Japanese GP: Russell takes top honours in damp conditions
7th October 2022In the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix extended free practice two session, Mercedes George Russell took top honours as he set the fastest lap ahead of his teammate, Sir Lewis Hamilton, in wet and damp conditions.
How the session unfolded…
Prior to FP2, Haas’ Mick Schumacher had a crash at the end of FP1 after feeling frustrated for being ‘massively blocked’ by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. As a result, the German was forced to miss out the extended session while his team replaced his chassis.
As the pit exit light went green, for the extended FP2 session, it took five minutes before a driver ventured out onto the wet circuit, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was that driver. Naturally the Canadian driver was the first to set a lap time on the board but this was soon beaten by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who set a 1:49.615, 2 seconds quicker than the Williams.
Both of the drivers were forced to use the blue-walled extreme wet tyres, as a result of the recent – and persistent – downpour.
Due to the wet weather, Pirelli was forced to change their test date from Japan’s FP2 session to the Mexico Grand Prix weekend, at the end of the month – following the US Grand Prix.
In a similar fashion to FP1, Latifi was the first driver to bring out the yellow flag as he pulled of the circuit at the beginning of Casio Triangle, at turn 16. He reported to his pit wall that the car ‘felt weird’ before he completed a three-point turn and returned to the circuit.
As the session reached its half-an-hour mark, with one-hour remaining, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton went to the top of the timing boards but the seven-time world champion was soon demoted by his younger teammate, George Russell, who put in his fastest lap on the board – equipped with the green-walled Intermediate tyres.
It wasn’t long before Hamilton returned the favour and jumped to the top of the timing sheets with a 1:44.298.
With 40 minutes left on the clock, as the track conditions began to improve, the two Mercedes drivers and Red Bull’s defending world champion, Max Verstappen started to fight for top honours in the wet and damp conditions. As it stood, Russell stood on top with a 1:41.935, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen, in P2 and P3 respectively.
At this point the rain had completely stopped and the drivers started to extract the water from the track with their intermediates.
As the session crawled into its final 10 minutes, Russell remained the fastest man out on track, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen who were P2 and P3 respectively.
That’s it for the article; Japanese GP: Russell takes top honours in damp conditions! What do you think, should F1 return to 90-minutes or keep the 60-minute practice sessions? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here:
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- FIA postpone Cost Cap certificates
- Singapore GP: Perez wins despite pending investigation
- Singapore GP: Leclerc on pole while Verstappen is ordered to pit
- Singapore GP: Leclerc tops FP3 after weather delay
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
