Piastri Tops McLaren in Japanese GP Practice

0:00It's March 27. Welcome in. This is F1 News today. Wartine Coverage meets AI. Oscar Pioshtree put McLaren on top in free practice 2 at the Japanese Grand Prix, clocking the fastest time of 1 minute 30.133. Seconds. The Australian led Mercedes drivers, Kimi Antonelli, by just 900s of a second, and George Russell and third, with Lando Norris fourth-four. McLaren and Charles LeClair, fifth in the Ferrari. Mercedes had dominated the morning's first practice with a 1-2 finish, but teams hit some snags in the afternoon session starting at 3pm. Local time. Norris and Cadillac Sergio Perez, both faced delays getting out on track due to repairs, while Williams, Alex, Albonne stopped briefly on circuit, triggering yellow flags. Drivers dealt with a mix of tire compounds, from mediums and hards early on to softs later for quicker laps. Fernando Alonzo made his debut appearance of the weekend on softs, and there was a close call in the pits between Pierre Gasly and Albonne.

1:04Stewards were looking to an incident between Franco Calapinto and Max Verstappen, after the session. Arvid Lynn Blad's day ended early with a gearbox problem for racing bulls, limiting him to one lap, and Gabriel Bordeaux managed just 10 laps for, audio after garage time. Louis Hamilton voiced a lack of confidence in his Mercedes toward the end, finishing sixth behind LeClair. Williams now sift through the data from day 1, gearing up for free practice 3 tomorrow at 11.30am local time, followed by qualifying at 3pm.