The Hagibis typhoon was already threatening the Japanese Grand Prix, but the Race Direction made it official, this morning, that the autodrome will stay closed on Saturday because of the weather alert.

All teams had to put their energies together to complete both Friday and Saturday's programme to be ready for Sunday's race. Also, the Qualifying session is still in doubt, and that means that the FP2 timesheet would decide the starting grid.

That would be a problem for Ferrari, considering that Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc classified respectively 3rd and 4th in FP1 and 5th and 4th in FP2.

Charles Leclerc is surely hoping for the Qualifying session to happen on sunday, as that would mean, for him, to start 4th. 

The Monegasque collected Pole Position in the last 4 straight Grand Prix.

"We made the most of our day. Knowing that qualifying has been postponed to Sunday due to the weather conditions, everyone approached free practice a bit differently to usual, especially for the second session." Said Charles Leclerc.

His FP2 lap time is only 3 tenths slower than the leader's Valtteri Bottas.

"Our competitors were very strong today and we are not yet where we would like to be. I am not entirely sure where we are lacking in terms of our pace, but I know that some of the improvements will come from me working on my driving. Sunday will be busy, but in the end you always have the same routine before you get into the car, the same mindset. So we will go ahead as usual, working hard on improving in all areas and doing the best job possible to bring home a strong result.”

Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari is lacking a bit of pace in Japan. 

“Today, was not too bad, at least it was better than it looked. We are in reasonable shape, but maybe we are lacking a bit of pace overall. Our rivals looked very comfortable right from the start of practice and they confirmed that pace in FP2. I think we have a bit of room for improvement as it wasn’t an ideal session, in terms of how we made use of our tyres."

"On Sunday there will be a big question mark over the state of the track as tomorrow’s wind and rain will have an effect.” He continued.