Piastri outshines Mercedes duo to go fastest in Japan practice

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri powered to the fastest time in Friday’s second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, usurping the dominant Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

Piastri is yet to even start a grand prix this season but the Australian gave a reminder of his talent with a lap of 1min 30.133sec in dry, sunny conditions at Suzuka.

The 19-year-old Italian Antonelli, who won the first grand prix of his career in China two weeks ago, was second, 0.092sec behind Piastri.

Early championship leader Russell, who was fastest in the morning practice ahead of Antonelli, was third.

Piastri has endured a nightmare start to the season, crashing on his way to the grid at the opener in Australia and failing to start the grand prix in China because of a technical problem.

He hailed a “decent day” in Japan, with McLaren team-mate and world champion Lando Norris clocking the fourth-fastest time.

“We felt like we made some good progress, particularly in the second practice session, which was encouraging,” said Piastri.

“The feeling is positive and we’ve gathered some valuable data that puts us in a solid position.”

Mercedes have established themselves as the team to beat so far this season, claiming a one-two finish in both grands prix to date.

They were again out in front in the morning practice session when Russell led Antonelli to top the timesheets ahead of Norris and Piastri.

Piastri got the better of both Silver Arrows in the afternoon and Russell admitted the McLarens’ pace was “a little bit of a surprise”.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be genuine, to be honest,” said Russell, who was 0.205sec slower than Piastri.

“I think Lando’s had a disruptive day but Oscar has been pretty on it from the first lap out of the box this morning.”

‘Tricky day’ 

Norris ended the practice session strongly after sitting out the first half because of a hydraulic leak.

The British driver, who did not start the Chinese Grand Prix because of a separate technical issue to Piastri, also missed half of the morning practice.

Norris called it “a tricky day”.

“Around a track like this you just want laps to build confidence and refine the set-up, and right now we’re two or three steps behind with no long runs and very limited consecutive running,” he said.

Charles Leclerc was fifth ahead of Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, who finished third in China for his first podium since joining Ferrari, said over his team radio that he was “very slow because I have no confidence in the car”.

Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen was 10th, 1.376sec slower than Piastri.

Alex Albon had an eventful morning and he was again in the thick of it in the second practice.

The Williams driver almost shunted into Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in the pits and later came to a standstill for several seconds on the track before regaining power.

Albon crashed into Cadillac’s Sergio Perez in the morning and also skidded deep into the gravel before clipping a barrier.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso took part in the afternoon practice after being replaced by reserve driver Jak Crawford for the morning session.

Alonso arrived in Japan late following the birth of his first child.