Heavy rain hampers teams' running in second practice
Vettel fastest in first practice, two tenths quicker than Hamilton
Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz crashes in FP1
Hamilton leads Vettel by 34 points in title race
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1) Vettel 1:29.166
2) Hamilton +0.211
3) Ricciardo +0.375
4) Raikkonen +0.472
5) Bottas +0.985
6) Verstappen +1.596
7) Ocon +1.733
8) Hulkenberg +1.808
9) Grosjean +1.866
10) Vandoorne +2.036
There's the chequered flag and Sebastian Vettel finishes fastest in first practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
It's proper rain at Suzuka now, not the fine rain that soaks you through. Proper rain.
With two minutes left on the clock it looks like that's probably it for the teams in terms of running in this session as cars get pushed back into their respective garages.
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"Ignore any brake alarms," Kimi Raikkonen is told before the Finn is then advised to lift off more because "rear temps are high".
Just under 10 minutes left in the session and the top of the order is like this:
1) Vettel 1:29.166
2) Hamilton +0.211
3) Ricciardo +0.375
4) Raikkonen +0.472
5) Bottas +0.985
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Vettel probably had more in the bag in that lap as well but was slightly held up by Marcus Ericsson in the final sector.
And Sebastian Vettel does indeed go faster than Lewis Hamilton - two tenths of a second faster as he clocks a 1:29.166.
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are out on the super-softs for the first time in this session. Given Vettel was just 0.042s down on Lewis Hamilton's time on softs, there's a good chance one of the Ferraris could be about to takeover top spot.
Just over 20 minutes left on the clock as the cars head back out.
All eyes in the Toro Rosso garage will be on Pierre Gasly. With Carlos Sainz out of the session, it's all on the Frenchman to gather the data.
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Well, the brooms have done the business.
We're back up and running again at 03:07 BST.
Kevin Kelly: Where the heck do they get those brooms? Do they each make them at home?
Always love the fact that Formula 1, with all its technology, still features these brooms to sweep up debris at the Japanese Grand Prix.
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Tom Clarkson
BBC Radio 5 live commentator
The rain is just starting to come down a bit heavier now in the pit lane. I wonder if the best of this session is over for the drivers?
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
Image source, Getty ImagesAfter the Malaysian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas gave a searingly honest description of his mindset after three races of being completely blown out of the water by Lewis Hamilton, saying it was the toughest moment of his career. And he expanded on it upon arrival in Japan.
“The only thing I want to do is to perform and to try and meet my goals what I set for me personally. I definitely haven’t been achieving those lately, so that’s why the feeling wasn’t so positive after the race,” he said. He said he was struggling to cope as well as Hamilton with “the compromises we’ve been needing to do in some circuits to get it into the right (set-up) window”, adding: “I’ve had so many answers to my questions from that race. We’ve been trying to work out every single detail with the engineers and trying to understand, so I’ve learned massively again from last weekend.”
Hamilton offered him a vote of confidence. “It is about confidence in the car and if the car doesn’t give you confidence to push it is a lot of time,” the three-time champions said. |”But I think any time soon he is going to be back in the lead of a grand prix and I’ll be hopefully up there with him.
A red flag isn't going to help those following the action in a timezone where it is the middle of the night.
Only half an hour to go and you can have a nap.
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It looks like Carlos Sainz lost control at the hairpin, spun into the tyre wall and then bounced back onto the track.
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