Sebastian Vettel set the afternoon’s fifth fastest time with a lap 1.3s down on Hamilton’s benchmark. He was followed the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrnando Alonso and then by the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. Tenth place in the session went to Daniel Ricciardo, though the Red Bull Racing brought out the red flags when he crashed as he prepared to start a quick lap.
His wasn’t the only crash of the afternoon. Local favourite Kamui Kobayashi was the first out, the Caterham driver losing control of his CT05 out of the Esses after just four laps. He spun backwards into the barriers, causing damage to the rear suspension and front wing. Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez was the next to get caught out. The Mexican switched to the medium tyres but lost control and went into the barriers on the outside of the Spoon Curve. Finally, the red flag again appeared with three minutes left in the session when Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso was forced to stop his car at the exit of Spoon Curve. It was his second problem during the session after an early fuel pump issue. Vergne had sat out the morning session in favour of Max Verstappen but the Dutch teenager suffered an engine failure later in the session, leading to a rapid swap to ready the car for Vergne in the afternoon. With the Frenchman’s car stranded on the track, race officials elected to end the session one minute early.
Nico Rosberg went quickest in opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, but while the Mercedes driver narrowly outpaced championship-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second all eyes were on 17-year-old Max Verstappen, who was making his grand prix weekend with Toro Rosso. When the Dutchman drove out of the Italian squad’s garage became Formula One’s youngest ever driver, at 17 years of age, more two years younger than previous record-holder Sebastian Vettel, who made his debut at the 2006 German Grand Prix.
The son of former Benetton and Arrows driver Jos had an early problem with third gear that required him to return to the garage but once back on track he rose to 12th place in the standings, two behind future team-mate Daniil Kvyat and just over four tenths behind the Russian. However, with six minutes left on the clock in 90-minute session his session ended abruptly as an engine failure cut his running short and he was forced to pull over at the side of the track.
SECOND FREE PRACTICE
| DRIVER | TEAM | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
| 1. Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:35.078 | 28 | |
| 2. Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:35.318 | + 0.240 | 27 |
| 3. Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:36.279 | + 1.201 | 24 |
| 4. Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:36.409 | + 1.331 | 28 |
| 5. Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:36.436 | + 1.358 | 24 |
| 6. Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:36.529 | + 1.451 | 19 |
| 7. Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:36.637 | + 1.559 | 26 |
| 8. Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 1:36.714 | + 1.636 | 31 |
| 9. Daniil Kvyat | Торо Росо | 1:36.943 | + 1.865 | 27 |
| 10. Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:37.186 | + 2.108 | 3 |
| 11. Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:37.219 | + 2.141 | 19 |
| 12. Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:37.504 | + 2.426 | 16 |
| 13. Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:37.563 | + 2.485 | 31 |
| 14. Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:37.700 | + 2.622 | 18 |
| 15. Sergio Peres | Force India | 1:37.786 | + 2.708 | 8 |
| 16. Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:37.798 | + 2.720 | 27 |
| 17. Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 1:38.010 | + 2.932 | 25 |
| 18. Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1:38.365 | + 3.287 | 9 |
| 19. Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 1:39.069 | + 3.991 | 22 |
| 20. Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1:39.306 | + 4.228 | 20 |
| 21. Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:39.333 | + 4.255 | 24 |
| 22. Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 1:42.760 | + 7.682 | 3 |
FIRST FREE PRACTICE
| DRIVER | TEAM | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
| 1. Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:35.461 | 27 | |
| 2. Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:35.612 | + 0.151 | 26 |
| 3. Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:36.037 | + 0.576 | 19 |
| 4. Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:36.576 | + 1.115 | 25 |
| 5. Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:37.187 | + 1.726 | 19 |
| 6. Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 1:37.327 | + 1.866 | 24 |
| 7. Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:37.466 | + 2.005 | 27 |
| 8. Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:37.649 | + 2.188 | 24 |
| 9. Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:37.686 | + 2.225 | 26 |
| 10. Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:37.714 | + 2.253 | 26 |
| 11. Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:38.012 | + 2.551 | 22 |
| 12. Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:38.157 | + 2.696 | 22 |
| 13. Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:38.324 | + 2.863 | 10 |
| 14. Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:38.582 | + 3.121 | 9 |
| 15. Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:38.851 | + 3.390 | 21 |
| 16. Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 1:39.046 | + 3.585 | 19 |
| 17. Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:39.097 | + 3.636 | 26 |
| 18. Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1:39.318 | + 3.857 | 18 |
| 19. Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 1:40.031 | + 4.570 | 18 |
| 20. Roberto Merhi | Caterham | 1:41.472 | + 6.011 | 24 |
| 21. Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1:41.580 | + 6.119 | 10 |
| 22. Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:41.757 | + 6.296 | 15 |
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