After a relatively uneventful FP1 session at the Japanese Grand Prix, the Suzuka Circuit was engulfed in chaos - and burning grass - as FP2 produced four red-flags, one of which was called for a huge crash for Jack Doohan. The Australian rookie lost control of the rear of his Alpine car on the entry to Turn One, sending him spinning at high speed into the tyre barrier.

The contact destroyed Doohan's A525 machine, ripping two wheels from the chassis and causing a lengthy red flag stoppage. After the marshals and track staff repaired the tyre barrier at Turn One and cleared away Doohan's car, the session went green again, but the clean running was short-lived as Fernando Alonso beached his Aston Martin in the gravel between the two Degnas.

"He was on the grass on the way in," Sky Sports F1 pundit Anthony Davidson said, assessing Alonso's spin. "He went a bit too far left, driver error. It's one of those corners you often see drivers not maximising the width of the track, but he went over too much."

Alonso's spin wasn't the end of the red flag chaos. With 12 minutes remaining in the session, marshals were forced to make the trip to Turn Seven to extinguish a fire on the grass on the inside of the corner.

This incident caused a short red flag, and with less than 60 seconds left on the clock, another stoppage was required as marshals targeted a second grass fire at Turn 13.

"The wind really picked up in the last few minutes, almost like you're on the seafront," Ted Kravitz explained, giving the reason for the grass fires. "It's a serious issue this, and we could have more stoppages. You tend to get less sparks in the race because they are not going as quickly, so maybe we won't have an interrupted Grand Prix but the circuit organisers may need to douse every bit of the track."

The red flags heavily disrupted the teams' running in Suzuka, but McLaren's advantage was hard to ignore. After Lando Norris topped FP1 earlier in the day, Oscar Piastri took his turn to go fastest in FP2. The current championship leaders are the team to beat heading into round three of the campaign.

Behind the two McLaren drivers, Racing Bulls were the story. Isack Hadjar was third-fastest in FP2, with new team-mate Liam Lawson in P5 behind him. Yuki Tsunoda was close to Max Verstappen's performance for the second session running.