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 heavily disrupted second practice session topped by Oscar Piastri at the Japanese Grand Prix. Doohan lost control of his Alpine at Turn 1 on just his fifth lap of the day, his car spinning out from beneath him at 205 miles per hour. The Australian pirouetted at high speed through the gravel and into the barriers, where it was pulped against the wall. Doohan immediately radioed that he was okay, but the winded 22-year-old took his time getting out of the car before gingerly trudging to the medical car. He was subsequently cleared of injury at the medical center and released back to his team. Video replays suggest Doohan’s DRS was open as he tipped his car into the corner. The DRS closes automatically on application of the brakes, but Turn 1 is taken flat, leading to suggestions Doohan may have failed to manually close it. A strong tailwind was also gusting down the main straight during the session. FP2 was Doohan’s first session of the day after surrendering his car to reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa for FP1. The session was suspended for almost 25 minutes while circuit organisers repaired the Turn 1 barriers and resumed with 30 minutes remaining, but running lasted only three minutes before the second stoppage of the afternoon, this time triggered by Fernando Alonso. Alonso clipped the grass on entry to Degner 1, which was enough to send him spinning into the gravel trap, where his Aston Martin ended the day beached in the stones. The red flag cost teams another eight minutes of track time, but the session was green for just five minutes when it was suspended for a third, in this instance to put out a grass fire on the inside of the long Turn 7 leading to Degner 1. Only seven minutes remained when the session resumed, with Oscar Piastri using the brief time to rocket to top spot with a best lap of 1m 28.114s, pipping teammate Lando Norris by 0.049s. Norris attempted to respond, but a slow final sector – some 0.5 seconds off his personal best in that split – left him behind the sister car. The session ended under a fourth and final red flag for a second grass fire, this time at Spoon Curve. Isack Hadjar completed the top three for Racing Bulls, the French rookie sneaking in his best time following Alonso’s red flag. The order is of limited value as a representative order, however, with just 21 minutes of green-flag running spread over four windows and no driver completing more than 14 laps. Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari at 0.43s off the pace, the Ferrari driver just 0.015s quicker than Liam Lawson in the second Racing Bulls car. George Russell was sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who complained that his car was “understeering everywhere” on his soft-shod lap. Pierre Gasly was ninth for Alpine ahead of Carlos Sainz completing the top 10 for Williams. Alex Albon followed ahead of Sauber teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas duo Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was 16th for Mercedes ahead of the stopped Fernando Alonso, Red Bull Racing’s Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll. Doohan was classified last with only four laps completed.