Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished fastest in the second free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished the session with a 1:35.078 ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in P2 with a 1:35.318, 0.240s slower. Valtteri Bottas in the Williams finished the session P3 with a 1:36.279, 1.201s slower than Hamilton. McLaren’s Jenson Button finished the session in P4 with the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel rounding off the top 5.

The session got off to a rather interesting start with Kobayashi crashing into the barriers at the exit of T3. Replays showed that he lost the rear of the car on the entry to T3 which sent him into a spin and into the barrier backwards destroying his rear left suspension.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne had apparent electronics issues twice in the session. The first time was at the beginning of the session, the second time with just 2mins before the end of the session at the exit of Spoon.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo crashed out 20 mins into the session. He was about to start a timed lap and got on the throttle a bit early at the final corner. The rear of the car swung around, he corrected but unfortunately he ran out of track which meant he was on the gravel and into the barrier taking off his front left suspension in the process.

With just under an hour left in the session, Sauber’s Estaban Gutierrez had a bit of and off at Spoon Corner. replays show that he went straight on into Spoon. It looked as though he carried too much speed into the corner.

With 20mins left in the session there were some spots of rain around the circuit. The drivers were well into their long runs at this point but it did prove quite tricky for some. Most of the drivers were being caught out by the damp conditions as some were locking up and running wide while others were too early on the throttle out of the slow corners.

The session ended prematurely as Jean-Eric Vergne stopped on track again. This time at the exit of Spoon. The replays showed that as he made a tweak on the steering his car cut out and the screen on the steering went blank.

Mercedes were once ahead on the long run pace. Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams and McLaren were all very close together. McLaren, however, are looking more comfortable around Suzuka despite Jenson Button saying that Suzuka wont suit the car.

It’s going to be an interesting qualifying session. With the rain forecast it will mix things up and make things very interesting.

Below is the timing sheet for the FP2 session for the Japanese Grand Prix