Doohan’s high-speed crash headlines Red Flag-riddled FP2

Disrupted by four separate Red Flag delays, Free Practice 2 at the Japanese Grand Prix fell victim to high-speed crashes, beached cars and bizarre grass fires, throwing a curveball into teams’ preparations ahead of tomorrow’s all-important Qualifying Session.

After watching on from the garage during FP1, Jack Doohan opened his Japanese Grand Prix campaign with a practice start in the pit exit, charging down the road on the hard compound tyre.

His session would unfortunately end after just four laps, with Doohan becoming a passenger to a high-speed crash at the first corner potentially caused by the growing tailwind or his A525 bottoming out.

The Australian took his time in exiting the crumbled Alpine, looking gingerly as he was helped to the medical car, however, assuring his team he was okay. 

Under Red Flag conditions, clean-up efforts and repairs on the tyre barriers took a decent chunk of time out for the session, with the clock only starting back up with 30 minutes remaining.

When the track was finally declared ‘green’, the impatient queue of drivers was finally released, however, temporarily.

Dipping a wheel onto the grass at the first Degner, Fernando Alonso quickly found his Aston Martin beached in the gravel further around the corner, prompting a second Red Flag delay that lasted around five minutes.

When the field got going for the third time, the remaining 18 drivers had 20 minutes to clock up some crucial data, with George Russell and Max Verstappen tussling for track position as they rounded the first turn.

Barring three, all drivers had a time to their name prior to the Red Flag delays, however, the soft compound was the popular selection to round put FP2, seeing the timing sheets reshuffle.

As each driver crossed the line, it was purple sector after purple sector.

Charles Leclerc was the first to light up the timing sheets, followed by George Russell and the impressive RB duo, while McLaren secured two out of three places in P1 and P3.

Oscar Piastri was the second-running McLaren after his first C3 flying lap, running three-tenths slower than Lando Norris who sat at the head of the field before a third Red Flag impacted the session.

The strong wind gusts proved to not only impact the handling of the cars, but also the impact they had on the surrounding flora when sparks from the low-riding F1 machinery caused a grass fire, similar to the ones seen in Shanghai last year.

The track marshals worked quickly to extinguish the fire, putting it out and allowing the track to go green with six minutes on the clock.

Racing his competitors once again, Russell was just one of many drivers to rush out of the pitlane to complete one or two final performance runs, doing so just before a fourth and final Red Flag was called for a second grass fire.

With only seconds on the clock, the FIA declared the session prematurely over, prohibiting practice starts and instructing drivers to return directly to their garages.

Despite the chaos, interruptions and lack of a clear run, the battle between the McLaren drivers was well and truly represented on the timing sheets, with Piastri finishing FP2 as the fastest driver in Japan.

Just under five-hundredths of a second behind the Australian’s fastest time of 1:28.114s was his teammate, followed by Isack Hadjar who impressed on his way to third.  

The entire pitlane will be hopeful of an uninterrupted final practice session tomorrow, with FP3 taking place at 13:30 AEDT before the all-important qualifying session in the evening.

Image: Formula 1

Free Practice 2 Results:

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