Lewis Hamilton maintained his place at the top of the timesheets as Mercedes comfortably led a 1-2 in second practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Putting on the Supersoft tyres for the first time this weekend, the championship leader posted a 1m28.217s as the performance gap between it and the Soft tyre proves much smaller than that with other compounds in recent races.
Indeed, only Valtteri Bottas in second was able to go faster than Hamilton’s initial best time on the yellow-striped rubber as Sebastian Vettel sat eight-tenths down in his Ferrari.
Based on initial impressions it would appear the Scuderia is in a battle with Red Bull for the final podium place, as Max Verstappen ran fourth and Daniel Ricciardo almost matched Kimi Raikkonen in fifth, but the Italian team was thought to be preserving the engine and will push on, on Saturday.
There was also a variable of drivers having to back out of potentially faster laps with Bottas and Raikkonen seen going wide at Degner 2 and elsewhere, but Hamilton appears close to unstoppable as he enjoyed his “best day” around the curves of Suzuka.
In the midfield, Esteban Ocon continued to sit seventh in the Force India, four-tenths clear of Romain Grosjean’s Haas as the top eight drivers from the morning remained the same in the afternoon.
Marcus Ericsson also continued in the top 10, though moved up one place to ninth with Brendon Hartley offering another glimpse of the potential from Honda’s ‘Suzuka special’ engine in P10 for Toro Rosso.
Teammate Pierre Gasly would be stuck in the garage with a fuel pump problem until the final 15 minutes but would emerge to move upto 13th, just three-tenths behind the Kiwi.
Sergio Perez would just miss out on the would-be points places in 11th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg as Renault continue to lack pace with Carlos Sainz down in 14th.
Charles Leclerc also featured lower down the order than expected in 15th, though it was possible he was compromised by having to go wheel-to-wheel with Lance Stroll at the final chicane in the build-up to his fastest lap.
Kevin Magnussen ran 16th with the two McLaren’s and two Williams’ again bringing up the field with Fernando Alonso 17th and Stoffel Vandoorne last in the papaya MCL33’s.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
As always, the final half an hour was given to race simulations and initial signs once again point to a one-stop strategy as the Supersoft was proving relatively durable for a third of the race distance.
Blisters did remain a problem though, with Vettel notably seeing one on his left-rear tyre and also Bottas was hampered by a flat-spot which he picked up before running across the grass at the final chicane as Mercedes switched focus to the Soft compound towards the end.