Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat went fastest overall on Friday during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, pipping Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg by just two hundredths.
Whilst Mercedes weren’t top of the session, they may take some comfort in being second and third following a difficult Singapore GP, which saw them off the pace.
The session remained a wet one, though rain stopped toward the end of the session giving all but Valtteri Bottas time to set at least one timed lap. The Finn instead chose to save his wet-weather tyres.
Meanwhile it wasn’t plain sailing for Fernando Alonso who sat out the opening 40 minutes as Honda and McLaren changed his engine. He eventually finished 17th fastest.
2015 Japanese Grand Prix Practice Times (FP2):
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 01 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:48.277 | – | 6 |
| 02 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:48.300 | 0.023 | 8 |
| 03 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:48.853 | 0.576 | 8 |
| 04 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:49.097 | 0.820 | 10 |
| 05 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:50.268 | 1.991 | 19 |
| 06 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:50.319 | 2.042 | 16 |
| 07 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:50.418 | 2.141 | 6 |
| 08 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:50.542 | 2.265 | 5 |
| 09 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:50.968 | 2.691 | 10 |
| 10 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:51.557 | 3.280 | 7 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:51.674 | 3.397 | 11 |
| 12 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:51.861 | 3.584 | 9 |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:51.934 | 3.657 | 12 |
| 14 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:52.070 | 3.793 | 8 |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:52.534 | 4.257 | 6 |
| 16 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:52.765 | 4.488 | 6 |
| 17 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:55.239 | 6.962 | 10 |
| 18 | Will Stevens | Marussia | 1:58.059 | 9.782 | 6 |
| 19 | Alexander Rossi | Marussia | 1:59.419 | 11.142 | 7 |
