McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the quickest time of a heavily disrupted second free practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix that featured four red flags, including one for a huge crash involving Alpine driver Jack Doohan. 

After sitting out FP1 in favour of reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa, Doohan was out on track early in the second session to maximise time on a circuit he last raced at in his time in the Asian F3 Championship in 2019. However, after putting just four laps on the board the Australian lost control of his Alpine on the entry to Turn 1. He immediately spun off at high speed and hit the barriers hard, causing severe damage to left side and rear of his car. He quickly pronounced himself unhurt but with the barriers needing major repairs the session was red flagged for over 20 minutes. 

When running resumed it did so only briefly. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso beached his car in the gravel at Turn 8 and once again the red flags came out. The session would be halted twice more before the end of the hour as dry areas of grass at the side of the track caught fire, presumably due to sparks from cars bottoming out, and marshals had to attend the incidents with extinguishers.

It meant that running was heavily disrupted, and it was the McLaren duo of Piastri and Lando Norris that topped the session. Th Australian set a best time of 1:28.114 to take P1 half a tenth clear of Norris with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar in third place, four tenths off Piastri. 

Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Ferrari ahead of the second Racing Bulls car of Liam Lawson and George Russell was sixth for Mercedes. Many drivers failed to get in a quali sim on Soft tyres, however, leaving the timesheet inconclusive. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:28.114 13 237.251
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:28.163 0.049 12 237.119
3 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:28.518 0.404 12 236.168
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.544 0.430 14 236.099
5 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:28.559 0.445 13 236.059
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.567 0.453 13 236.038
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.586 0.472 14 235.987
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:28.670 0.556 9 235.764
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:28.757 0.643 13 235.532
10 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:28.832 0.718 9 235.334
11 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:29.023 0.909 11 234.829
12 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:29.062 0.948 12 234.726
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:29.335 1.221 13 234.009
14 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:29.507 1.393 13 233.559
15 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:29.654 1.540 10 233.176
16 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:29.733 1.619 13 232.971
17 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:29.978 1.864 5 232.336
18 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:30.625 2.511 12 230.678
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:30.845 2.731 12 230.119
20 Jack Doohan Alpine/Renault 1:31.659 3.545 4 228.075