Formula 1’s heavily disrupted second practice session muddied qualifying simulations at the Japanese Grand Prix and reduced long-run data to the bare minimum.
Here’s what we have learned from the scraps of FP2, and an opening session at Suzuka that was at least much more informative.
Tsunoda’s good start got trickier
Given this is home race and his first weekend with Red Bull, all eyes were on Yuki Tsunoda on Friday. And in terms of results the two sessions could hardly have been more contrasting.
If you looked at classification alone, you would think Tsunoda’s picked up where his predecessor Liam Lawson left off - being 18th in the FP2 times. But that was, quite obviously, a reflection of the red flags and the fact Tsunoda did not do a qualifying simulation in that session.
In reality, this was an encouraging day - more so in FP1, where Tsunoda was just over a tenth slower than Verstappen in a display more comfortable and convincing than anything in Lawson’s brief two-weekend stint with Red Bull.
FP2 was a little more tricky, hence Tsunoda’s admission there is “lots of work to do” and he “maybe slightly struggled or something that we have to look through [the] data” to understand. He also, perhaps unsurprisingly, confirmed his initial more confident feeling on the simulator hadn’t quite translated onto the track.
“It's a bit different, what I felt, to be honest - maybe a little bit more than I expected in terms of car feeling,” Tsunoda said.
“I knew anyway it was going to be always a bit different in the real car and it was a little bit more exaggerated in the real car and feeling a bit more tricky.”
That was less of a Tsunoda-specific thing as Max Verstappen was also far from happy on the day. This is no great shock given Verstappen has kept saying Red Bull needed a better car before it needed a new second driver - but at least Tsunoda looks more in Max’s ballpark, which is a decent foundation for his first weekend. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
The standouts from trackside
Even before their top 10 (and then top five!) pace was confirmed across the two practice sessions, I was pretty blown away by the Racing Bulls from the first lap in FP1 - and Isack Hadjar in particular.
The way Hadjar was immediately comfortable pushing in the car really caught the eye. The car looks so planted, and seems benign in the best way possible - inviting drivers to attack, rather than just looking ‘safe’.
No wonder Hadjar described it as “more than an encouraging Friday”!
It’s so easy to take to its limit that Lawson, who was so at sea in the Red Bull and is obviously readjusting to that team now, also looked much more impressive again. And in laptime terms was right there.
The other standout car was the McLaren. It is the pace-setting car this year so therefore no great surprise to see it top the times - but it was impressive to see how strong it was on the front end.
The change of direction really stood out between Turns 3 and 4, the way that both Norris and Piastri were just able to flick it into the left-hand apex, then get it back across straight away to the right for Turn 4 with no delay at all. - SMM
Now Lawson has what Verstappen wants!
It had not been the easiest of times for Lawson ahead of the Japanese GP, having lost his dream seat at Red Bull after just two races.
But after his first day back in his original F1 home at Racing Bulls, he probably felt a bit smug about things.
He found himself fifth quickest at the end of FP2 but, more importantly, with something that Verstappen is especially lacking.
That is a car that appears well behaved, has a nice wide operating window and is one that gives the driver confidence to push.
Time and again during his two difficult weekends with Red Bull, Lawson complained of a narrow set-up window on the RB21.
After his woeful performance in qualifying in China, Lawson said: “It's just a small window. Yeah, it's just hard. It's hard.”
Fast forward to Suzuka, and it was quite telling that his remarks on the VCARB02 were notably different – but offered a clear indication of the new world he finds himself in.
“The car felt good, it does feel different,” he said. “The window that the guys have at the moment is very, very good. The car is pretty fast so far this season so hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow as well.”
Those upbeat remarks were notably a step away from the messaging coming out of his former team-mate Verstappen.
Reflecting on a challenging day at Suzuka as he ended up eighth quickest in FP2, the world champion said: “You need a lot of confidence and commitment around here and, at the moment, I don't feel like I can use that. So we still have a bit of work to do.” - Jon Noble
Who is really chasing McLaren?
Best of the rest clearly looked George Russell’s Mercedes - which was every bit as fast as the McLarens in sector one and in fact, by the top of the Esses, was marginally quicker than both of them.
Russell could also keep good performance through the lap - not quite as good as the McLarens through sectors two and three, but not far away.
In contrast, the Ferrari isn’t far off in sector one either, but loses progressively more performance - with Red Bull in a similar position.
The Ferrari doesn’t look to be looking after its tyres as well either. That could be down to having to run a higher ride height than ideal, perhaps losing a little rear downforce. But Lewis Hamilton felt Ferrari had moved in the right direction on set-up and Charles Leclerc reckoned its pace was better than it looked on paper.
This group, however, is covered by a small margin. And with a 180-degree wind direction change expected for Saturday (turning a tailwind into Turn 1 into a headwind), plus teams working feverishly on set-ups overnight, the competitive picture could change already in final practice. - Mark Hughes
Costly Doohan error revives scrutiny
Jack Doohan’s massive FP2 crash after an error by not deactivating the DRS before turning in for the first corner was an extremely painful way to revive the early season scrutiny of the Alpine driver.
It was a poor error that will pile on more pressure when Doohan’s actual performance should have been earning him some leeway following the initial attention on his position in the team when it signed Franco Colapinto as a reserve with the potential to replace Doohan this year.
Instead he has now added to an unfortunate list of flashpoints of varying severity: the lap one shunt in Melbourne, a penalty in the China sprint, a penalty in the grand prix, and now this huge practice crash.
Doohan, in his defence, surely deserves more time. And the only mitigating factor with this crash is whether it would have been avoided had Alpine given him FP1 rather than effectively undermining him from the start. As it was Doohan who was parked in the first practice session to let Ryo Hirawaka drive.
Suzuka is a very tough circuit to master and although Doohan has experience from years ago in a Formula 3 car, it’s not the same. Yet Alpine benched him, not Pierre Gasly, to fulfil part of a mandatory requirement with a home driver who brings backing to have the reserve role.
The reason is believed to be that after a poor start to the season, Alpine wanted to run some car evaluations in FP1 and Gasly was best to do that as the experienced driver.
But it put Doohan on the back foot and under pressure. He almost certainly wouldn’t have had the shunt he did if he was completing his first laps nice and easy, early in FP1 - even though he still shouldn’t have made the error at all. - SMM
Drastic Haas fix causes another problem
Haas had come into the Japanese GP admitting that it had taken a risk with its fast-tracked floor update.
Team boss Ayao Komatsu reckoned there was every chance that, with it not having gone through the typical due-diligence analysis in the windtunnel and on CFD, it could all go horribly wrong if it did not work.
And initially, after Ollie Bearman trialled the floor in FP1, things did not look ideal as the squad worked around an imperfect balance and chased an unspecified other problem that had cropped up.
“The problem is not as severe as Melbourne, but we’ve got another problem,” he said. “Of course, as always — if you solve one issue, there’s a new one popping up.”
But despite the stop-start nature of FP2, Haas found that, as Bearman pushed the car closer to its limit, things seemed much improved with the car.
Komatsu added: “Actually that gave us answers on the new floor which is pretty good – so it’s definitely better for the problem.”
Haas now plans to switch team-mate Esteban Ocon across to the new floor from Saturday morning practice as it sets sights on moving itself up the order. - JN
The two weirdest red flags explained
Red flag deployed 🔴
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 4, 2025
A small grass fire beside the circuit is currently being extinguished#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/OomAusRYH5
In a year of some bizarre red flags (remember testing’s power cut, bus on track and a smashed window on a gantry), Friday did not disappoint as grass fires brought out two of the four we had in second practice.
While sparks thrown up from the cars were likely triggering the blazes, the FIA remained unsure on Friday night about just why things were getting so dramatic.
But it knows it cannot let things continue this way, especially because it would not be ideal to have the grand prix interrupted by more fires.
Ahead of Saturday’s running, the FIA has ordered the grass to be cut as short as possible – as well as any dried grass removed from areas where fires could be a problem.
Furthermore, the grass will be watered down ahead of track action to try to prevent things sparking up again. - JN
