Piastri tops second Japanese GP practice as Doohan suffers 185 mph crash

Jack Doohan has walked away from a monster high-speed crash early in a closely disrupted second follow session topped by Oscar Piastri on the Japanese Grand Prix.

Doohan misplaced management of his Alpine at Flip 1 on simply his fifth lap of the day, his automobile spinning out from beneath him at 205 miles per hour.

The Australian pirouetted at excessive pace by way of the gravel and into the boundaries, the place it was pulped towards the wall.

Doohan instantly radioed that he was okay, however the winded 22-year-old took his time getting out of the automobile earlier than gingerly trudging to the medical automobile.

He was subsequently cleared of damage on the medical middle and launched again to his group.

Video replays recommend Doohan’s DRS was open as he tipped his automobile into the nook. The DRS closes robotically on software of the brakes, however Flip 1 is taken flat, resulting in recommendations Doohan could have did not manually shut it.

A robust tailwind was additionally gusting down the primary straight in the course of the session.

FP2 was Doohan’s first session of the day after surrendering his automobile to order driver Ryo Hirakawa for FP1.

The session was suspended for nearly 25 minutes whereas circuit organisers repaired the Flip 1 boundaries and resumed with half-hour remaining, however working lasted solely three minutes earlier than the second stoppage of the afternoon, this time triggered by Fernando Alonso.

Alonso clipped the grass on entry to Degner 1, which was sufficient to ship him spinning into the gravel entice, the place his Aston Martin ended the day beached within the stones.

The crimson flag value groups one other eight minutes of observe time, however the session was inexperienced for simply 5 minutes when it was suspended for a 3rd, on this occasion to place out a grass hearth on the within of the lengthy Flip 7 resulting in Degner 1.

Solely seven minutes remained when the session resumed, with Oscar Piastri utilizing the temporary time to rocket to high spot with a finest lap of 1m 28.114s, pipping teammate Lando Norris by 0.049s.

Norris tried to reply, however a sluggish closing sector – some 0.5 seconds off his private finest in that cut up – left him behind the sister automobile.

The session ended below a fourth and closing crimson flag for a second grass hearth, this time at Spoon Curve.

Isack Hadjar accomplished the highest three for Racing Bulls, the French rookie sneaking in his finest time following Alonso’s crimson flag.

The order is of restricted worth as a consultant order, nevertheless, with simply 21 minutes of green-flag working unfold over 4 home windows and no driver finishing greater than 14 laps.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari at 0.43s off the tempo, the Ferrari driver simply 0.015s faster than Liam Lawson within the second Racing Bulls automobile.

George Russell was sixth forward of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who complained that his automobile was “understeering all over the place” on his soft-shod lap.

Pierre Gasly was ninth for Alpine forward of Carlos Sainz finishing the highest 10 for Williams.

Alex Albon adopted forward of Sauber teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas duo Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was sixteenth for Mercedes forward of the stopped Fernando Alonso, Crimson Bull Racing’s Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll.

Doohan was categorised final with solely 4 laps accomplished.