Valtteri Bottas led a Mercedes 1-2 ahead of Saturday's qualifying, but failed to complete the session following a contact with the barriers.
The Finn set the pace and just edged out team mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.014s while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was 0.324s adrift.
Japanese Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:29.055s | 9 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:29.069s | + 0.014s | 19 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:29.379s | + 0.324s | 23 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:29.910s | + 0.855s | 15 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:30.018s | + 0.963s | 13 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:30.109s | + 1.054s | 12 |
| 7 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:30.315s | + 1.260s | 19 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:30.424s | + 1.369s | 13 |
| 9 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:30.563s | + 1.508s | 12 |
| 10 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:30.764s | + 1.709s | 22 |
| 11 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:30.764s | + 1.709s | 21 |
| 12 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:30.770s | + 1.715s | 18 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:30.799s | + 1.744s | 23 |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:30.982s | + 1.927s | 12 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:31.011s | + 1.956s | 20 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:31.353s | + 2.298s | 25 |
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:31.459s | + 2.404s | 13 |
| 18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:32.579s | + 3.524s | 22 |
| 19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber | 1:32.698s | + 3.643s | 21 |
| 20 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:33.962s | + 4.907s | 12 |
Yesterday's FP2 wash-out session encouraged everyone to get down to work at the outset, producing a busy hour ahead of the afternoon's all-important qualifying.
Fernando Alonso was the first driver out on the track, but bad news awaited his Japanese fans as McLaren was forced to break the overnight curfew for the second time this season in order to change the power unit on the Spaniard's, which implies a 35-place grid penalty for Sunday.
Hamilton quickly topped the timesheet following a run on soft rubber but he was just as quickly displaced by team mate Valtteri Bottas.
There was bit of drama for the Finn however after running wide at Spoon on the astroturf. He nearly kept it together but the Mercedes' right side still made contact with the barriers, forcing Bottas in to the pits and out of the session.
After a short red flag and a clean up by the marshals, drivers resumed their running but it was only a short respite.
Kimi Raikkonen carried too much speed into the second Degner corner, getting his Ferrari out of shape and into the gravel trap, a mishap which brought out another short red flag period.
Sebastian Vettel, who also had a moment early at Degner 2, ended the session 0.324s adrift from the Mercedes pair ahead, but almost half a second in front of Max Verstappen.
Red Bull Racing ran different set-ups in the morning practice - Ricciardo had the T-wing fitted to his RB13, whereas Verstappen ran without it.
Ultimately, the Dutch driver's configuration proved faster as he edged out his team mate by a tenth of a second.
The messy session saw Force India's Esteban Ocon finish P6, just ahead of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg.
Fernando Alonso looked fairly happy with his P8 performance as he rounded off the top ten along with Sergio Perez and Jolyon Palmer.
All in all, it was a warning shot by Mercedes before qualifying despite neither Bottas or Hamilton enjoying a fast lap on the supersoft tyre.
