Japanese GP: George Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 in wet Practice 2

George Russell was fastest as Mercedes set the pace in a rain-affected second practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Much like the first session, the circuit started off very wet but soon improved with drivers switching onto the intermediates for the extended 90 minutes of running.

And the two Silver Arrows were enjoying themselves as Russell beat Fernando Alonso’s FP1 benchmark in similar conditions by three-tenths, posting a 1m41.935s.

Lewis Hamilton sat almost a quarter of a second behind in second, ahead of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

A late improvement pushed Kevin Magnussen upto fifth, while Haas teammate Mick Schumacher was consigned to the garage needing a chassis change following his crash after the chequered flag in the earlier session.

Carlos Sainz sat sixth in the lead Ferrari, but a trip to the gravel at the hairpin highlighted Charles Leclerc’s struggles with braking as he sat 11th.

After a strong FP1, Alpine ran a reduced run plan in FP2, but both cars still ran in the top 10 as Fernando Alonso finished seventh and Esteban Ocon in ninth.

Alfa Romeo’s quietly good day also continued with Valtteri Bottas in eighth and Zhou Guanyu in 10th.

Nicholas Latifi was the lead Williams’ in 12th just ahead of teammate Alex Albon in 13th.

Yuki Tsunoda survived an off at Degner One en route to 14th, 1.8s clear of teammate Pierre Gasly who was slowest of the 19 cars on track.

Between them, the two Aston Martins were 15th and 18th and the two McLarens completing 20 laps between them in 16th and 17th.

After a wet Friday, the pecking order remains a mystery at Suzuka, but teams will get their first dry running of the weekend on Saturday, while the forecast for race day remains mixed.

Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below: