Hello and welcome to ESPNF1's live coverage of FP2 from Suzuka. If you were with us for FP1 then you'll know that McLaren is looking strong, and that not a lot else happened until Nico Rosberg stopped at the end of the session. If you want to know the full story, here's the report from this morning

It was Button who was quickest ahead of Hamilton, and he really loves this place. Last year he won with an impressive drive having been quickest in every practice session and qualified just 0.007s off pole. That's four Suzuka practice sessions in a role when Button's been top, can he make it five?

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Before we get going, just to let you know that after Valtteri Bottas and Giedo van der Garde made FP1 appearances, Bruno Senna and Heikki Kovalainen are back in their cars at Williams and Caterham respectively

Weather-wise we have seen some pretty hefty downpours in Japan before, but there's no threat of such rain today. It's a glorious sunny day at Suzuka, and that's how it's forecast to stay for the rest of the weekend

And here's the pictorial proof of the great weather:

© Sutton Images

With all the running this morning taking place on the hard tyres it will be interesting to see what step in performance the softs give this afternoon, and whether it affects the pecking order at all

Chaitanya emails in to ask: "What happened to the Lotuses? Will the championship hopes be over for kimi if he does not improve in FP2?"

Don't read too much in to the times from this morning. It shows which cars are working well quickly but a lot of new parts are tested and the likes of Ferrari and Raikkonen are regularly further down the timesheets. Even Vettel was 17th this morning!

On the point of Vettel being 17th, we don't think that was a result based on performance as Webber was a competitive 3rd. Vettel was smiling when he climbed out of the car at the end of FP1 too, so we'll be keeping a close eye on what he does this afternoon

Suzuka remains a real challenge for the drivers, and Timo Glock almost found out to his cost this morning. Nobody has had a major off so far today though

© Press Association

Incidentally, Glock said on Twitter earlier that it was a "Strange 1st session. Felt like I was all over the place an slow but didn't look like on time sheet. Hope stays like this."

He was quicker than both Caterhams once again, and Marussia looks to be continuing its fine form after his 12th place in Singapore

It turned out that Rosberg's stoppage at the end of the session this morning was due to an oil pressure alarm causing a precautionary engine shutdown

We are green in Japan - plenty of cars straight out on to track in FP2

Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that both Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg were on McLaren's radar to replace Hamilton and that's who Perez beat to the 2013 seat

Oops. Kovalainen - on his first lap of the weekend - dips two tyres on the grass approaching the Spoon curves and spins at high speed. No damage other than some flat spots though

Perez goes fastest with a 1:35.374. Quickly on the pace after doing a 1:35.584 in FP1

Vergne and Maldonado both having a few moments - Maldonado's tank slapper in the Degner curves the most impressive

Di Resta has gone straight on at Spoon and hit the tyres. He's broken his front wing at least and he's still in the car...

Di Resta is now out of the car. Though the damage doesn't look all that heavy as he's slid in sideways, we've got a red flag while the car is recovered

Di Resta did exactly the same as Kovalainen in dipping two wheels on the dirt before turning in to Spoon and he lost the rear, sliding sideways and slowing before the right hand side hit the tyres. He's broken the front right suspension and front wing quite badly, and he said on the radio after going off "obviously that's finished"

That will be the end of di Resta's session as it appears the car can't be returned to the pits from that location. He's left some dirt and debris on the outside of the track approaching spoon too

We are under way again after di Resta's car is recovered

Only Massa, Schumacher and Rosberg are yet to take to the track in this session

Grosjean is currently quickest on a 1:34.514

Rosberg's car is currently undergoing an engine change in the Mercedes garage, but it's an old engine so no penalty

Not wanting to wish an error on anybody, but di Resta's accident just shows how quick Suzuka is at punishing mistakes. And that's exactly how a race track should be.

Alonso goes fastest with a 1:34.287 - the quickest time of the day so far

Hamilton is second after setting the fastest final sector, he's 0.111s slower than Alonso

Vettel goes third - within 0.2s of Alonso - to prove that his 17th this morning was not representative of Red Bull's pace

Raikkonen is complaining that he has no KERS. He also doesn't have the rear wing 'device' on his car any more either having run it this morning

Kobayashi has gone off at Dunlop and bounced across the gravel but continued

Raikkonen returns to the pits after being told that "We have a KERS problem and we're not certain that the car is safe so we need to treat it as unsafe". The result? Mechanics use rubber gloves touching the car and Raikkonen jumps clear of it after it is jacked up outside the garage

Rahulan emails in to ask: "Can you give us your thoughts on Ferrari this weekend. By their own admission they were on damage limitation in Singapore and the new rear wing didnt deliver expected results. How competitive will they be in Suzuka? Can they (Alonso) challenge for victory here?"

The short answer would be probably not. The Ferrari just isn't that quick at present and hasn't been in a realistic position to challenge for victory since Germany (though it could have been a different matter if Alonso could have set a representative time in Q3 in Monza). But then, it's been rare for Ferrari to really challenge for wins; generally Alonso has just been consistently maximising the car's potential

Raikkonen's car has been isolated in the Lotus garage with the KERS issue. At the same time his team-mate Grosjean goes third with two fastest sectors before a sideways moment in the final chicane

Still no sign of either Mercedes, with suspension changes going on on Schumacher's car. Both should be out again soon though

Petrov is the first man we've seen out on the soft tyre, he's currently on an out-lap with a best of 1:37.570 on hard tyres

Petrov improves by 1.4s on the soft tyre

Kartik asks: "Do Red Bull Have any Chance to stop the McLaren Form of Getting Pole?"

Yes, you'd say this is a circuit that should suit Red Bull. McLaren is certainly very strong in qualifying trim but it certainly won't have it all its own way tomorrow

Kartik, your question came in at just the right time. Vettel goes quickest with a 1:34.080 - just 0.070s quicker than Button and 0.108s ahead of Webber

Speaking of McLaren's run of poles. Technical director Paddy Lowe has said that the team has tested some small new aerodynamic updates in FP1 during back-to-back runs and that the team will decide which ones stay on the car for the rest of the weekend, although tyre analysis is the focus of this afternoon session

Vettel goes quicker still with a 1:33.961

Kobayashi has gone out on the softs and is about to improve on his 1:34.873...

Kobayashi goes second, just 0.022s slower than Vettel

Kho asks: "Wondering what is the comment from FIA regarding MC and RB's front wing clarification and the effect of the performance on track?"

The FIA hasn't actually changed the front wing load test, but has trialled a different testing position to ensure that the front wings don't flex despite passing the original test. Even if a car were to fail that trial, there's nothing official about it as it is just exploratory, so no change in track performance this weekend

Grosjean is going very fast on soft tyres and he goes quickest with a 1:33.107, gaining over a second

Button is second with a 1:33.349 after a lap on softs too

Massa jumps up to third with a 1:33.614 on softs

Button does a second flying lap within 0.02s of his first, so the car seems consistent

Salman emails in from Karachi to ask: "1.What is the update on engine count? How many engines remaining for the top team drivers? 2.Is it still in practice that the tyres used in Q3 are the tyres to start the race with?"

Ahead of Singapore (the latest data I've seen) all of the drivers had used their sixth engine except for Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Petrov and Pic who are all on their seventh And yes, the rule still states that a driver must start the race on the tyres he set his best lap time in Q3 on

Here's Vettel on the softs ... and he goes quickest with a 1:32.836

Alonso on soft tyres sets the fastest first sector, loses out in the middle sector and then matches Vettel in sector 3 to go second on a 1:33.093

Massa had a bit of a moment on the outside of the second Degner, taking too much kerb and running wide

Chaitanya asks: "Any updates on the Kimis Car? will it run again in this session?"

We've just seen the KERS battery being removed from the car, so it remains to be seen if it can be replaced and readied to go out again with 36 minutes of the session left. It was slightly amusing to see all of the guests and other team members in the garage pressed up hard against the wall to stay as far away from the car as possible earlier

Hamilton starts a flying lap on soft tyres and is 0.2s up in sector one

Hamilton sets the fastest middle sector too, and goes quickest with a 1:32.707

Schumacher's now completed seven laps after his suspension change, and Rosberg's done two installation laps with his new engine

Red Bull responds at the top as Webber goes fastest with a 1:32.493 with the best first two sectors

Hamilton doesn't post a reply as he pits, despite having stayed out for a lap after completing his flying lap

Lotus confirms that it's a problem with the KERS cooling system on Raikkonen's car and that the unit overheated. James Allison is optimistic that he may get out again before the end of the session; personally I'd be surprised

Rosberg does his first flying lap on hard tyres and it's a 1:34.254

Ian emails in: "It would seem the extra race this year may catch a few drivers out with possible engine penalties?"

If there's an engine failure in one of these closing races then potentially - this is the time of year when we see a few more problems as the engine life is maximised - but the teams very carefully plan their engine schedules and will know which engines they are using when. They can also use any of the eight engines at any one time, so just because the McLarens (for example) are on their 7th engine, they might be using the second race engine at one of these final six races

Kovalainen does a 1:35.711 on soft tyres, 3.2s off the pace

Heavy fuel runs going on at present as Hamilton does a 1:41.5s

Vettel does a 1:39.9s while Webber does a 1:41.1s

Massa with a 1:39.0s on the soft tyre

Alonso's done a 1m33.5s so Ferrari is running a different schedule to the other leading teams

I didn't see what tyre Vettel is running, but Hamilton, Webber and Massa were all on softs

Hulkenberg does a 1m41.7s on the soft tyre

Schumacher's gone off at Spoon exactly as di Resta did. He's fine and out of the car and taps one of the marshals on the head in an affectionate manner!

Schumacher has literally done exactly the same as di Resta. A carbon copy of the earlier incident, although race control decides not to put out the red flag

You get the impression that the red flag hasn't been put out because the teams are carrying out longer runs and can still gather plenty of data despite lifting heavily at Spoon. Still a lack of consistency though...

Ten minutes left and it looks like Raikkonen is ready to go back out

The track is clear again, just after we've seen Felipe Massa running wide at Degner One and doing well to recover the car to the track before Degner Two

Hamilton does a 1m39.8s on his latest lap on soft tyres

Madhan asks: "Is Massa running in high fuel ? I believe vettel, ham, web all currently testing full fuel race speed!"

No, with the lap time difference Massa will be running a lighter fuel load than the others, though still not as light as Alonso was running

Kobayashi with a 1m39.0s as his fuel starts to burn off

Raikkonen is back on track and doing a quick lap on soft tyres, although he backs off after running wide a bit at Degner Two and has a slow exit from the hairpin

Veenesh asks: "Is everything ok with Button's car? He is stuck on 19 laps!"

No word from McLaren that there's any problem, but it does seem to be Hamilton who's the only man doing high fuel runs

Raikkonen locks up heavily in to the chicane as he rapidly catches Vettel

Hamilton is told that his stint is good and that he's "similar, maybe a tenth faster than Vettel at the same stage of his run"

Robert emails in from Darwin and asks: "I know I am speculating too early, but could this be the weekend that Webber needs to bounce back in the race of winning the driver's championship?"

I agree with you Robert. I count Webber's chances as slim at best based on his recent performances but he's still got a chance if he starts winning races again soon.

The chequered flag is out with all cars on the track except di Resta and Schumacher - so Button heading out for a practice start too

Petrov has gone off at turn one and his rear wing is resting in the run off

It looks like the rear wing fell off at the end of the pit straight and Petrov spun but stopped the car quickly - long before the barrier. Petrov is lucky that it hasn't resulted in a major accident

So the session comes to an end with Webber quickest from Webber, Hamilton, Vettel and Hulkenberg. Alonso is fifth ahead of Grosjean, Button, Senna,Massa and Schumacher

It looks like Red Bull is definitely in the hunt for pole position, while you suspect that Button's time is still some way of his potential around here. There will be some interesting quotes from Schumacher, di Resta and Petrov after their respective offs, so stay on ESPNF1.com for all the reaction. Bye for now.