Kvyat leads second rain-hit practice session

2015 Japanese Grand Prix second practice

Posted on

| Written by

Daniil Kvyat led the second practice session at Suzuka as wet conditions led teams to limit their running again.

The session began on a damp but drying track which allowed drivers to do some early running on intermediate tyres. The Mercedes pair led the way initially, but a quick lap by Kvyat on the intermediate rubber allowed him to snatch the top spot by 23 thousandths of a second.

Vettel had a high-speed off-track moment at turn one
The rain soon returned, and with the conditions rapidly deteriorating no further improvements in lap time were possible.

The Ferraris were fifth and sixth behind the Red Bulls and Mercedes, both drivers skidding off the track at times: Sebastian Vettel took to the turn one run-off at speed and Kimi Raikkonen explored the run-off at the chicane.

The Toro Rosso drivers were next, Max Verstappen also having gone off at the chicane as well as at the hairpin on another lap.

Felipe Nasr and Pastor Maldonado completed the top ten, the latter running wide at turn two and running onto the thoroughly sodden grass.

A technical problem kept Fernando Alonso in the pits early in the session. He was eventually able to do a series of laps, but not before the mid-session shower. Jenson Button reported problems with understeer and graining on his way to 12th.

Valtteri Bottas never left the Williams garage due to a problem with his car.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
126Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’48.2776
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’48.3000.0238
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’48.8530.5768
43Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’49.0970.82010
55Sebastian VettelFerrari1’50.2681.99118
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’50.3192.04216
755Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’50.4182.1416
833Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’50.5422.2655
912Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’50.9682.69110
1013Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’51.5573.2807
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’51.6743.39711
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’51.8613.5849
139Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’51.9343.65712
1411Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’52.0703.7938
158Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’52.5344.2576
1619Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’52.7654.4886
1714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’55.2396.96210
1828Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’58.0599.7826
1953Alexander RossiManor-Ferrari1’59.41911.1427
2077Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes0

Second practice visual gaps

Daniil Kvyat – 1’48.277

+0.023 Nico Rosberg – 1’48.300

+0.576 Lewis Hamilton – 1’48.853

+0.820 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’49.097

+1.991 Sebastian Vettel – 1’50.268

+2.042 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’50.319

+2.141 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’50.418

+2.265 Max Verstappen – 1’50.542

+2.691 Felipe Nasr – 1’50.968

+3.280 Pastor Maldonado – 1’51.557

+3.397 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’51.674

+3.584 Jenson Button – 1’51.861

+3.657 Marcus Ericsson – 1’51.934

+3.793 Sergio Perez – 1’52.070

+4.257 Romain Grosjean – 1’52.534

+4.488 Felipe Massa – 1’52.765

+6.962 Fernando Alonso – 1’55.239

+9.782 Will Stevens – 1’58.059

+11.142 Alexander Rossi – 1’59.419

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

12 comments on “Kvyat leads second rain-hit practice session”

  1. So Mercedes still don’t know if they are going to have good grip levels on slicks with their standard setup or if they are going to have find a better setup tomorrow.

  2. Both Ferrari drivers skidding off the track. How much time lost there? 2 tenth? Half a second? They don’t look faster than Mercedes.
    Hoping for all Red Bull podium like Hungary as a reminder of what Red Bull young driver program gave us.

    1. You can’t really compare, as the rain got heavier when the Ferraris hit the track.

      1. I don’t have the chance to watch FP1 & FP2.
        That’s a good news then…

  3. Apart from the F2012, every single Ferrari in the last 10 years has been weaker in the wet than in the dry, so this doesn’t surprise me at all. Ferrari cars in general are not very good in the rain.

    1. You know they have also never been good at qualifying. And now they have a driver who’s been known to be good at both quali and wet conditions. They need to get better.

    2. @kingshark I disagree. The F10 and the F14-T weren’t comparatively bad in the wet. Australia and Korea 2010 as well as Melbourne, Malaysia and China 2014 prove that.

  4. Like a win last time is simply not good enough…

  5. I watched both sessions and learned absolutly zilch. FP3 is going to be verry intersting. Expect teams to have their cars out there as much as possible to gather data.

  6. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    25th September 2015, 15:04

    Well, I won’t think Mercedes would bounce back from their Singapore disappointment. Or would they?…

    1. Of course they would. I don’t get why everyone expects or talks about them struggling to be honest. It was a one off.

  7. There will no good settings…

Comments are closed.