Alonso Shows Spark of Brilliance at F1 in Japan, Russell Had Something to Say About That

After last week's wet race in Singapore, F1 was off to a rainy day at Suzuka in Japan. It rained throughout FP1 and FP2, and drivers struggled to keep their cars in one piece. Mick Schumacher had a massive incident during the first practice session of the day, and Gunther Steiner wasn't happy about it at all.

It's worth noting that Mick set the seventh fastest lap of the session, though, right behind Max Verstappen. The German driver must be feeling the pressure from not yet knowing if he'll have a seat in F1 next year, and today's lack of practice isn't going to help him for the remainder of the weekend.

Fernando Alonso hasn't won an F1 race in almost a decade now, but he had a spark of brilliance today during FP1. Even though he only completed a total of seven laps, he was the fastest man of the hour with a time of 1:42.248.

That put the Alpine Renault driver 0.315 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who was just slightly faster than Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver was quite diligent today, having completed a total of 16 laps despite a few scary moments behind the wheel.

For the first time racing in F1 at home, Yuki Tsunoda was the only other driver to match that effort, but he wasn't nearly as fast as Ferrari's ace. The only driver that was slower than Tsunoda was Sebastian Vettel, who probably decided it was best to play it safe before qualifying.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were hardly seen on track in FP1, with just 10 laps in between the both of them. But their pace in this session was of no relevance for the second part of the day.

The young Mercedes-AMG F1 driver took P1 in FP2 after a total of 23 laps. He was about four seconds faster than earlier today, while Lewis Hamilton came in second after shaving over two seconds from his previous result.

The two Silver Arrows were followed closely by the Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, while Charles Leclerc was as far back as P11 with some technical issues. Yuki Tsunoda was slightly faster in FP2, as he went up to P14, squeezed in between Alexander Albon and Sebastian Vettel.

By the looks of it, there won't be any rain for FP3 and the qualifying session. This means we will be seeing the full extent of what the 2022 F1 cars and drivers have got to offer.

But Sunday might be tricky once again, as it seems the wet tires will have to come into play halfway through the race. Max Verstappen needs to outscore Charles Leclerc by just eight points in champion to be crowned 2022 F1 champion, and that gap might be reduced tomorrow if he can manage a solid result in qualifying.