Japanese GP: Mercedes duo lead Raikkonen in FP2

The championship leader went slightly quicker than in the morning session, finishing with a best time of 1:32.250 set on Pirelli's soft tyres.

Rosberg's teammate Lewis Hamilton was second quickest again, the Briton less than a tenth off the pace.

Kimi Raikkonen was the quickest non-Mercedes driver in third, the Finn also the only rival who managed to get close to the leading times, finishing three tenths of a second behind Rosberg.

Teammate Sebastian Vettel finished down in fifth behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen, but both men were over eight tenths off.

Force India duo Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg had a solid session and went sixth and seventh quickest, ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 in the Toro Rosso, as Malaysian grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo wound up 12th quickest after not managing to set a time with the soft tyres.

After the first session took part under clear skies, the afternoon was cooler as a result of the clouds that covered the circuit and that are expected to bring rain tomorrow and on Sunday.

Vettel moved to the top of the times with his first run on hard tyres as teammate Raikkonen completed a lap on mediums to go second quickest.

Kevin Magnussen caused the first incident of the session when he overshot the hairpin and went off the track, the Renault driver lucky to escape the gravel trap and continue running.

Moments later it was Daniil Kvyat who had drama as he puts two wheels on the grass on the final corner and spun his Toro Rosso, the Russian fortunate not to hit the barriers hard in the process.

Rosberg jumped onto the track 12 minutes into the session, the German expressing concerns on the radio about a big puff of smoke coming form the back of his car.

After being informed it was all okay, the German proceeded to set the quickest time with his first lap on medium tyres: a 1:33.758.

Hamilton, on hard tyres, jumped to first place with a 1:33.475 a minute later.

Vettel regained the top spot before the half-hour mark, the Ferrari driver using soft tyres to post a 1:33.103.

First Rosberg and moments later Hamilton went out for their first run on softs, the Mercedes duo moving to first and second, the German leading his teammate by 0.072s with a 1:32.250 lap.

Raikkonen jumped to third, half a second ahead of Vettel, with another run on the softest rubber.

With 50 minutes remaining, the virtual safety car was deployed when Esteban Gutierrez had to park his Haas after losing all power ahead of the Degner curves.

The team would later report the Mexican suffered a turbo issue.

Verstappen jumped up to a distant fourth with a run on used soft tyres before all teams focused on long runs and the times remained mostly unchanged.

Free practice 2 results

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	35	1'32.250
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	35	1'32.322	0.072	0.072
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	26	1'32.573	0.323	0.251
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	29	1'33.061	0.811	0.488
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	34	1'33.103	0.853	0.042
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	37	1'33.570	1.320	0.467
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	35	1'33.873	1.623	0.303
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	37	1'33.985	1.735	0.112
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	33	1'34.028	1.778	0.043
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	33	1'34.086	1.836	0.058
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	33	1'34.127	1.877	0.041
12	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	29	1'34.150	1.900	0.023
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	33	1'34.241	1.991	0.091
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	27	1'34.305	2.055	0.064
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	36	1'34.339	2.089	0.034
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	29	1'34.398	2.148	0.059
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	11	1'34.643	2.393	0.245
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	40	1'34.760	2.510	0.117
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	26	1'34.824	2.574	0.064
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	30	1'35.292	3.042	0.468
21	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	37	1'35.400	3.150	0.108
22	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	26	1'36.318	4.068	0.918