Japanese GP: George Russell quickest in FP2

George Russell topped the timesheets in FP2 at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in P2.

The Silver Arrows are still on the hunt for that first win of the campaign and may well hope the wet conditions we had on Friday will stick around for the rest of the weekend, based off of this showing at least.

The forecast, though, looks less kind to Mercedes for the weekend – though there may be some showers around for the race – but nevertheless they’ll be happy enough taking the top two fastest times in another tricky Friday practice session thanks to the wet conditions in Suzuka.

Russell and Hamilton were followed on the timesheets by Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, meanwhile, with Verstappen on the brink of winning the title this weekend.

The Dutchman, perhaps conversely to the Mercedes pair, will be hoping for dry running this weekend as he bids to win the championship with as minimal fuss as possible, especially after a rather trying Grand Prix weekend in Singapore last time out.

Kevin Magnussen was fifth fastest, as he was in FP1, showing that he and the Haas clearly have pace in the wet around Suzuka at least, though in the other garage there wasn’t as much to smile about with Mick Schumacher’s sister car not running in FP2 after the German had a crash in the first practice session of the day.

Carlos Sainz was the first and only Ferrari in the top ten with him finishing sixth fastest, whilst Fernando Alonso would be P7, dropping down from going fastest of all in FP1 earlier in the day. His team-mate Esteban Ocon was P9, meanwhile, with the Alfa Romeo pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu 8th and 10th respectively.

The running is done for today in Japan and the drivers and teams