster than Max Verstappen. The MCL60 looks mighty through the first sector and extremely balanced through the lap. Verstappen and the Mercedes drivers were talking up the threat of McLaren yesterday. Oscar Piastri can’t quite join the party but is knocking on the door as he goes fourth and if half a second down on Norris. Nearly halfway through the session now at Suzuka and we’re starting to see more and more runs on the quickest compound, the soft.

30 mins to go: Charles Leclerc puts Ferrari at the top of the timesheet by 0.144s from Norris. Carlos Sainz goes third, 0.229s behind his team-mate while Sergio Perez is eighth. The Dutchman is down to fourth on the timesheet after that flurry of quicker laps, but is back on track now on soft tyres again. Verstappen back on top. There was a sense of inevitability about that as he goes 0.320s clear of Charles Leclerc.

19 mins to go: Russell improved on a second qualy simulation, but Hamilton can’t as he goes 14th. That’s 1.141s off the pace of Verstappen. This feels similar to Singapore for Hamilton, where he was on the backfoot throughout the weekend compared to Russell over one lap.

After setting the fastest lap time on the softs, Max Verstappen has switch to the prototype tyres on offer in this session to begin his heavier-fuel race runs. You can see the Dutchman is incredibly quick in the first sector through the Esses compared to the Ferrari SF-23 car, which is a bit stronger in the second half of the lap, especially on the straights. The difference at the end of the lap though is 0.320s, so that Red Bull chassis is unfortunately working wonderfully in the high-speed stuff.

A promising start to the weekend for Alex Albon, who finished seventh in those low-fuel quali runs on the softs. Not so good for Logan Sargeant though in the sister car, 1.6s off the pace in 20th.

Gasly crashes at Degner Two! “Locked up, sorry for that,” says Pierre Gasly after skating through the gravel and into a nose-first impact with the barriers. The session has been red flagged due to Pierre Gasly’s crash and the session won’t be resumed. Pierre is okay and out of the car.

Practice 2 Results

Practice 1 Results