A favorite among fans, Tokyo has a history of pushing drivers across racing series. After Free Practice 1’s dry session, Tokyo has seemingly decided it was time to add some rain to make things more challenging. We started Free Practice 2 of the Tokyo E-Prix, with
We began Free Practice 2 of the Tokyo E-Prix, and Oliver Rowland got off to a flying start as he was exiting his garage, coming close to his teammate Norman Nato. Given how the weather affected the grip, a challenging session was anticipated. There were large sprays from the standing water as many cars were leaving the pitlane. Taylor Barnard appeared to have redemption in mind as he started off running P8 as drivers began to adjust to the wet track. Sebastian Buemi and Zane Maloney were equally quick to attack Jean-Eric Vergne’s lead after he grabbed P1.
The best time was 1:39.85 for Da Costa in P1, 1:40.00 for Nick Cassidy in P2, and 1:41.95 for Rowland in P3. After making contact with the wall, Cassidy went back to the pit, and at 1:39.53, Barnard was running P4 after a strong pace. Vandoorne was in P1, Hughes in P2, Buemi in P3, and Cassidy in last place with thirty minutes on the clock.
After Vergne brushed the wall of turn 16 and the debris needed to be cleaned, we had a complete course yellow at first, then it turned green a minute later. With 22 minutes left, race control flagged cars 23 (Rowland) and 48 (Mortara) for unnecessary slow driving, allowing Da Costa to seize the lead with a best time of 1:34.54. Nissan’s Rowland and Nato both top the rankings with a brief full power mode, separated by Da Costa, until Barnard’s 1:33.56 advantage to P2 puts Rowland ahead at 1:32.525.
Car 7 (Gunther) had his lap 10 time removed for track limitations in turn 12, which allowed Dan Ticktum to move up to P7 despite being given a warning for speeding in full course yellow. Mortara took P2 with 1:33.21, De Vries claimed P5 with 1:33.57, while Frijns went from P14 to P6 with rain predicted.
The track conditions worsened with 14 minutes left after car 1 (Wehrlein) received a black and white flag for driving too slowly and a yellow to red flag at turn 15 after David Beckmann aquaplaned and became trapped in a runoff, making it impossible to turn the car back with about 10 minutes left.
Oliver Rowland held fast to P1 with a time of 1:32.525 while most of the drivers were in their garages. Prior to this, we witnessed Maloney make contact with DeVries, which caused him to finish the session in P5 at 1:33.57. The weather continued to present problems for drivers, as there were no improvements until the end of FP2; thus, the session resumed with three minutes to go. Having struck the wall at turn 17, Maloney finished in the last corner. The Nissans proved to be a big challenger as they placed first and third with Rowland in P1 1:32.525, Mortara in P2 1:33.212, P3 Nato in 1:33.488, P4 Barnard in 1:33.566, and P5 De Vries in 1:33.570.
With FP2 over and qualifying quickly coming, can we anticipate that the Nissans will maintain their current run, or will Barnard charge through the grid? Could some drivers manage the high curbs and poor grip to get an advantage? Who knows? All we do know is that Tokyo has been full of difficulties and action, and we can be sure that the weather will continue to take us by surprise.