Japanese GP: Bottas tops FP2 session that could decide grid

Bottas was preparing to start the first flying lap of his qualifying simulation runs when he looped his W10 through the kink that follows the final chicane.

He continued but could only lap just under half a second down on Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who set the pace on those first qualifying simulation runs despite having his own effort interrupted by Bottas' spin.

Hamilton improved fractionally from a 1m27.896s lap to a 1m27.885s best on his second set of tyres, before Bottas jumped to the top of the timesheet with a 1m27.785s effort.

No one else managed to lap faster than 1m28s. Max Verstappen’s Red Bull-Honda was best of the rest, almost three tenths down on Bottas.

The result, coupled with the FIA's clarification that FP2 may determine the grid for Sunday's race, means that Mercedes could be in line to lock out the front row should the rescheduled qualifying not take place on Sunday morning.

Ferrari elected to leave it until the very end of the session for its drivers to do their second qualifying simulation runs.

Charles Leclerc improved from sixth- to fourth-quickest with a lap less than a tenth slower than Verstappen's best that also displaced Sebastian Vettel to fifth.

Vettel was just under six tenths slower than Bottas, while Alex Albon managed to split the Ferraris initially before slipping to sixth, just over six tenths off the pace.

Carlos Sainz continued to lead the way among the midfield runners, his McLaren almost three tenths faster than the Racing Point of Sergio Perez and six and a half tenths down on Albon's Red Bull-Honda.

Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly left it late to move into the top 10, taking ninth place by 0.004s from Lando Norris, who still made it two McLarens in the top 10.

Renault endured a difficult second session while continuing to evaluate a front wing upgrade. Daniel Ricciardo was only 17th-quickest and Nico Hulkenberg 18th.

Robert Kubica narrowly edged George Russell in the battle of the two Williams drivers, lapping just over half a second off Hulkenberg and 0.155s faster than Russell.

Session results

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	33	1'27.785
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	34	1'27.885	0.10
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	24	1'28.066	0.281
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	28	1'28.141	0.356
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	37	1'28.376	0.591
6	23	Alex Albon	Red Bull	34	1'28.402	0.617
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren	29	1'29.051	1.266
8	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	28	1'29.299	1.514
9	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	34	1'29.354	1.569
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	35	1'29.358	1.573
11	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	29	1'29.477	1.692
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	35	1'29.512	1.727
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	28	1'29.553	1.768
14	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	27	1'29.597	1.812
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	33	1'29.651	1.866
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	31	1'29.749	1.964
17	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	30	1'29.859	2.074
18	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	29	1'30.334	2.549
19	88	Robert Kubica	Williams	35	1'30.916	3.131
20	63	George Russell	Williams	36	1'31.071	3.286
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