Here is the thing about a soaked Suzuka circuit: it completely rewrites the script. After a dry opening day, Sunday brought a relentless downpour to Mie Prefecture, plunging the track into cold conditions with an air temperature of 16°C and a track temperature of 19°C. By the time the 30-minute free practice session kicked off at 8:45 AM, a wet declaration was already in effect and the rain was hammering down.
Right out of the gate, the field headed onto the asphalt to test the grip, with many bolting on fresh rain tires for an initial installation lap or scrubbing extra rubber. Haruna Sakaguchi immediately threw down a gauntlet, clocking a 1:54.258 on just his second timed lap while everyone else was languishing in the 1:59 or 2:00 bracket. Toshiki Oyu quickly answered, jumping to second on his third lap before snatching the top spot away with a 1:54.169.
That frantic early pace came to an abrupt halt nine minutes in. Sakaguchi lost the rear exiting the first part of the Spoon Curve, spinning off and sliding into the barriers to bring out a red flag.
When the pit exit reopened at 9:04 AM, leaving a frantic 11 minutes on the clock, the rain only intensified. Ryo Hirakawa, who had spent the red flag having his front wing flap adjusted in the pit lane, mastered the worsening deluge. With just seven minutes remaining, Hirakawa unleashed a stunning 1:53.913, ending the morning as the only driver to breach the 53-second barrier in his carenex TEAM IMPUL machine.
As the clock wound down, the treacherous standing water claimed more victims. Sekiguchi suffered a carbon-copy spin of Sakaguchi's earlier accident at the Spoon Curve, while Sho Tsuboi hydroplaned on a river before the corner and cut straight across the inside runoff area. Despite the chaos, several drivers managed to improve late in the session, including Kamui Kobayashi with a 1:54.382, Hiroki Otsu putting down a 1:54.559, and Naoki Yamamoto clocking a 1:54.946.
When the checkered flag fell on the wild 30-minute session, Hirakawa sat comfortably at the head of the timing sheets. Oyu and Sakaguchi held onto their pre-red-flag marks to take second and third, while Kobayashi surged to fourth at the end, followed by Tsuboi, Otsu, Yamamoto, and Matsushita. Further back in the spray, pole-sitter Tomoki Nojiri ended up down in 12th, front-row starter Kenta Yamashita settled for 11th, and qualifying third-man Sacha Fenestraz finished the morning in 9th place.
