Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets in the second practice session before the Japanese grand prix, just over two-tenths of a second clear of Nico Rosberg, his Mercedes team-mate and rival for the world championship.

Rosberg was fastest in the first session ahead of Hamilton by one-and-a-half tenths. On a dry day, far removed from the heavy rain of Thursday and the still incoming typhoon Phanfone, set to arrive on either Sunday or Monday, Rosberg, running the hard tyres, edged out his rival for the fastest time in the morning when Hamilton pushed too hard and locked up at the hairpin. Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas in the Williams – the teams in a close battle for third place in the constructors chamionship – with the latter bringing major aero upgrades to Japan, were third and fourth.

The session also heralded the debut for the youngest ever driver to take part in an F1 race weekend, when Max Verstappen took to the track.

A mecahnical problem nearly ended his debut early but he went on to a creditable 12th place and was only four-tenths down on his team-mate Daniil Kvyat, when he had to retire with an engine failure minutes from the end.

Second session

The second session was interrupted by crashes at a circuit the drivers universally enjoy racing at but that is notoriously unforgiving. Hamilton took the top time midway through the afternoon while running on the quicker medium tyres, with Bottas proving the new Williams package has brought something to their car as he took third spot, 1.2 seconds back on Hamilton, with Jenson Button in fourth.

Going off track were Daniel Ricciardo who put his Red Bull in the wall, leading to the session being red-flagged for eight minutes; Esteban Gutierrez, whose Sauber went off on the way into Spoon, ending his session and local hero Kamui Kobayashi, who managed only three laps before he lost the back end on entry into turn four and went into the barrriers.

Sebastian Vettel set the best of the Red Bull times with fifth spot in the second session, followed in by Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso.

Verstappen, who next year will become the sport’s youngest ever race driver when he debuts for Toro Rosso, replaced Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne for the opening 90 minutes. In doing so, he replaced Red Bull’s Vettel – the previous youngest after making his weekend debut in 2006 at 19 years and 53 days – in the record books. Guardian Service