@OscarPiastri Tops FP2 At 2026 #JapaneseGP Ahead Of @MercedesAMGF1 Duo. #F1
Oscar Piastri drives the #81 McLaren MCL40 during Free Practice 2 at the 2026 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, where he topped the timesheets ahead of Mercedes rivals. Image credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images. Piastri Japanese GP FP2, 2026 F1 Japanese GP FP2 Results.
Piastri Japanese GP FP2 – McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fastest in the afternoon practice session at the Japanese GP ahead of Mercedes duo Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell who completed the top three.
Piastri set the session-topping benchmark with the C3 softer compounds, a 1:30.133 to be a slim 0.092 seconds clear of Antonelli whilst Russell was a further 0.205 seconds off the Australian in third.
Ferrari’s Hamilton lead the pack out on the C2 yellow-marked medium rubber with the majority on that tyre bar Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso (softs) and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg (hards) and the two Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar (both on hards).
The Briton was the first to register the benchmark of a 1:33.306 as Alpine’s Franco Colapinto slotted into second with his 1:33.891 whilst RB’s Liam Lawson went to P1 on a 1:33.206.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri slotted into second on a 1:33.235 whilst Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg took P1 briefly with his 1:32.933.
Verstappen was next taking top spot, posting a 1:32.891 but only momentarily as his team-mate Hadjar went quickest with a 1:32.625 to be 0.266 seconds ahead.
Chinese GP winner Antonelli was next, and the Italian went fastest on a 1:31.738 on the mediums as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moved to fourth with his 1:32.891 effort.
Russell then took P1 with a 1:31.568 but only momentarily as Piastri went quickest setting a 1:31.495 to be 0.073 seconds quicker than the Mercedes driver.
Hamilton slotted into fourth to end up 0.481 seconds adrift of Piastri’s benchmark.
Hadjar on his fourth tour on the hards with three personal bests moved to fifth to be 0.912 off Piastri’s benchmark but the Frenchman was relegated to sixth as Leclerc went to fourth overall with his 1:31.745.
Antonelli went fastest with three personal bests only momentarily as Piastri snatched top spot back with a 1:31.067 to be 0.107 seconds clear from the former.
The yellow flags are out for Albon, who had stopped out on track. “The throttle is not working,” the Thai driver reported.
After a few agonising moments, the Thai-Briton driver did get going under his own steam.
There were reliability issues out there, with Bortoleto another in the pits. He was out of his R26 entry, which was in pieces up on the high stands. Not good news for Audi.
Hamilton went up into third setting a 1:31.543 to end up 0.476 off Piastri at the 12th-minute-mark of proceedings.
Championship leader Russell was next and despite a purple opening sector could only reach third on a 1:31.401 to be 0.334 off his leading team-mate Antonelli.
Replays showed Leclerc suffer a snap of oversteer out of Spoon Curve, but on his next tour and three personal best efforts went quickest on a 1:31.019 to be 0.048 seconds ahead of Piastri past the opening quarter of the session.
Russell was next and with a purple middle sector could only remain in third and 0.117 seconds adrift of Leclerc’s benchmark.
The majority of the field except for Russell, Williams’ Albon, Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were all in the garage adjusting their setups preparing for their traditional qualifying simulation stints.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris had not been out all session so far due to a suspected hydraulics issue, but the Woking based-outfit managed to fix the issue and the Briton headed out on a set of the mediums.
His team-mate Piastri was the first to begin a qualifying simulation run on the C3 red-marked softs.
The Australian with three purples went to the top of the pile with a 1:30.133 and 0.886 clear of Leclerc with 35 minutes left on the clock.
Leclerc abandoned his flyer as Antonelli with two purples slotted into second and a slim 0.092 seconds off Piastri with his 1:30.225 effort.
Replays showed Leclerc suffering a few snaps through the Esses, which caused the Monegasque driver to abort his initial flyer.
Leclerc with two personal bests set a 1:30.846 to take third in the order and 0.713 seconds off Piastri’s benchmark.
Verstappen with two personal best efforts slotted into sixth behind Hamilton posting a 1:31.509 but was demoted down to seventh as Williams’ Albon moved to sixth with a 1:31.496.
Russell with three personal bests went up to third on his initial run on the softs, a 1:30.338 to be 0.205 seconds off Piastri at the end of the first half of the 60-minute session.
Replays showed Colapinto impeding Verstappen on his earlier run on the harder compounds with the Argentine’s incident under investigation by the stewards for driving erratically on the racing line where Verstappen was coming towards 130R.
Antonelli with a purple middle sector and two poor opening and final sectors could not improve and remained behind Piastri on the time-sheets.
Hulkenberg with two personal bests jumped to sixth overall to end up 1.308 seconds adrift of Piastri’s benchmark, but only briefly as Norris on the mediums relegated the German to seventh with his 1:31.430 effort.
Russell set three personal bests on his next flyer to go third in the classification on a 1:30.338 to end up 0.205 seconds off Piastri’s best time.
Hamilton was on another push lap on the softs and with only a personal best sector one could only remain fifth and 0.847 seconds off Piastri’s best time as replays showed Norris suffer a snap through Spoon Curve and ran wide into the run-off area.
The majority of the field were back in the pits with less than 20 minutes remaining to adjust their setups to prepare for their traditional long race data gathering runs to close out the session.
Replays showed Norris on his next run with the mediums suffer a massive front-right lock-up into the Casio Triangle Chicane and abandoned his push lap as the Briton went straight back to the pits and into the garage.
Gabriel Bortoleto’s issue had been resolved, and the Audi team sent their Brazilian driver out on track with a set of the C3 softer rubber for a late qualifying simulation run whilst the rest of the field were running their long race runs.
Defending Constructor’s Champions McLaren also sent Norris out on a set of the C3’s for a late qualifying simulation run.
Bortoleto slowed down and abandon his initial hot-lap, Norris was up next and with three personal bests went fourth overall on a 1:30.649 to end up 0.516 off his leading team-mate Piastri.
The session ended with Piastri on top of the time-sheets ahead of Mercedes duo Antonelli and Russell.
Defending World Champion Norris took fourth in the other MCL40 entry and in-front of Ferrari pairing Leclerc and Hamilton who were fifth and sixth respectively.
Hulkenberg placed seventh overall for Audi, ahead of Williams’ Albon who ended FP2 eighth.
Haas’s Oliver Bearman and Red Bull’s Verstappen completed the top ten.
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad suffered reliability issues all session long and was unable to register a lap-time.
You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco Japanese Grand Prix 2026 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: FORMULA 1 ARAMCO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2026 – PRACTICE 2
@GeorgeRussell63 Leads @MercedesAMGF1 1-2 in FP1 – 2026 #JapaneseGP.
